The Sinclairs of Co Londonderry

Sinclairs are mentioned in several localities near Draperstown in Co Londonderry. The earliest were Robert Sinkler (-1710) of ‘Monnyshin’ and Robert Sinklar, a farmer (-1740) of ‘Monishinare’, which is the townland of Moneyshanere close to Tobermore, northeast of Draperstown, in the parish of Kilcronaghan. In 1831, Samuel Sinclair was a freeholder at ‘Monishinear’. His daughter Matilda married Samuel Phillips of Ballynahone Beg in 1861 and it might have been his son Samuel who was recorded in Griffith’s Valuation of 1864 as farming land in the townland of Derrynoyd and married Martha Jane Peden in 1883.

The next references are to Sinclairs in Sixtowns, which lies southwest of Draperstown, about 4 miles distance. Between Sixtowns and Draperstown is the townland of Cavanreagh in the parish of Ballynascreen. Official references are generally made to the townland of Cavanreagh, but quite often family references are made to ‘Sixtowns, Draperstown’, which is not a townland – just the local area. In the circumstances, the assumption has to be made that unless another townland is mentioned, the family references are being made to Cavanreagh.

John Sinclair (c.1770-1843) and his son Robert had a house and offices valued in Cavanreagh in 1836. The same year, A. Sinclair had a house in the townland of Tamnymullan in the parish of Maghera, but was no longer listed in 1864, and another John Sinclair had a house and office at 6 Highland Row, Coleraine, in 1832 and 1836 and again was not listed in 1864. Robert and his brother John married two sisters, Anne and Sarah Fleming. Robert was a surgeon and died suddenly on 10 October 1838 in his 39th year in the townland of Townhill in Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, leaving his wife Anne and one small child (Josias). He was son-in-law to Oswald Sturdy, Postmaster of Irvinestown, whose death in his 52nd year was recorded in the Londonderry Sentinel on 5 July 1834. Robert had a house and office he rented at £8 ‘late currency’ in the best part of the town for business in 1836.

According to Griffiths (1864), Anne Sinclair, Robert’s wife, held 60a 2r 5p of land rated at £18 and a house and offices rated at £3, and a share of ‘mountain’ land rated at £2 8s. Her brother-in-law John Sinclair held 13a 1r 35p of land rated at £11 15s. and a house and offices rated at £3 10s., as well as ‘mountain’ land rated at £2 12s.

An interesting study by Dr Desmond McCourt of Magee University made reference to the decline of the ‘rundale’ in the Sixtowns: ‘Arable land in rundale was held jointly, although individual shares were intermingled and their plots widely scattered to include land of different qualities, some on the constantly tilled infield, some on the shifting patches reclaimed periodically from the remote outfield.’

Cavanreagh townland, Mr J Cleary (Tam) of ‘Wee Cavanreagh’, said that his grandfather came from an old cluster (clachan) before settling in the present house, which lay near the old site. He estimated that he was born sometime before 1815, which would take us back to a date prior to the first Ordinance Survey of 1832. He remembered his grandfather saying that, in addition to seven or eight families, there was a schoolhouse.

Robert Sinclair, aged 76 years, of ‘Big Cavanreagh’, heard from his grandfather of another cluster of even greater age. It lay near to where the present Mr Philips farm is now situated. Mr Phillips, aged 84 years, also heard of this cluster and informed me that when making a ‘kesh’ across his burn some years ago, he came across many old foundations in the vicinity. This, he thought, may have been the cluster originally inhabited by the families of Knox and Leslie [NB John Sinclair married Martha Knox, c.1788], who were at one time the joint occupiers of this part of the townland, according to a 1745 partnership lease preserved by his neighbour, Mr Sinclair. He also heard it said that once Tullybrick was a cluster of fifteen families; but at the time of the ‘straight marches’ the clachan was broken up, some of the occupiers having been moved up the hill to Boulie to make room for those remaining. (www.sixtownsni.co.uk)

Robert and Anne’s sons Josias and Samuel were still farmers in Cavanreagh at the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, but his grandson James Buchannan Sinclair and his family moved to the townland of Drumleek South in Co Monaghan, where he had his own farm at the 1911 Census.

Back to other Irish Sinclair families

DESCENDANTS

My thanks to Patricia Smith for the descendants of William Jackson Sinclair, Snr (1841-1915), Rev James Sinclair’s nephew Robert Sinclair’s first son.

Derrynoyd, parish of Ballynascreen, barony of Loughinsholin, Co Londonderry

Cavanreagh, parish of Ballynascreen, barony of Loughinsholin, Co Londonderry