It's time to merge the profiles of Major General Arthur St. Clair (Sinclair) [closed]

Question

Previously, there was a merge proposal for the profiles of Major General Arthur Sinclair aka St Clair (bef. 1733 - 1818) and General Arthur St Clair but the merge was rejected primarily because the two men had different parents.  We know for sure that there was only one General St. Claire, aide de camp to General George Washington so is seems that these two profiles clearly represent the same man.  The confusion sets in because General St. Clair (LNAB: Sinclair) had a cousin by the same name and some 19th century researchers conflated the cousin's birth information and now (even on Wikipedia) there is conflicting birth data.

According to Wikitree guidance, when two profiles represent the same person, they are merged.  In the case of conflicting parents they can be detached, noted, and sorted later.  In this case, we have a plausible explanation for the difference in parentage and the merge should proceed.

Both the Scotland Project and the American Revolutionary War Project (1776 Project) have expressed interest in maintaining profile management and so after the merge, the profile will be jointly managed.  The merge will take place 30 days from the posting of this G2G question unless someone can come up with a viable reason why the two profiles represent different men.

In order to streamline the process of the merge and to allow al interested parties to have a say in the post-merge profile, I have created this space page that we can use to merge the two profiles in advance and use the finished text for the merge.  Because this will be a long biography with many different roles (several wars: British officer and later an American officer, Congressman, President of the Congress, and Governor of the Northwest Territories) I suggest that the profile be divided by sections.  There will need to be several sections to discuss the research that proves (disproves) the parentage and explains the reasons why the two men are the same.

Merging the profiles of General Arthur Sinclair aka St Clair

I invite all interested parties to "have at it" on the bio in the space page and if we come to any edit conflicts we can manage them in the space page profile comments.  Be sure to join the trusted list of the space page to get updates on the progress.

I'm looking forward to some 1776/Scotland collaboration and a chance to make a profile that will raise the bar for all.

Thanks for your interest.

best regards,

SJ - 1776 Project Leader
Bobbie Hall - Scotland Project Leader
Mark Sutherland-Fisher - Scotland Project Coordinator

Comments

Thank you ever so much for doing this, SJ. You're so organized!

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Thanks SJ and delighted to see this move forward. Hopefully we will end up with a profile which explains how Arthur Sinclair the son of a clergyman belonging to a minor branch of the family of the Earls of Caithness went on to become something of a hero on the other side of the Atlantic ocean and played such a major role in the creation of the United States of America.

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SJ, we should be able to award a star for 'best question.'

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And, apparently Arthur and I are 11th cousins six times removed with one Uncertain indication in Arthur's lineage back to our perhaps common ancestor Sir William Douglas. Now look what you have done...I have to look at this Scottish line I have not before explored.

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You'll now need to research that one "Uncertain" link. There are also a lot of New Englanders who will find a connection here, as his wife was a member of the Boston 'society' among the Bowdoins. And then there's the Dutch connection on Manhattan.

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This is curious. We have the father/son relationship between the 3rd Earl of Caithness and the 4th Earl  as well as mother to 4th Earl Elizabeth Sutherland (who is the link I am looking at) marked as Uncertain absent any explanation. It is a project co-managed and protected profile with no indication of any uncertainty in the line. Anyone know the reason for the Uncertainty?

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As one of the profile managers for Gen Arther StClair/Sinclair and as a Sinclair descendant sharing a common ancestor with the General I am adamant that this merge must happen, the evidence is overwhelming
FYI I have been heavily involved with DNA in the search for the true line of the Sinclair Family. I was involved in asking and getting a dna sample from a titled Sinclair of Ulbster Caithness, of Thurso Castle who has a very well recorded genealogy. With he and many others including myself with family stories and having come from Caithness many years ago it has been determined 99.9 % that the mystery has been solved. There are many different ( some 18 or more ) DNA haplogroups or line within the Sinclairs, not one related to the other. Only one Haplogroup FGC15254 is shared by all the members of the original Sinclair family. The common ancestor seems to be George the 4th Earl of Caithness. My good friend Nina Sinclair Cawthorn of the UK is the person who found Arthers baptismal record and it has been a long road to just get to this point in correcting this Honorable Mans History Gen Arther SrClair/Sinclair, lets all do him the Honor of giving him his family back.
Sinclair to StClair, why the name change. Let me explain. The old French spelling is StClair and changed when the StClair family went north to Caithness and Orkney from Roslin. The name is often spelt Sinkler and is actually pronounce Sink-ler.
   Arther was born Sinclair but for some reason when he went to America changes the spelling to StClair the old French version, maybe thinking it sounded more important lol

History lesson over, but I do ask all concerned to please allow this Merg to go forward

Robert James Sinclair
Canada

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Robert,

This is awesome information. So glad George was my 14th grandfather!

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Robert, thanks for the interesting information. Is this the same Sinclair family that claimed descent from Mary Magdalene? There's is a fascinating story.

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Jim Moore yes the same family,although the story of descent from Magdalene Im sure is just that a STORY

Answer 1

There is no doubt that Sir George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness was the son of Sir John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness and his wife Elizabeth Sutherland of Duffus. I have never amended the Sinclair Earldom profiles in any detail yet because I have been too busy "firefighting" elsewhere. I can only put it down to a lack of knowledge or confidence on the part of others who have previously worked on these profiles.

Comments

Thanks, Mark. That's what I suspected and continued thanks for the firefighting.

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Thanks Mark I agree fully

Answer 2

Add the Pennsylvania tag for those researching his descendants and collaterals.

Comments

We've run out of room for tags!  I added Pennsylvania to the space page and back linked it to this question.

Answer 3

The first half of his life has been written in the FSP for him. I've taken him up through his marriage in Boston. I found a couple of new images for him in the MetMuseum collection, which I've attached to the Sinclair profile. Would one of the 1776 folks like to take on the Rev War portion and perhaps a Pennsylvania specialist work on his land and children? 

Comments

I've made a few changes to the FSP and will chip away at it over the next few days.

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Thanks very much, SJ!