Malcolm Drummond

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Cargill, Perthshire, Scotland
• Alternate death: 1470

Malcolm married Mariota Murray after 14 Jul 1445. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. John Drummond was born about 1446; died before 18 Dec 1519 in Drummond Castle, Perthshire, Scotland; was buried in Innerpeffray, Perthshire, Scotland.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1455

Notes:

Knighted by James II by 1439.

Walter married Margaret Ruthven. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Cargill, Perthshire, Scotland
• Alternate death: 1424

Notes:

"Justiciar of Scotland in 1391, called on 28 February 1414/15 'Johannem de dromund militem dominum de Cargil,' had a safe-conduct into England 3 Feb 1423/4 to meet his nephew James I at Durham." [The Ancestry of Charles II, citation details below]

John married Elizabeth Sinclair. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Sheriff of Perth not long after 1393.

Notes:

"[E]nded a blood-feud with the Menteiths in 1360, giving up lands in the Lennox as compensation to the Menteiths." [The Ancestry of Charles II, King of England (citation details below)]

John married Mary Montfichet. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"[A]n heiress who brought her husband the lands of Auchterarder and Cargill, co. Perth, and Kincardine, co. Stirling." [The Ancestry of Charles II, King of England (citation details below)]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 1400

Notes:

Earl of Orkney. He was an unremarkable Scottish and Norse nobleman who, for reasons that pass all understanding, has become the focus of a series of ginned-up legends involving Rosslyn Chapel (built by his grandson William Sinclair, 1410-84), Templarism, alleged pre-Columbian Atlantic crossings, and a seemingly endless flow of related nonsense. That odious fountain of bullshit Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982) is partly responsible. Another OFOB, Dan Brown, is similarly at fault. Even the respectable Complete Peerage is contributory, retailing (volume 10, page 94) as straight fact the made-up tale of his discovery of Greenland. The Scots Peerage (volume 6, pages 568-69) also rolls out the Greenland humbug, along with the entirely imaginary story of his involvement with the Venetian sailor Nicolo Zeno. A reputable historian, William Thomson, remarked in his New History of Orkney (2008) that "It has been Earl Henry's singular fate to enjoy an ever-expanding posthumous reputation which has very little to do with anything he achieved in his lifetime."

A good summary of his actual history is here, on a site devoted to the factual history of the Orkneys:

Henry Sinclair was born at Rosslyn Castle, near Edinburgh, in 1345. He enters Orkney history in the late 1370s - a period when the islands were without an earl.

In Orkney, the death of Earl Malise, Henry's grandfather, in 1365, had resulted in a succession dispute that was not resolved for 26 years. Henry became involved in a struggle for the possession of the earldom with Erngisl Sunesson and Alexander de Ard. Sinclair bested his two rivals, eventually being granted the earldom by the Norwegian King Haakon VI, in 1379.

His appointment was on the condition that he not only defend Orkney and Shetland but also that, if required, he provide Norway with military support. A further condition was that he build no permanent structures. This, however, was blatantly ignored. Sinclair went on to build the Kirkwall Castle shortly after.

Not much else is known about Henry Sinclair. He was killed around 1400, his demise described by the Sinclair Diploma:

"…he retirit to the parts of Orchadie and josit them to the latter tyme of his life, and deit Erile of Orchadie, and for the defence of the country was slain there cruellie by his enemiis..."

The identity of these "enemiis" and the exact circumstances of Henry's death are unclear. We do not even know where in Orkney he met his death.

What we do know is that sometime in 1401:

"The English invaded, burnt and spoiled certain islands of Orkney."

It is therefore possible that Earl Henry Sinclair died sometime in 1400, or 1401 - possibly repelling an English force who raided Orkney after the Scots attacked an English fleet outside Aberdeen.

After Henry's death, the earldom passed to his son, also called Henry. Earl Henry II was earl by name only and there is no record of him ever visiting the Orkneys during his 20-year reign.

Henry married Jean Haliburton. Jean (daughter of Walter Haliburton) was born in of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

The Scots Peerage shows her as a daughter of John Hayburton and Margaret Cameron. Complete Peerage (10:94-95) says she was a daughter of their son Walter by an unknown wife prior to Walter's marriage to Isabel Stewart. We follow CP's model.

William married Johanna. Johanna died after 14 Aug 1362. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]