THE SINCLAIRS OF ENGLAND. LONDON: TR UBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL I 887. [All nghts reserved.] '.l5atianl!?ne JP r£$!l f)ALLANTYNE, HANSON .AND LO EUINBURGll AND LO.'.\DON THE SINCLAIRS OF ENGLAND. PREF ACE. IF the purpose of this work had been merely genealogical, it would have followed the usual course of publication by sub­ scription at high price, for the delight of collectors of county histories, family records, and curiosities of antiquarian litera­ ture. It is hoped that the contents will be of decided interest to lovers of English antiquities, but the direct appeal is to the large public who accept with appreciation any real contribu­ tion to the history of their country. To get at the spirit of past periods through tracing the action of particular families, is a new historical method ; and the immense mass of personal materials which is now open to research in England, makes the field one of the most promising. A view of facts from the side of the ruled rather than from the usual monarchical standpoint of historians, must have its practical use; and it ought to be especially grateful to a time when democracy has learnt rights, and is dimly seeing duties. The pedigree mania, with which even America is smitten, has little to do with the inquiry; substantial showing of the lives of a line in the press of national growth, being the intention. With the Romans a Fabian or Julian stock was an inspiration to the simplest member of the populits; and because the width of a remark­ able family's connections causes an inevitable democratic feel­ ing, there is no danger of that exclusiveness which is at once the nemesis and cause of ridicule to higher position, however nobly gained. No country has been more generous than this in receiving worth into its best grades. To contemporary re­ publicanism there is somewhat of wonder when it realises how free to persistent ability all offices and honours in England have been and still are. It was thought that the days of science would bring men to a dead level socially ; and the evolutionary hypothesis which reduced, or threatened to re­ •luce, mankind to 1Jrothorhoo,l with the ape in the first place, vi PREFACE. and with the whole animal world ultimately, was considered to be the most effective destroyer of all pride of race and posi­ tion. But human nature returns ; and the doctrine of survival of the fittest would create, if left to itself, an aristocracy which for iron exclusiveness and the worst vices of selection, might surpass all domination that the world has yet seen. The poor and the miserable, below a certain point, would be extermi­ nated ; and the fittest must lord it over the earth, as prime monkeys, to an extent beyond conception. An easier way of social existence which left chances to such broken lives as those of Shakespeare, Pope, Scott, Byron, and many others lame of body, is to be preferred to that of the so-called reign of law (for law is as unrealisable as everything else in the eternally limited province of human science) ; and nothing in our history is more comforting than the knowledge that some field was allowed at all times for the rise of every talent to its rights. There was nepotism enough, but in this there has been at least political safety, for the presumption is usually in favour of experienced stocks having the most natural apti­ tude for ruling position, though it has never been forgotten that to this law there are brilliant exceptions, who must have their places. No democracy can ever get free from some form of aristocracy, but the wisdom is to keep the best men and women as healthy as possible by continual mixture with the elect of the people. It is an ethnological fact that marriage of those too near of kin is as dangerous as of those too distant in blood, cousins to cousins, northerns to southerns, Swiss vil­ lagers to Swiss villagers, Desdemonas to Othelloes ; and social unions in a country have similar dangers. But it is the in­ sight that is to be got as to the formation of the nation, from the Norman Conquest downwards, individually rather than collectively, that was the attraction of the toil expended on this subject; and if others also realise something of the inner life of the past through these gatherings, the object will be attained. A word of detail is that the varied spelling of certain places and names is followed because of peculiar light thus thrown on changes of historical value. LONDON, 1887. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE INTRODUCTION I. AT '!'HE NORMAN CONQUEST 3 II. BEFORE THE CONQUEST 6 III. FRENCH ANTECEDENTS IO IV. THE NORMAN CIVILISATION 16 V. WALDERNE'S SONS AND DAUGHTER. 