Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1754 – 21 December 1835), was a British politician, a writer on both finance and agriculture, and was one of the first people to use the word ''
statistics
Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
'' in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...
, in his vast, pioneering work, ''
Statistical Account of Scotland'', in 21 volumes.
Life
Sinclair was the eldest son of George Sinclair of
Ulbster (d. 1770), a member of the family of the
earls of Caithness
Earl of Caithness is a title that has been created several times in the Peerage of Scotland, and it has a very complex history. Its first grant, in the modern sense as to have been counted in strict lists of peerages, is now generally held to have ...
, and his wife Lady Janet Sutherland. He was born at
Thurso Castle,
Caithness. He was educated at the
High School
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in Edinburgh.
After studying law at the universities of
Edinburgh and
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
and
Trinity College, Oxford, he completed his legal studies at
Lincoln's Inn in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
in 1774. He was admitted to the
Faculty of Advocates in Scotland in 1775, and also called to the
English bar, although he never practised. He had inherited his father's estates in 1770 and had no financial need to work.
In 1780, he was returned to the
House of Commons for the
Caithness constituency, and subsequently represented several English constituencies, his parliamentary career extending, with few interruptions, until 1811. Sinclair established at
Edinburgh a society for the improvement of British
wool, and was mainly instrumental in the creation of the
Board of Agriculture
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 (52 & 53 Vict. c.30) and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board ...
, of which he was the first president.
In 1788 he played a leading part in the formation of the
African Association, founded to promote knowledge of Africa.
In 1794, Sinclair raised the Rothesay and Caithness Fencibles, the first of the
Highland Fencible Corps which could be called to serve in the entirety of Great Britain and not merely Scotland. He later raised a second battalion, the Caithness Highlanders, who would go on to serve in Ireland during the
Rebellion of 1798.
His reputation as a financier and economist had been established by the publication, in 1784, of his ''History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire;'' in 1793 widespread ruin was prevented by the adoption of his plan for the issue of
Exchequer Bills; and it was on his advice that, in 1797,
Pitt issued the "loyalty loan" of 18 millions for the prosecution of the war.
From 1800 until 1816, he lived with his family at 6
Charlotte Square
300px, Robert Adam's palace-fronted north side
Charlotte Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is located at the west end of George Street and was in ...
(now known as
Bute House) in Edinburgh.
He died at home, 133 George Street, in the centre of
Edinburgh's New Town. He is buried in the Royal Chapel at
Holyrood Abbey. His stone sarcophagus lies towards the north-east.
Family
Sinclair, who was made a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
in 1786, married twice. On 26 March 1776 he married his first wife Sarah Maitland, the only child and heir of Alexander Maitland of Stoke Newington. Together they had two daughters, Hannah and
Janet, who became a religious writer. His first wife died in 1785.
In 1788, Sinclair married Diana MacDonald, daughter of
Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald
Alexander Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald (c. 1745 – 12 September 1795), was a Scottish nobleman and Chief of Clan MacDonald of Sleat.
Macdonald was the younger son of Sir Alexander Macdonald, 7th Baronet, and his wife Lady Margaret (née Montgo ...
, and together they had 13 children. His eldest son,
Sir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Sinclair, 2nd Baronet (28 August 1790 – 1868), was a Scottish politician and author.
Background and education
Sinclair, the eldest son of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet of Ulbster, and Diana, only daughter of Alexander Macdonald, ...
(1790–1868), was a writer and a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
, representing Caithness at intervals from 1811 until 1841, and married Lady Catherine Camilla Tollemache. His son,
Sir John George Tollemache Sinclair, 3rd Baronet, was a member for the same constituency from 1869 to 1885. The first baronet's third son, also named
John (1797–1875), became
Archdeacon of Middlesex
The Archdeacon of Middlesex is a senior cleric in the Church of England, co-responsible for the Archdeaconry of "Middlesex", which mirrors the "Kensington" episcopal area of the Diocese of London — the other person responsible being the Bi ...
; the fourth son was Captain Archibald Sinclair RN; the fifth son,
William (1804–1878), was
Prebendary of
Chichester and was the father of
William MacDonald Sinclair (1850–1917), who in 1889 became
Archdeacon of London
The Archdeacon of London is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England. They are responsible for the eastern Archdeaconry (the Archdeaconry of London) of the Two Cities (London and Westminster) in the Diocese of London, an area wit ...
; the fourth daughter,
Catherine Sinclair
Catherine Sinclair (17 April 1800 – 6 August 1864) was a Scottish novelist and children's writer, who departed from the moralising approach common in that period. She is credited with discovering that the author of the initially anonymous W ...
, was an author.
