Note to a young St. Clair Researcher

 Today, I received an email from a young researcher in our family. She had found us via the Sinclair DNA website. Her note included some well-thought-out questions and points. I realized the answer I sent her may be of value for others, so I'm answering her here.

On Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 12:29 AM,

....I was reading The Da Vinci Code and it mentions the St Clair's going back close to Anglo-Saxon period so I decided to do some research and I found your website. However, when I look up facts about us the only one I can seem to find consistent is that our origin is French which then changed to Scottish during the time of William the conquer. Also that it dates back to about 1060 ad and we we're in Normandy at some point. A few things in The Da Vinci Code mentions Templars and freemasons and I was wondering if you have some more information about our history considering you had historians helping your investigation. I would be really interested into learning some of the things you know.…

Hi M.,

Thanks for your note. That's very funny that your dad's name is the same as mine. I've found a few others out there as well.

First, the "mythical" history of the St. Clair family from the books Dan Brown likely used to research us. By the way, I used the spelling St. Clair when talking about the wider family because that was the spelling found in the oldest known surviving documents. That or "Saint Clair."

The books I mention above are fun to read. You can find them and many others at the Sources page on our Sinclair DNA website. 

A group is currently putting together what I’m sure will become the definitive books on the real history of the Saint Clairs in Normandy, England, and Scotland. If you watch our websites, you’ll learn more when it comes out.

1. We St. Clairs, Sincelers, Sinclairs (etc.) are all descended from the Viking Rollo (Rhalf Granger), who invaded Normandy in 911. He was from Norway, so that makes us of Viking descent.
2. We are supposed cousins of William the Conqueror, relating to his ancestor Richard I of France.
3. We had at least 1 ancestor who crossed the English Channel in 1066 as a knight with William the Conqueror to defeat the English army at the Battle of Hastings.
4. We supposedly have an ancestor, William 'The Seemly' Sinclair, who went to Scotland instead and later fought against William the Conqueror.
5.  Our ancestors in both England and Scotland did well with the various kings and acquired lands and titles.
6. In 1307, when King Philip 'the Fair' decided to take the land of the Knights Templar and rounded them up to burn them, some got word early and fled to Scotland, to Rosslyn in particular.
7. The Sinclair family were closely involved in the order of the Knights Templar.
8. These Templars supposedly had a great treasure which may have included either the Holy Grail or, according to Dan Brown, documents which can prove a supposed bloodline of a union of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdeline. The movie seems to indicate that they may have moved the body of Mary itself. Others think they moved the actual head of Jesus.
9. All this was supposedly buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel, 7 miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland.
10. William St. Clair, who directed the building of Rosslyn Chapel near his castle in 1446, built secret symbols into it as clues about the treasure.
11. William's grandfather, Prince Henry Sinclair of northern Scotland, supposedly travelled with some of the treasure years earlier (1398) to keep it from the Catholic Inquisition. How the timing on this works out and why there was something left behind to be buried at Rosslyn 48 years later has never been adequately explained to me.

The history of the Saint Clairs is much more complex than those who wrote the books about us could have possibly have known. Because we have the family DNA study, we've got some unique data which those who wrote the old books about us didn't have. Here's what we've learned since 2004, when we began the DNA study -

There are 12 distinct branches of our family (so far), and likely will be more when we get additional participation from England and France (which we hope to do over the next 2 years).

Now, in light of DNA research, a more factual version of our Sinclair / St. Clair history -

