[125] [It now stands over the present road. See illustration.—T. M.]
[126] A detailed description of the cow-bane is given in Pontoppidan's "Natural History of Norway," part i., pp. 200-204; from Hjorthöi, part i., p. 98.
[127] [The frame of this drum is in the possession of Mr. J. Heftye.—T. M.]
[128] [Christiania.—T. M.]
[129] [Only five at present.—T. M.]
[130] If indeed these pistols really belonged to Sinclair, the above initials possibly point to a family connection between him and the Danish nobleman Anders (Andrew) Sinclar, who in 1607 emigrated from Scotland to Denmark, where his race died out at the end of the seventeenth century. Moreover, persons of that name lived in Norway a couple of centuries before the arrival of George Sinclair: thus David Sinclar is named as a civil officer of high rank at Bergen in 1416; and Anders Sinclar as a chief commander in Bohuus Castle from 1461 to 1464; and Aaseline, daughter of Henry Sinclar of Sanneberg, who was married to Anders van Bergen of Onerheim farm in Söndhordlehn, who at the close of the fifteenth century was a Norwegian Councillor of State ("Samlinger til det Norske Folksprog og Historie," vol. iii., p. 576). In addition to a Captain Sinclar, who is named in 1645, there is also mention, as being in this country in the seventeenth century, of one David Sinclar, who was on the 2nd August 1669 appointed by King Frederick III. Bailie of Eger or Lier, and who held the farm of Sem in Eger as tenant under the Crown; as also a Gregers Sinclar, who was undoubtedly related to the Sinclar just named, and who in 1688 lived at Vestfossen in Eger, where in that year, at the farm of Hals, he caused copper-works, with a smelting-house and stamping-mill, to be erected, but which, after working unsuccessfully for four years, he was obliged to abandon. Even at the end of the last century persons of the name of Sinclar resided in this country (Kraft's "Norges Beskr," part ii., pp. 406, 407; Ström's "Egers Beskr," p. 56; and documents in the State Archives and in the Archives of the Municipality of Christiania). It would, however, be difficult, in the absence of historical information, to decide how far any of the above-mentioned persons were related to each other, or whether any of them were descended from the noble Scottish family of Sinclair, as there was a whole clan of that name in Scotland. The Andrew (Anders) Sinclar above-mentioned may have belonged to that family, from which also the various Swedish noble families of that name are said to have derived their origin. Francis (Frants) Sinclar was the first of that name who was raised, in 1649, to the order of Swedish knighthood and nobility. (See Stjernman's "Register of Swedish Knighthood and Nobility," part i., pp. 425, 516, and 710, and p. 22, part iii.)
The Scottish noble family of Sinclair or St. Clair is of Norman origin, but it came originally from St. Clair in France, whence William St. Clair—a son of Walter, Earl of St. Clair, and Margaret, daughter of Richard, Duke of Normandy—emigrated in the twelfth century to Scotland, where he acquired extensive lands in Midlothian. The possessions of his descendants increased considerably under the munificence of the Kings of Scotland, especially during the reign of Robert Bruce, and embraced at last the baronies of Roslyn, Pentland, Cowsland, Catcune, and others. One of the same William St. Clair's descendants in a direct line—namely, Henry St. Clair (de Sancto Claro)—was in 1379 made, by King Hakon VI. of Norway, Jarl or Earl of the Orkney Islands, which were then under the suzerainty of the kingdom of Norway, and his family held that dignity until the year 1471, when by an Act of Parliament the Orkney Islands were annexed to the Scottish Crown, and in compensation for the same, William St. Clair, then Earl of Orkney and Earl of Caithness, received from King James III. the Castle of Ravensheuch, of which the ruins, still in existence, belong to the Earls of Roslyn, who represent a branch of the St. Clair family. According to Stjernman, the Earl of Orkney (vide "Catalogus Comitum Orcadensium" in the "Orkneyinga Saga," Havniæ, 1780) used as his motto the word "Fight." As adherents of the House of Stuart, the St. Clair family lost its lands and was obliged to wander in exile. As is well known, Walter Scott has described the tragical fate of the family in the sixth canto of his "Lay of the Last Minstrel." The family is, however, widely spread in Scotland, and the noble Swedish family of the same name is said to be descended from the St. Clairs of Freswick and Dunbeath. Although there is no historical certainty that George Sinclair, who fell at Kringlen, was also descended from the noble Scotch family of St. Clair, yet it is very probable that such was the case.
[131] [Dean Krag is probably right in doubting the authenticity of the "Sinclair pistols" at Copenhagen. The initials on them must be those of Anders or "Sir Andrew" Sinclair. Many of his letters to Robert, Earl of Salisbury, written between 1607 and 1621, are in the Public Record Office, London. In 1607, while in the service of the King of Denmark, he received £1,000 from King James I.; and in 1610 he urged Lord Salisbury to send him his pension, and also to obtain a loan from King James, as he had bought lands in Denmark of the value of forty thousand crowns, part of which he still owed. In 1610 he asked Lord Salisbury to be godfather and to give his Christian name to a son born in that year, his two elder sons having been named James and Christian. In 1611 he was made governor of the castle and town of Calmar. He was sent as ambassador to England in 1621. There was evidently no direct connection between him and George Sinclair, whose descent has been well established.—T. M.]
[132] Scheel's "Krigens Skueplads" (Seat of War), translated by Thaarup, p. 30; Bloch's "Reiseagttagelser" (Notes of Travel), p. 22; and Wilse's "Spydebergs Beskrivelse," Appendix, p. 68.
[133] [The farms here mentioned belonged at that time to the Crown, and had only been held on leases by the occupiers. The deeds of gift by Christian IV. are given in extenso in an Appendix to the Rev. H. P. S. Krag's work, but it has not been deemed necessary to reproduce them here.—T.M.]