Scientific agriculture
Sinclair's services to scientific agriculture were conspicuous. He supervised the compilation of the
''Statistical Account of Scotland'' (21 vols., 1791–1799) which was drawn up from the communications of the
Ministers of the different
parishes'. This became known as the "Old Statistical Account." In volume XX (p. xiii) Sinclair explained the choice of name and the purpose of the inquiry:
"Many people were at first surprised at my using the words "statistical" and "statistics", as it was supposed that some term in our own language might have expressed the same meaning. But in the course of a very extensive tour through the northern parts of Europe, which I happened to take in 1786, I found that in Germany they were engaged in a species of political enquiry to which they had given the name "statistics," and though I apply a different meaning to that word—for by "statistical" is meant in Germany an inquiry for the purposes of ascertaining the political strength of a country or questions respecting matters of state—whereas the idea I annex to the term is an inquiry into the state of a country, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantum of happiness enjoyed by its inhabitants, and the means of its future improvement; but as I thought that a new word might attract more public attention, I resolved on adopting it, and I hope it is now completely naturalised and incorporated with our language."
For Sinclair, statistics involved collecting facts, but these were not necessarily, or even typically, numerical.
Sinclair was a proponent of new agricultural methods, and large tracts of land on his
Caithness estate were let out to tenants who kept new breeds of livestock such as
Cheviot sheep. This plan meant evicting the sitting tenants and giving them smaller plots of land to work, often in harsh coastal areas such as
Badbea. Eventually many of the displaced tenants emigrated.
Sinclair was a member of most of the
continental agricultural societies, a fellow of the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...
and the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, as well as of the
Antiquarian Society of London, a member and sometimes president of the
Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and sat as president of the
Highland Society of London The Highland Society of London is a charity registered in England and Wales, with "the view of establishing and supporting schools in the Highlands and in the Northern parts of Great Britain, for relieving distressed Highlanders at a distance from ...
in 1796. Also, in 1796, he was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1797.
Originally a supporter of
Pitt's war policy, Sinclair later joined the party of "armed neutrality." In 1805 he was appointed by Pitt a commissioner for the construction of roads and bridges in the north of Scotland, in 1810 he was made a member of the
privy council and, next year, received the lucrative sinecure office of
Commissioner of excise.
When the Statistical Society of London (now the
Royal Statistical Society) was founded in 1834, Sinclair at 80 was the oldest original member. In the same year he presented a paper on agriculture to the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, but this was found to lack "facts which can be stated numerically."
Measuring wellbeing
Around 1790 he wrote about analysing the "quantum of happiness" in the people of Scotland.
Archaeological recording
Sinclair's works sometimes were the first recording of details of
archaeological monuments of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
. For example, the first recorded mention of the
Catto Long Barrow in
Aberdeenshire was made by Sinclair in 1795.
[C. Michael Hogan, 2008.]
Writings
He was the author of the books ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland''; ''History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire'' 1784; ''The Code of Health and Longevity'' 1807; ''Code of Agriculture'' 1819. After a tour of agricultural inquiry in Flanders in 1815 he wrote a pamphlet: "Hints Regarding the Agriculture State of the Netherlands, Compared with that of Great Britain", Mc Millan, Londen, 1815.
References
Sources
*
* John Sinclair. ''The Correspondence of the Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart. With Reminiscences of the Most Distinguished Characters Who Have Appeared in Great Britain, and in Foreign Countries, During the Last Fifty Years.'' 2 Vols. London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1831
googlebbooks.comAccessed 12 November 2007
* Sinclair, Rev. John (Sir John's Sinclair's son). ''Memoirs of the Life and Works of the Late Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart.'' 2 Vols, Edinburgh: W. Blackwood and Sons, 1837
googlebooks.comAccessed 12 November 2007
* C. Michael Hogan. 200
*
R. Mitchison, ''Agricultural Sir John: The life of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster,'' London: Geoffrey Bles (1962).
*
Rosalind Mitchison, "Sinclair, Sir John, first baronet (1754–1835)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,''
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, 2004, accessed 16 July 2005.
* "Sinclair, John", pp. 70–72 in ''Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences from the Seventeenth Century to the Present,'' (ed. N. L. Johnson and S. Kotz) 1997. New York: Wiley. Originally published in ''Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.''
* R. L. Plackett (1986) The Old Statistical Account, ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A,'' (149), 247–251.
* Urban, Sylvanus. "Obituary" ''The Gentleman's Magazine.'' London: 1836. (pp. 431–433
googlebooks.comAccessed 12 November 2007
*
*
External links
Royal Society citation*
*
For a biography published in 1856 see
For a description of the "Old Statistical Account" (and the "New") see
For more on the history of the term "statistics", see the entry in
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, John, 1st Baronet
1754 births
1835 deaths
Scottish agriculturalists
Agriculture in Scotland
Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
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Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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Scottish antiquarians
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