22 VI. TENURES OF LAND 30 VII. EUDO, FILIUS RUBERTI 34 VIII. EUDO DAPIFER'S CONQUEST 41 IX. THE SENESCHAL AS LORD OF COLCHESTER 45 X. EUDO THE FOUNDER OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES 54 XI. THE DAPIFER'S LATTER YEARS 61 XII. EUDO'S LINEAGE 67 XIII. THE LANDS OF EUDO SINCLAIR 77 XIV. JOHN, COMES ESSEXIJE 88 XV. MARGARET SINCLAIR, COUNTESS OF ESSEX 93 XVI. THE YOUNGER HUBERT'S LINE . 105 XVII. THE EARL OF NOTTINGHAM ll3 XVIII. WHO WAS SIMON OF SENLIS? 123 XIX. SIMON'S SONS AND DAUGHTER 131 xx. SIMON SINCLAIR, THIRD AND LAST EARL 140 XXI. RELATIONS 144 XXII. THE COUNTESS OF GLOUCESTER 1 53 XXIII. WILLIAM DE SANCTO CLARO 160 XXIV. THE KNIGHT OF RYE . 165 XXV. HAMO DAPIFER, . 179 XXVI. THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 185 viii CONTENTS, CHAP. xxvrr. THE EARLS OF CORBEIL 190 xxvrn. THE VISCOUNT AND FEE-FARJ\IER OF COLCHESTER 204 XXIX. THE HERO OF IlRTDGE~Wl:TH 2!0 XXX, THE TWO WILLIAMS OF LONGVALE 217 XXXI. COMMISSIONER OF 'DOMESDAY BOOK' 223 XXXII. HUGO DE ST. CLARE 23r XXXIII. DESCENT OF THE BARON OF AESLINGHAM 240 XXXIV. TWO WALTEl:S OF MEDWAY 245 XXXV, KING'S CHAMBERLAIN 256 XXXVI. RICHARD OF EAST ANGLIA . 262 XXXVII. GEREBERD, VISCOUNT OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK 266 XXXVIII. TWO JOHNS 273 XXXIX. VICECOMES AND ESCHEATOR 281 XL. COUSINS . 286 XLI. THE ALDAM SINCLAIRS 290 XLII. THREE JOHNS IN SUCCESSION 295 XLIII. SIR PHILIP, THOMAS, AND PHILIP 306 XLIV. SIR PHILIP OF BURSTOW AND HIS SONS 312 XLV, MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS 322 XLVI. WILLIAM, SON OF HUGO PD!CERNA 329 XLVII. GOVERNORS OF ROCHESTER CASTLE 334 XLVIII. ROBERT, NICOLAS, AND JOHN 343 XLIX. CORONER OF KENT 349 L. THE ESSEX l\1EN 360 LI. WOLSEY'S APPRECIATOR-GENEI:AL AND OTHERS 365 LII. THE SOUTH-WEST 377 LIII. THE SOMERSET FAMILY 384 LIV. THE DEVONSHIRE HOUSE 391 LV. THE SINCLAIRS OF CORNWALL 399 CONCLUSION 407 THE SINCLAIRS OF ENGLAND. -- INTRODUCTION. NOVELTY and originality are great aids to all narration. There has been for the last two hundred years so little written or known of the English branch of the Sinclair family, that what were simply taken from the various records, authentic and available, ought to have much of those desirable qualities. The Scottish house has had for many centuries the full light of fame over it. The Danish Sinclairs, of whom Sir Andrew, ambassador to James First of England from the king of Denmark, is a prominent figure; the Swedish, known most by Count Malcolm's tragic death returning from his embassy to the Porte during the Czarina Catherine's reign, in the violent time of the 'hats and caps,'-Major Sinclair of Carlyle's Fredericlc the Great; the Norwegian, Russian, and German, remarkable by their literary, civil, and military positions of substance and honour : these are all better to the front than the forgotten Englishmen. With the Romans it was piety not to neglect the ashes of the fathers. In real generosity of feeling dwellern in these happy islands of the west cannot but be their successful rivals. The dark clouds of antiquity are over many of our brave actions as a race ; but we have not been disrespectful of the past, and the world of writings in our national keeping are unique for their quantity and qua­ lity. There is a notable Irish family of the last two centuries upwards, of whom the Rev. John, girt. with sword and pistols at the siege of Derry, is the hero ; and the History al Beifast and Froude's English in Ireland give knowledge of a family of civic and political importance in Ulster's chief town. Recent A 2 THE SINCLAIRS OF ENGLAND. American, African, and Australian offshoots show the old ability and courage. Of this, in some respects, too cosmopolitan, though never numerous name, the English representatives can well bear now all the publicity which can be given to them. For the general mind, Sir ·walter Scott has clone much with regard to· those lords of Roslin, who were the princes of Orkney and Shetland, earls of Caithness, dukes of Oldenburgh, and chief nobles of Norway. His verses in The Lay of the Last l,fin­ strel, and his notes to them, about what he well called ' the lordly line of high St, Clair,' are of almost over-frequent refer­ ence, however much backed by chivalrous and splendid deeds. Even of chains of diamonds the fitful souls would get tired, if too much used. With a direction to Sir Bernard Burke's no doubt well-grounded enthusiasm about the Scottish family's noble and royal claims and traditions, especially under 'Lord Sinclair,' they may be left out of notice. His books alone, if there were not the libraries which are, could keep their me­ mories green.