Life

George, eldest son of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet

Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet

Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet was a Scottish politician, writer on finance and agriculture and the first person to use the word statistics in the English language, in his vast, pioneering work, Statistical Account of Scotland, in 21 volumes.Sinclair was the eldest son of George Sinclair of...

 of Ulbster

Ulbster

Ulbster is a scattered crofting township, located on the east coast of the former county of Caithness Scottish Highlands and is in the Scottish council area of Highland...

, and Diana, only daughter of Alexander Macdonald

Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald

Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald , was a Scottish peer.Macdonald was the younger son of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 7th Baronet, and his wife Lady Margaret . He was educated at Eton and served with the Grenadier Guards. Macdonald was also a Deputy Lieutenant of Inverness-shire and a...

, first lord Macdonald, was born in Edinburgh on 28 August 1790. His brothers John and William Sinclair

William Sinclair (rector)

-Life:William, the fifth son of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet, of Ulbster, Caithness, by his second wife, Diana Macdonald, only daughter of Alexander, lord Macdonald of the Isles, was born on 4 Sept. 1804....

 and sister Catherine

Catherine Sinclair

Catherine Sinclair was a Scottish novelist and writer of children's literature.-Life:Catherine Sinclair was born in Edinburgh on 17 April 1800, the fourth daughter of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet and Lady Diana Macdonald. Catherine died unmarried...

.

He entered Harrow School

Harrow School

Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

, under Dr. Drury, at the age of ten, having for fellow scholars Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel

Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...

. Byron described Sinclair as "the prodigy of our school-days. He made exercises for half the school (literally), verses at will, and themes without it. He was a friend of mine, and in the same remove."

At the age of sixteen Sinclair quitted Harrow and went to Göttingen

Göttingen

Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

. Arrested as a spy, he was brought before Napoleon, who examined him and ordered his release. In 1826 Sinclair issued a privately printed Narrative of the interview (Edinburgh, 1826, 8vo). He returned to England, and in 1811 succeeded his father in the whig interest as Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for the county of Caithness, which he represented at intervals for many years. On the invitation of Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval, KC was a British statesman and First Lord of the Treasury, making him de facto Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated...

 he moved the reply to the address from the throne during his first session, and soon achieved success as a speaker.

He was re-elected to parliament in 1818. In the House of Commons Sinclair formed a close friendship with Joseph Hume

Joseph Hume

Joseph Hume FRS was a Scottish doctor and Radical MP, born in Montrose, Angus.-Medical career:He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and moved to India in 1797...

 and Sir Francis Burdett. He strenuously advocated catholic emancipation and the emancipation of the West India slaves, and he severely criticised the pension list. While a member of parliament Sinclair found time to attend the Edinburgh lectures of Dr. Hope on chemistry, of Dr. Knox and Dr. Monro on anatomy, and also a course on botany. He took a great interest in the misfortunes of Charles X of France

Charles X of France

Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

, and had numerous interviews with the royal exile when resident in Holyrood

Holyrood, Edinburgh

Holyrood is an area in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Lying east of the city centre, at the end of the Royal Mile, Holyrood was once in the separate burgh of Canongate before the expansion of Edinburgh in 1856...

. One of these he described in a racy pamphlet, Comme Charles X, 1848.

In 1831 Sinclair was again returned for Caithness-shire to the House of Commons, and sat continuously till 1841, being re-elected in 1833, 1835, and 1837. He supported the Reform Bill of 1832, and in the same year he attracted public attention by refusing William IV

William IV of the United Kingdom

William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...

's invitation to dine with him on a Sunday. In 1835 he joined the new 'constitutional' party of Edward Smith-Stanley

Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, KG, PC was an English statesman, three times Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and to date the longest serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley...

 and Sir James Graham, who had seceded in 1834 from the government of Earl Grey

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC , known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the...

.

On 21 Dec. 1835 he succeeded his father as second baronet. He took an active part, as chairman of Sir Francis Burdett's committee, in the famous Westminster election of 1837. At this time a writer in Blackwood characterised him as "one of the manliest and most uncompromising of the constitutional members of the House of Commons; a friend to the church, the king, and the people." He retired from parliament in 1841.

Sinclair was a faithful supporter of the anti-patronage society with reference to the church of Scotland. He afterwards joined the free church. His last years were passed in seclusion at Thurso

Thurso

-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...

 Castle or Torquay

Torquay

Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...

. He spent the winter of 1867 at Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, and, dying in Edinburgh on 23 October 1868, was buried at Harold's Tower, Thurso.

Sir George married, on 1 May 1816, Lady Catherine Camilla, sister of Lionel Tollemache

Lionel Tollemache

Sir Lionel Tollemache 3rd Baronet of Helmingham was the head of a powerful East Anglian family whose seat was Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, England...

, sixth earl of Dysart, and by her had three sons and three daughters. She died on 17 March 1863. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, John George Tollemache Sinclair

Sir John Sinclair, 3rd Baronet

Sir John George Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet was a Scottish landowner and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1869 to 1885....

, M.P. for Caithness, 1869–85.

Works

Sir George was a voluminous writer for the press and author of many pamphlets. His earliest work, Travels in Germany, in two volumes, describing his visits to the continent, was printed for private circulation. Only one copy is known to exist.

Among his other publications were:

• Selections from the Correspondence carried on during recent Negotiations for the Adjustment of the Scottish Church Question, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1842.
• A Letter on the Church Question, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1843.
• Comme Charles X: an Essay on the Downfall of Louis-Philippe, 8vo, 1848.
• Observations on the new Scottish Poor Law, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1849.
• Letters to the Protestants of Scotland, 12mo, Edinburgh, 1852.
• Miscellaneous Thoughts on Popery, Prelacy, and Presbyterianism, 8vo, Edinburgh, 1853.
• Two Hundred Years of Popery in France, 12mo, Edinburgh, 1853.
• Popery in the First Century, 12mo, Edinburgh, 1855.

External links