Reverend William Sinclair (died 1830) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

minister and, as a radical democrat, a member of the

Society of United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

. Forced after the rebellion of 1798 into American exile, he became a leading figure in the Irish immigrant community in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Early life

Probably the fourth son of William Sinclair, a farmer in Kilcronaghan parish, County Londonderry, Sinclair graduated from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

(then a centre of the

Scottish Enlightenment The Scottish Enlightenment ( sco, Scots Enlichtenment, gd, Soillseachadh na h-Alba) was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century ...

) in 1775. By 1786 he was preaching in

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

, County Down, in a congregation within the non-subscribing Presbytery of Antrim.

United Irishmen and 1798 Rebellion

On 14 October 1791, he was one of 12 men including

Henry Joy McCracken Henry Joy McCracken (31 August 1767 – 17 July 1798) was an Irish republican, a leading member of the Society of the United Irishmen and a commander of their forces in the field in the Rebellion of 1798. In pursuit of an independent and democrat ...

and

Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican socie ...

who met to form the Belfast

Society of the United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association in the Kingdom of Ireland formed in the wake of the French Revolution to secure "an equal representation of all the people" in a national government. Despairing of constitutional reform, ...

. In time his brothers George and Thomas would also join. He fell under the suspicion of

Lord Castlereagh Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh ( ) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Anglo-Irish politician ...

, his congregant, former student and son and heir to the leading landowner in north Down, the

Earl of Londonderry Earl of Londonderry is a title that has been created three times in the Peerage of Ireland. The first creation came in 1622 in favour of Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Earl of Londonderry, Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Baron Ridgeway, who served as Treasurer of I ...

. In November 1796 Castlereagh wrote to his wife that "Sinclair has been playing a most artful game, and has done much to mislead." Later that month, however, Castlereagh reported on a successful meeting where several hundred of the inhabitants of Newtownards and district took the oath of allegiance. Afterwards "we had a very jolly dinner: Cleland quite drunk, Sinclair considerably so, my father not a little, others lying heads and points, the whole very happy, and ‘God Save the King’ and ‘Rule Britannia’ declared permanent." During the Rebellion, Sinclair was part of an insurgent committee in Newtownards, though it was afterwards claimed that the minister was less than a willing participant in this. After the arrest of Reverend

William Steel Dickson William Steel Dickson (1744–1824) was an Irish Presbyterian minister and member of the Society of the United Irishmen, committed to the cause of Catholic Emancipation, democratic reform, and national independence. He was arrested on the eve ...

on the eve of the

Battle of Ballynahinch The battle of Ballynahinch was a military engagement of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 between a force of roughly 4,000 United Irishmen rebels led by Henry Munro and approximately 2,000 government troops under the command of George Nugent. After ...

in June 1798, his brother George Sinclair was briefly the declared Adjutant General of the United forces of County Down. Following the rising, Sinclair's manse was looted and torched, and he was imprisoned on the prison ship Postlethwaite, a former coal-tender anchored in Belfast Lough, along with ministers

Thomas Ledlie Birch Thomas Ledlie Birch (1754–1828) was a Presbyterian minister and radical democrat in the Kingdom of Ireland. Forced into American exile following the suppression of the 1798 rebellion, he wrote ''A Letter from An Irish Emigrant'' (1799). Ass ...

, Robert Steele and James Simpson, and the licentiate

David Bailie Warden David Bailie Warden was a republican insurgent in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and, in later exile, a United States consul in Paris. While in American service Watson protested the corruption of diplomatic service by the "avaricious" spirit of com ...

(who had led the rebel attack on Newtownards). Together they were permitted American exile.

America

In May 1799, Sinclair set sail for New York on the Peggy, along with Simpson and Warden, and John Caldwell. Before his departure, Sinclair received a certificate of ordination from the Presbytery of Antrim, signed by the Moderator. But as was the case for Thomas Ledlie Birch, Sinclair found his radical politics a bar to ministry in the United States. Instead Sinclair opened a school, Baltimore Academy. In 1808, this academy along with another run by a fellow Presbyterian minister, Samuel Knox, were merged with Baltimore College of which fellow United Irishman Doctor John Campbell White was a founder and trustee. Sinclair served as college vice president and Professor of Logic and Rhetoric. In 1810, alongside White, Sinclair served on the presiding committee of Baltimore Hibernian Benevolent Society; the following year, he became the society’s secretary. Consistent with the general anti-Federalism of the Irish immigrant community, the Society aligned with Thomas Jefferson's Republican-Democratic Party. With Jefferson,Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, December 8, 1810, ''The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison 1776-1826, Vol. 3'', Smith, James Morton, ed., New York, Norton, 1995. p 1660 he interceded on behalf of

when, as U.S. consul in Paris, he fell out with the Madison administration. Sinclair also engaged in the cultural life of Baltimore; in 1816 he was one of the organizers and first president of the literary society, the

Delphian Club The Delphian Club was an early American literary club active between 1816 and 1825. The focal point of Baltimore's literary community, Delphians like John Neal were prodigious authors and editors. The group of mostly lawyers and doctors gath ...

. He died in the city in 1830.

References

* Kerby A. Miller 2003, 'Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan : Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675-1815', Oxford University Press * Kenneth L. Dawson 2003, Moment of unity - Irish rebels and Freemasons, 'Irish News', May 10, 2003. * David Wilson 1998, 'United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic', Cornell University Press. * Maryland Historical Society 1955, 'Maryland Historical Magazine'. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, William 1830 deaths United Irishmen Irish non-subscribing Presbyterian ministers