Hon Robert Dunbar and Henny Sinclair Part C

 

Hon Robert Dunbar and Henny Sinclair Part C

Lybster Market 1835

In August 1836 Henrietta (aka Henny) Sinclair, an unmarried young woman from Dunbeath, appeared before the kirk session and confessed that on 22^nd July she had brought forth a female child. On being interrogated as to the father she gave Mr Dunbar of Latheronwheel. Henny further declared that the guilt was committed on Friday after the Lybster market last year. 

Walter Geiki

 

Market days were occasions when social interactions were a bit less restrictive than at other times. There were travellers on the road. Folk came to buy, sell and bargain for goods. Whisky was frequently for sale and trouble often brewed around the local inn. It was a time when a woman could easily be taken advantage of. Probably having walked to the Lybster market from Dunbeath, not surprisingly Henny remembered what else happened that particular Friday. I doubt Robert Dunbar walked to the market at Lybster. He is shown in the 1851 census as having his own  coachman.

A Scottish Roadside Scene. 1830. Walter Geiki

 

The Kirk Session Response

The kirk elders reacted to Henrietta as they usually did in such cases. She got a serious telling off and told to come back later. The Hon Robert Dunbar got a letter – which he ignored.

A year later in July 1837 Henny appeared before the session again as she really wanted her child to be baptised and that would not happen if she could not get the father of her baby to admit his responsibility. Again on being interrogated she confirmed what she had said previously that Robert Dunbar was the father.

The session decided that as Mr Dunbar had given no answer when formerly written to on this subject the clerk was to submit another copy of the minute to him hoping that Mr Dunbar would give a candid reply at his earliest convenience.

Their Daughter is Baptised at Last

There is no record of Dunbar’s letter but he must have eventually admitted his guilt as in February 1838 he was present when his daughter was baptised. The baptism record is not quite clear on the baby girl’s name which is given as Sinclair Dunbar. Robert Dunbar had dragged the chain for a year and a half before fronting up to his responsibilities.

Pregnant Again

A year later Henrietta was in trouble again and as before she is seen to carry all the guilt. On 3^rd June 1839 Henrietta Sinclair from Dunbeath confessed that she had brought forth a female child in fornication in December last. On being asked as to the father and seriously exhorted to make an ingenious confession gave up David Gunn, Merchant in Swiney, who had already intimated his confession to the session.

The elders considering that as this is the woman’s second child and there is no evidence whatsoever of reformation, the session resolved to delay admitting her to discipline at present. The discipline would have involved standing before the whole congregation in sackcloth and showing repentance, following which the child’s baptism could take place. There is no record of public shaming for the father of this baby, who was a married man and a spirits dealer. To his credit he did admit his fault without a showdown. There is a record showing that five years later, in1844, David Gunn and Henrietta Sinclair presented their daughter Catherine for baptism. 

Walter Geiki

 

In both of the pregnancies of Henrietta the fathers were men who had substantially more resources than she did, Dunbar being a landed proprietor, and Gunn being a grocer and spirits merchant. While she had to personally stand before the elders and listen to the rebukes, Dunbar had received two letters from the elders that they ‘hoped’ he would reply to, but he ignored for months, leaving Henny waiting for the baptism to happen. Gunn had ‘intimated’ his guilt before being called in and there is no record of him appearing. Henrietta was the one who had to be seen to reform. This time she had to wait for years to baptise her second daughter.

 

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtual-volumes/  Latheron kirk session, Minutes (1734-1776, with gaps) Minutes (1819-1843) (CH2/530/3) pages 49 – 52 & pg 149