1. Hundreds of families think they descend from Rollo, William the Conqueror and that bunch.  People with completely different DNA haplogroups who don’t share a common ancestor for 35,000 years still think they share an ancestor who lived in 911 AD.  At least 3 or 4 of our branches were likely in Normandy during the time frame to make parts of the "mythical" story true. We know this based on their DNA SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms). Those can be traced and pinned loosely to a general geographic location during a general time frame. The other cool thing about SNPs is that other families who have matching ones can help us determine our history. If we have a Sinclair participant who matches, for instance, the Kincaid surname in a SNP study, then we can get an idea of when they match and the rough geography where they might share a common ancestor. This is important because, imagine we match a surname who had close ties with Rollo. Then we might be able to make some reasonable guesses.  The problem is no one knows for sure where Rollo came from. There are arguments that he’s from Scandinavia, and others that he’s from Denmark. One company called Explico claims to be getting permission to DNA test the ancient bones of Rollo’s grandchildren. Rollo’s bones are missing. That would help. A lot of these stories about being related to Rollo, the Templar Knights, etc. were invented in the 1700s and 1800s by supposed researchers who were selling phony genealogies to rich Scottish earls. Are we descended from Rollo? Hopefully, time will tell. Personally, I very much doubt it. Most researchers would tell you that true Norse DNA is either R1a (M420) or I (M253). But time, further testing, and good research may eventually lead to an answer.
2. Are we related to William the Conqueror. Like the lengthy answer above, time will tell. Right now, no one in our family can honestly make such a claim.
3. Were members of the Saint Clair family at the Battle of Hastings? Very likely. But even this is sketchy. The reason I say this is a lack of first-hand evidence. Many people might have benefited from forging the information to be found on ancient documents that were eventually copied into the Battle Abbey Roll or the Auchinleck Manuscript Roll, a similar document. Some researchers say the Battle Abbey Roll was a list of family names present at Hastings rather than a list of specific individuals. See the this Wikipedia page for an overview -
4. While our cherished family stories tell of a William “The Seemly” Sinclair, there is zero documentary evidence that he ever existed. The name was almost certainly invented to bridge a gap in a very sloppy genealogy by the genealogists mentioned above so they could get a quick profit from an unsuspecting Scottish earl.
5. This is true. Our ancestors in England and Scotland did quite well. They became important landowners. They witnessed important charters and documents (see the Declaration of Arbroath). And they would have been privy to conversations with important people of their time.
6. The “rounding up” of the Knights Templars as portrayed in The Da Vinci Code is over-simplified In fact, it took months, even years, before all European countries imprisoned Templars. And the trials took place much later. My advice is to read - Barbara Frale, “The Templars, The Secret History Revealed” - Sharan Newman, “The Real History Behind the Templars” - Stephen Howarth “The Knights Templar”
7. The Sinclair / St. Clair family cannot yet be proven to have had anything whatsoever to do with the Knights Templar. I’ve spent months looking through any available trial records to get to the bottom of this. While I’m certainly not done, so far I don’t see our surname in any records. To join the Templar Order, a man had to give up all his land and worldly possessions. The Saint Clair family being important in England and Scotland, I highly doubt they thought to give all that up.  But even without giving up their property, they could have donated lands to the order. Many other families did. After extensively digging, I’ve still found zero evidence our family made any donations whatsoever to the Templars. 
8. The Great Treasure of the Templars – There’s actually no proof of a treasure, nor a fleet of Templar ships sneaking it out of Europe to Scotland. Zero actual proof. 
9. Is that treasure now buried beneath Rosslyn Chapel?  Zero proof. 
10. While Rosslyn has unusual symbols for a chapel, they’re probably not pointing to a treasure. For instance, there are many carvings of the “Green Man” in Rosslyn. This is not unique in European churches. See this Wikipedia page for a quick overview. A favorite of grail hunters is the carving of what is supposedly two men riding on a horse in Rosslyn. This is supposed to represent the Templar symbol of being a poor knight and sharing a horse. Only one problem: It’s one man riding a horse and one standing behind the flank of it. You can study a photo I took of it above. This is from a cast made by Rosslyn Chapel. 
11. The story of Prince Henry Sinclair had become more an more popular in recent years. Unfortunately, despite some interesting circumstantial evidence, there is zero physical evidence. 

Thanks for the note. I hope this wasn’t too much reading. 

Please keep up with the DNA study at our blogs, website and social media. 

Steve St. Clair

Sinclair DNA Data Combining

By Steve St Clair

Data can come from many areas. One of the keys to getting more from your participation in the Sinclair DNA study is to be open to where you get new information.

Study the names in your STR matches, and especially your SNP matches. (The SNP matches are irrefutable.) If you're a student of medieval history, you might recognize some of them from their time in England or when they first got into Scotland.

Keep in mind, the time you share a common ancestor with them might be before the time that surnames became fixed. In my own SNP matches, a researcher found a name that came north into Scotland and received land in Scotland from the de Morville family. He thinks they changed their name to the new land they were living on. If you didn't know this, you'd think they were one of the traditional Highland families. This is throwing off many of the researchers in my SNP.

Think those Irish names in your Sinclair DNA matches originated in Ireland and are proof you're pictish? Check them carefully and read the books on ancient history. You might find out they got to Ireland right after the Norman Conquest of England.
The video above has two different ways of combining DNA name-matches with historical research.

1. Using FTDNA's Family Finder's name matches, then going in to look for mentions in Google Books.
2. Using SNP matches, then looking into good medieval records online.

 The key is to keep digging.

Another Way St Clair DNA Got to Scotland

By Steve St Clair

I had this information sitting in a large pile of research notes I sift through again and again looking for new inspiration. You have to appreciate the source to fully understand why I'm so blown away by it.

The Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies was founded by R. Allen Brown in 1978. It takes place annually and accepts only papers of the highest standard. It was described by Frank Barlow in 1999 as 'a golden treasury with a steadily expanding scope.' The research in these annual volumes has inspired my research for years.


