Joseph Sinkler (1729 - 1792)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SINCLAIRS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND THEIR DESCENDANTS.

They loved the mountains and the hills; beneath their shadows or on their summits they built their abodes. They loved the forests, for there they hunted beasts of prey, and gathered sustenance from the streams of water. They held communion with nature, they lived near to her, and ever listened to the multitudinous voices with which she always speaks to those who love her. They were familiar with the lore of the hills and the woods, and never shunned hardship or fatigue. They had strong physiques, stalwart frames, great powers of endurance, feared not danger, were ardently fond of athletic sports and feats of strength or skill. They had much mechanical knowledge which was always employed in the development of new communities, and towns, and states. They also had the faculty of being practical, and could, and would, turn their minds and hands to any necessary employment. In truth, it has during its nearly 250 years residence in this country been an eminently practical family. They have loved the activities and rush of private life, and the experiences of a frontiersman much better than books, much more than the studies of the scholar, or than the achievements of professional life. Always have they been intensely patriotic. They loved the military profession. In every war since they came to America, they have been among the first in the fray, and the last to quit. Their sacrifices have been great, and members of the race have sometimes given life itself for their king and country; and later to establish the Republic, and then to preserve it.

[Leonard Allison Morrison, The history of the Sinclair family in Europe and America for eleven hundred years giving a genealogical and biographical history of the family in Normandy, France, a general record of it in Scotland, England, Ireland, and a full biographical and genealogical record of many branches in Canada and the United States, pp. 60-61, url: http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_40556#page/n70/mode/1up/]

There seemed to be no authorized manner of writing the name and the Sinclairs themselves, as well as others, wrote it as it was usually pronounced, with the accent upon the first syllable, - thus Sink-ler.

Then, again, each one wrote the name apparently “as seemed good in his own eyes.”

SINCLAIR AS VARIOUSLY SPELLED.

Almost the entire number of Sinclairs - St. Clairs - whose names appear on the town, county, and probate records at Exeter, N.H.; in the state archives in the capitol at Concord, N. H.; in the different town, county, and probate offices in New Hampshire and Vermont, and some in Massachusetts and New York, are the known descendants of John Sinkler, who was in Exeter, N. H., in 1658.

The following are the differing forms in which the name has been written or spelled in the places alluded to, and as copied from original documents, and printed by the state of New Hampshire in twenty-one large volumes of Provincial papers and State papers, in the Reports of the Adjutant-General, in different town histories, and as found in other sources of information:

Cinclair, Sanckler, Sinclaire, Sinlcair, St. Clair, Sain Clair, Sant Clar, Senckler, Sencler, Sinckar, Sincklor, Sincklear, Sinclare, Sincler, Sinklar Sinkler, Sinklee, Sinklir, Sinnclir, Sinklair, Synkler.

[Leonard Allison Morrison, The history of the Sinclair family in Europe and America for eleven hundred years giving a genealogical and biographical history of the family in Normandy, France, a general record of it in Scotland, England, Ireland, and a full biographical and genealogical record of many branches in Canada and the United States, 1896, p. 59, url:http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_40556#page/n69/mode/1up]

JOSEPH SINKLER

66. Joseph Sinkler, Jr.4 [33] (Joseph3, James2 John1). He was born before May 27, 1736, in what is now South Newmarket, N. H., and when a boy went to Pembroke, N. H., then called Buckstreet, with his father, where he was a resident for several years. On May 27, 1757, he bought sixty acres of land in Allenstown, N. H., and be was by the contract to build a house fit for a family to live in, clear ten acres fit for tillage or mowing, or both, and either he, or someone in his place, was to become an inhabitant of Allenstown. He is probably the Joseph Sinkler of the French and Indian war, in the same company with Richard Sinkler, afterwards "Col." Richard of Barnstead, N. H., who enlisted in Capt. Jeremiah Marston's company April 20, 1760, and was in the service as late as July 6, 1760, and probably later.

[Signature - see image to left -->]

Soon after he was a resident in Holderness, N. H., and was made fence-viewer, before its incorporation, at a meeting of the proprietors at the house of Mr. John Layn in New Durham, N. H., June 10, 1769. He lived on "South Hill," on a hundred acre lot "numbered 62 in the plan of said townships." This he and his wife Martha sold to Samuel Livermore, Esq., of Portsmouth, July 23, 1771.

He then drops out of the history of Holderness and appears in Sanbornton, N. H., where Thomas Sinkler, his brother, had located three or four years before, and as early as 1768.

When the flames of the Revolution broke forth, it found him ready for the conflict. On Dec. 16, 1776, then of Sanbornton, he enlisted for the war, and was paid Dec. 31, 1779, for "36 months and 27 days service." He was in Maj. Benjamin Whitcomb's Rangers side by side with his nephew, James Sinkler, who died in Barre, N. Y. In 1780, on the Depreciation Rolls, his name appears in Col. Alexander Scammell's Regiment, the 3d N. H. On March 1, 1784, he was still in Whitcomb's Rangers.

He resided in Sanbornton after the war, and there he died. The administration of his estate was granted to James Sinkler July 4, 1792. His wife was Martha______. According to the best obtainable information the following appears to have been the record of his

CHILDREN

67. Joseph Sinkler, Jr.5 Was a soldier of the Revolution, a member of Capt. Luther Richardson's company, Col. Timothy Bedell's regiment, raised for the defence of the frontiers on and adjacent to the Connecticut river. His term of service was 11 months and 26 days.

68. James Sinkier5. He perhaps bought land In Henniker, N. H., of Jesse Nichols of Reading, Mass., July 1, 1789. He m. his cousin Sarah, dau. of Thomas Sinkler, and Is believed to have settled in Vermont or Canada.

[Hanna would be here.]

[Leonard Allison Morrison, The history of the Sinclair family in Europe and America for eleven hundred years giving a genealogical and biographical history of the family in Normandy, France, a general record of it in Scotland, England, Ireland, and a full biographical and genealogical record of many branches in Canada and the United States, 1896, pp. 86-87, url: http://www.archive.org/stream/cihm_40556#page/n104/mode/1up]

Mentioned By Name: Joseph Sinclair, wife Martha_______, daughter Hannah who married Samuel Rogers

Samuel, his parents, all of his brothers and sisters, and his wife were born in Boxford and Leominister, Massachusetts but when he become an adult Samuel moved to the state of New Hampshire. After removing several times between New Hampshire and Vermont, he finally settled in Franconia, Grafton County, New Hampshire. (This place was also called Lincoln or Morristown.)

It was here that Samuel met and married Hannah Sinclair on 4 November 1782. She was the daughter of Joseph Sinclair and Martha __________. Their first child was born just across the border from Franconia, at Bradford, Orange County, Vermont.

[Compiled by Helen W. Crandall, a great, great granddaughter. 1982 Updated by Junell Thomas, daughter of Helen W. Crandall, url:David White Rogers ]