Lords Herdmanston and Sinclair – Part One
Lords Herdmanston and Sinclair – Part Two
St. Clair Earls of Rosslyn
Janet Sinclair, ‘darling nurse’ of Mary, Queen of Scots
St. Clair of Longformacus

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Henry St. Clair received land at Herdmanston in East Lothian from Richard de Morville in an undated charter sometime between 1162 whilst Richard was Constable of Scotland and before Richard’s own death in 1189. By 1189, Henry was named as Sheriff of Lauder in a charter by William de Morville, who had succeeded his father Richard as Constable and probably around the same time, Henry received the barony of Carfrae in Lauderdale. At some point before William de Morville’s death in 1196, Henry resigned his lands of Carfrae back to William, who then granted Carfrae to Alan St. Clair, Sir Henry’s intended heir. This was probably as a marriage gift on Alan’s marriage to Matilda de Windlesore (or Windsor), daughter of Alexander de Windlesore, a prominent family from Westmoreland in England who were related to the de Morvilles through Avice de Lancaster, William de Morville’s mother.

There were also other St. Clairs noted in the few charters which survive, who appear contemporary with Sir Alan of Herdmanston and Carfrae. They may have been his younger brothers or cousins, such as Sir Robert, who witnessed charters in the royal court and for the Comyn family, and then disappears from the records around 1240. A John St. Clair witnessed a charter for Christian de Morville, widow of William de Morville, in 1203 along with his son, William, and after that witnessed charters for the Comyn family until the late 1260s. There are also records of a younger Henry St. Clair, who seems to have flourished between 1230s and 1255 and may have been a son of Alan St. Clair, if following the traditional Scottish naming pattern.

The documentation to link each generation is sadly lacking until the arrival of the next confirmed St. Clair of Herdmanston and Carfrae who paid homage to King Edward I in 1296.  This John was contemporary with Gregory, Alexander and Reginald St. Clairs who were around during the war with England, although no documentation survives to connect any of them to an earlier generation and, even more frustratingly, it is also possible they were instead members of the St. Clair branch, which had already established itself at Roslin by then.

Using The Enigmatic Sinclairs and Saint-Clairs of the Isles as a starting point, archival documents and charters have also been checked, where they still exist, to ensure the following tree is as up to date and as accurate as possible. Where there could be some element of doubt, they have been marked thus: (?).

Nina Cawthorne

DESCENDANTS