The particular paper that just jumped out at me again is -
Barrow, G.W.S., "Companions of the Atheling" a paper presented to Anglo-Norman Studies, Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2002, Volume 25," edited by John Gillingham, The Boydell Press, 2003  ISBN 0 85115 941 9

Wikipedia says, "Geoffrey Wallis Steuart Barrow DLitt FBA, FRSE, Honorary FSA Scot, is a British historian and academic. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh, and arguably the most prominent Scottish medievalist of the last century." I wholeheartedly agree.

In this paper, Barrow agrees with Boece, who credits Malcolm Ceannmor with bringing in a group of outsiders who opposed William the Conqueror. William proscribed all those he judged to be friends of Edgar the Atheling, who fled to Scotland, where they were welcomed and given land. Their surnames were: Lindsay, Vaux, Ramsay, Lovel, Touris, Prestoun, Sandelandis, Bisset, Sulis, Wardlaw, Maxol (Maxwell) and many others unspecified.

Boece says many others came from Hungary - Crichton, Fotheringham, Giffard, Maule, Borthwick. "There were also, surely much more convincingly, families from France: Fraser, Sinclair, Boswell, Mowat, Montgomery, Campbell, Boyce, Betoun, Tallefer, and Bothwell."

Wikipedia has this on Hector Boece "(also spelled Boyce or Boise; 1465–1536), known in Latin as Hector Boecius or Boethius, was a Scottish philosopher and first Principal of King's College in Aberdeen, a predecessor of the University of Aberdeen."  He lectured on medicine and divinity. In 1527 he published his "Historia Gentis Scotorum."

For more on the Battle Conference, Click Here.

Different surnames. Same blood.

By Steve St Clair

[post updated and corrected 11/4/12 based on information from David Vance. Thanks David] 

If you're following this blog, you'll notice that I'm obsessed in tracking down particular medieval families who changed their second names. I don't even call them "surnames" because of their fluid use of land-based names.

Here's another case:  Dalston = Vaux

Richard Ferguson (p. 286) has Robert, Baron of Dalston as the brother of Hubert de Vallibus (the Latinized spelling of Vaux).

The Dalston Barony was granted by Ranulph de Meschines to Robert, brother of Hubert de Vallibus, Baron of Gilsland.

reference url

That Hubert was the Baron of Gilsland, grandson of the founder of Pentney Priory.

Hubert and John de Vaux had come north at the invitation of David I.

Many older books state that they were brothers, but there's no primary evidence of this.

Hubert received Gilsland from Henry II.  John received Dirlton in East Lothian, Scotland, on which he later built Dirlton Castle, about 13 miles north of the Morville family seat of Saltoun Castle.  The Morvilles were giving gifts to Lanercost Priory, witnessed by the Maitland family, among others.

The descendants of Hubert's brother John patronized Dryburgh Abbey.

Hubert's son Robert founded Lanercost Priory beside Hadrian's Wall in 1169.

My current obsession with Dalston started after seeing the spelling Dalton in the STR matches of a particular lineage in our Sinclair DNA study, and them bumping into the connection in the records pointing to a blood relationship with the de Vaux family and the Morvilles.


Sources -

Ferguson, Richard Saul, "Cumberland and Westmorland M. P.'s from the restoration to the Reform Bill of 1867, (1660-1867.)" C. Thurnam and Sons, 1871

Website - 1066, Medieval Mosaic - http://www.1066.co.nz/library/battle_abbey_roll1/subchap180.htm

Guidebook to Dirleton Castle, which I picked up at the castle in October, 2012. Published by Historic Scotland.

Barry, T.B., "COLONY & FRONTIER IN MEDIEVAL IRELAND: Essays Presented to J.F.Lydon" Continuum International Publishing Group, Nov 1, 2003

Redver, Moreville, and St Clair Connections

By Steve St Clair

Shown above is a 19th century print of the ruins of Montebourg Abbey in the diocese of Coutances, Normandy.

Richard de Redvers was buried at Montebourg in 1107. Lewis C. Loyd had the Moreville family holding land of Reviers (Redvers) in England after the conquest.  Many researchers believe the Saint Clairs of England came north to Scotland with Hugh de Moreville. He later granted them lands which became their Hermanstoune holdings.

William de Moreville" donated property to Montebourg abbey, for the souls of "his wife Mathildis and his son Eudo. Son Eudo confirmed it in 1174. Roger de Stuteville (Stotvilla) witnessed Eudo's confirmation. The Stuteville name is quite interesting in our history. A Helwis (Heloise) de Stuteville was married to a Hugh de Moreville. There was more than one Hugh de Moreville.  The one who married Stuteville was the Forester of Cumberland.

