William Maynard Sinton JP (1 February 1860 – 31 December 1942) was High Sheriff of
County Armagh
County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...
, an
Ulster Unionist
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule movem ...
County Council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.
Ireland
The county councils created under British rule in 1899 continue to exist in Irel ...
lor for Armagh and industrialist.
Sinton was the eldest son, and heir, of Thomas Sinton of Laurelvale House. His father founded the family linen firm of ''Thomas Sinton & Co. Ltd.'' ( flax spinners). Maynard Sinton attended school at Kendal, Westmoreland and at Newtown School, Waterford. Sinton's uncle was the linen manufacturer John Sinton owner of the Ravarnette Weaving Company; his cousin, a grandson of the same John Sinton, was the
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
winner John Alexander Sinton. He continued to manage the firm following his father's death and took up residence a Ballyards Castle Armagh.
Sinton married, on 16 March 1905 at Tandragee, Myra Atkinson, of Park View,
Tandragee
Tandragee () is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is built on a hillside overlooking the Cusher River, in the civil parish of Ballymore and the historic barony of Orior Lower. It had a population of 3,486 people in the 2011 Cen ...
, daughter of William H. Atkinson, solicitor and sometime agent to the
Duke of Manchester
Duke of Manchester is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the current senior title of the House of Montagu. It was created in 1719 for the politician Charles Montagu, 4th Earl of Manchester. Manchester Parish in Jamaica was named afte ...
; J. Charters Boyle, JP was best man. The couple had two children,
*Bridget Maynard Sinton (1914–1998) (m. 1943, James Engledow, of the
Army Intelligence Corps
The Intelligence Corps (Int Corps) is a corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a br ...
Radley College
Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, an ...
Battle of the Ypres–Comines Canal
The Battle of the Ypres–Comines Canal was a battle of the Second World War fought between the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and German Army Group B during the BEF's retreat to Dunkirk in 1940. Part of the Battle of Belgium and the much lar ...
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
the family employed over 20 staff on the estate including two chauffeurs, a governess (a Miss Glenda Rowe), cooks, servants and gardeners. They kept racehorses and a pack of
beagle
The beagle is a breed of small scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking instincts, th ...
s, as Mr. Sinton was a leading light at 'big shoots' and Irish
gun dog
Gun dogs, or bird dogs, are types of hunting dogs developed to assist hunters in finding and retrieving game, usually quail, dove, or duck. Gun dogs are divided into three primary types: retrievers, flushing dogs, and pointing breeds.
Types ...
trials. The Ballyards cup was presented every year at the Armagh point-to-point races.
One of the first owners of a motor car in the county the registration on his Clement was ''IB 1''. In 1893 he was the guest-of-honour at the opening of County Armagh Golf Club. He was a member of the ''Royal Irish Automobile Club'', the ''United Service Club'',
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
and the ''County'', Armagh.
Upon his death, without a male heir, his main business interests passed to his brother, Frederick Buckby Sinton, of Banford House,
Tullylish
Tullylish ()PlaceNamesNI - Tullylish Information on Banford House at Banbridge District Council Maynard Sinton was buried at the Friends' (Quaker) Meeting House, Moyallon, near Gilford. The Sintons retained the Ballyards estate until the late 1950s and, in the early 1960s, the castle became the home, for a few years, of Vernon College, a boarding school for boys formerly situate at Dunmurry.