Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 09:49:45 -0700 From: "DOTY_CARSTENSEN" <DOTY_CARSTENSEN@email.msn.com> Subject: Re: W T Laird's 1888 Letter on the Origin of the Laird's? WHAT IS A LAIRD? I THOUGHT THIS WAS A SINCLAIR LIST? Dear Henderson/Sinclair Clansperson As GaryD suggests, please look at John Sinclair Quarterman's Website "www.mids.org/sinclair/". On the front page your will find a hyperlink "Laird" which will take you through to a note from me that explains our link to the Clan. All Clans have "Septs", families with surnames distinct from the Clan name but nonetheless closely associated. Some families had to change their surnames following the suppression of the Clans following the 1745 Rebellion. Henderson is a Sept of the Clan Gunn (see "http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/dtog/gunn.html", and the Gunns have, as you say, always been closely associated with the Clan Sinclair. The Westford Knight in Connecticut, part of the evidence of Prince Henry Sinclair's voyage to the New World, is thought to be Sir James Gunn. The Drumhead Pardon from Flodden was carried to Caithness by a Gunn drummer boy. The Septs of Sinclair include the surnames of Budge, Clyne, Lyall, Linklater and Mason, and the Sinclairs as the main Clan of Caithness can count on the support, as Gary says, of all the families of Caithness origin. This includes a small family of Lairds, also of Norse origin, overlooked until relatively recently, whose whoms were on Sinclair land. There is a Laird Family Association, to whom we also post, which shares knowledge specifically to Lairds principally from the south of Scotland and Ireland, but it has little knowledge of Caithness, which is where my family comes from. In my website (http://ourworld.cs.com/inslaird/) I explain the conventional sources and what my family knows of its background. The Sinclair Discussion group is a wonderful place to exchange and share information and recover lost history and is the premier source of information on Caithness and our Norse roots. I have found it of incredible help in developing an understanding of our roots, and I hope others will too, through the contributions of a very special and well informed group of people. The Sinclair Discussion Group has, therefore, become much more than a place to discuss the genealogy of those fortunate to bear the family name Sinclair, though this remains the core of our identity. There is a tremendous renaissance taking place in the Sinclair Clan at present. Our Chief has set us all the task of preserving our heritage with the Sinclair and Girnigoe Castles Trust. And we are very proud, with our Clan Chief, Malcolm Caithness's permission, to wear the Sinclair Tartan and Badge, and look forward to participating in next year's Millennium Gathering at his command. I hope I have explained the posting! Yours aye Iain Laird, a Sinclair Follower