Robert de Vaux and Roger de Stuteville were Sheriffs of Cumberland and Northumberland, 1170 - 1185. Their families were, at one time, both prominent. They worked together in silver mining and minting.

William d'Aubigny (Albini), the Earl of Arundel, granted lands to Montegourg Abbey. He also gave to Thetford Priory, as did the de Vaux, Warenne, Haga (Haig), Malet, Bigot, and Longespee (Earl of Salisbury).

In 1175, Gilbert de Hunfrancvilla (Umfranville) gave his chapel of Douna to Montebourg Abbey for the well-being of his soul and those of his family living and dead. Among the witnesses was Philippo le Ver (Vaux).


Sources -
Loyd, Lewis C., “Origins of Some Anglo-Norman Families,” edited posthumously by Charles

Anonymous, “Calendar of Documents Preserved in France: Illustrative of the History of Great Britain and Ireland. A.D. 918-1206, Volume 1,” Edited by J. Horrace Round, M.A., Printed for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office by Kyrk and Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty. 1899


Lyttelton, George, "The History Of The Life of King Henry the Second, And of the Age in which He Lived…" printed by Sandby and Dodsley, 1767

Doherty, Hugh, "Robert de Vaux and Roger de Stuteville, Sheriffs of Cumberland and and Northumberland, 1170 - 1185." A paper for the Battle Conference 2005. Printed in "Anglo-Norman Studies XXVIII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 2005" edited by Christopher Piers Lewis

R1b in St Clair, Sinclair DNA

By Steve St Clair

The Sinclair DNA study has 12 distinct lineages. Some of these lineages have many different surnames in their DNA matches. Others will find that they have almost none outside of our family.

Early on in the recent history of DNA, we were told the reason for all of these name matches was:

1. The fact that we are part of the R1b haplogroup

2. The R1b haplogroup were successful breeders since the last Ice Age. 

But this theory became suspect when some of our R1B members had almost zero name matches, and others had nearly 1000. The question of why some people have so many name matches has never really been resolved by Family Tree DNA, or other groups on the Internet. And then there's the question of the surnames among the name matches.

Today I'm going to propose a new theory, based on research underway in the Sinclair DNA study.

Some of our Sinclair DNA name matches show nearly 1000 different surnames. Setting aside the standard reasons that this might be the case, what other reasons might account for having so many name matches?  I offer the theory that perhaps we have an ancient ancestor who was very active, siring many children. The candidate that comes to mind is Charlemagne.

Derek Wilson's biography "Charlemagne" indicated that the man had 20 children, some legitimate and some illegitimate. Sir Francis Palgrave indicated that Charlemagne had seven sons who reached maturity.

History.com suggests that Charlemagne had up to 18 children. Those would be the documented and prove-able ones. 

Other researchers have suggested he had 4 or 5 wives and 5 concubines. Click here >

Beryl Platts, a researcher whom I quote often in the Sinclair DNA study, has suggested that many of the Flemish of Scotland are direct mail descendants of Charlemagne. If you  study the counts of Boulogne, you will see that they have descendants who have surnames like Graham, Lindsey, Oliphant, Seaton, Stewart, Montgomerie, Hay, Umfraville, Douglas, Crawfurd, etc. These are the surnames Platts focused on in her research of the heraldry of Flanders. These are also surnames that show up in many of the Sinclair DNA study's L21 SNP participants' name matches.

Charlemange (Charles the Great) was born about 742 AD and died in January 814. He was the son of Pepin "the Short" and the grandson of Charles Martel, famous for winning the Battle of Poitiers against the Umayyad Caliphate.

No one can yet prove the DNA of such people. 

Other Reading

Great writeup on the Rutherford website

Flemish Migrations

The Flemish Influence in Scotland, by Annette Hardie-Stoffelen

Sinclair DNA Friends

By Steve St Clair

The link to the letter you'll see below points to a website maintained by our Clan Sinclair U.S. Commissioner, Mel Sinclair. Mel got into the DNA study early and has kept up with it ever since, taking any new SNP tests that might add value for the rest of the family.

 I should point out, our DNA study is not a part of the Clan Sinclair organization, but many of our clan have taken the test and, as you can see from this letter, we get a great deal of support and advice from our clan leadership. Mel, in particular, has been very helpful over the years.

 A lot has changed since this letter from my partner Stan St. Clair was posted:

•  We're now recommending 67-markers with 37-markers the lowest we recommend. 
• That link to our UK website doesn't work any more because the participation there has been relatively low and it was expensive to maintain.
• We're very focused now on SNP studies.

And several things haven't changed:

• Stan St Clair remains a great partner. 
• Mel Sinclair remains a wonderful resource. 
• And the family continues to benefit from participation in our Sinclair DNA study. 

 Click here to review the letter about the Sinclair DNA study on Mel's website.