This series of family history articles by Ian C. Sinclair
was originally written for Girnigoe magazine.
Ian C. Sinclair
is a retired solicitor who specialized in water and
environmental law; he now runs Sinclair Consultancy Services.
He and his wife Janet live in Solihull, in the West Midlands,
England, but travel extensively — click here for details.
(Photo: William Penny)
Sinclairs of South London
In the late 1800s, there was a major change in the lives of this branch of the Sinclair family as they moved from Scotland to England. The scene moves from Glasgow to London in 1888. For it was in that year that Andrew Sinclair, the son of Andrew and Matilda Sinclair, moved with his wife, Elizabeth Sinclair, and the first of their children, Charlotte Rickets Sinclair, to London.
The children of the marriage of Andrew Sinclair and his cousin
Elizabeth Sinclair were:
- Charlotte Rickets Sinclair, 26 July 1886 in Glasgow, to 1966. At
15 March 1951, she was unmarried, and living at 35 Aldebert Terrace, South Lambeth, London SW8. She was always known as "Lottie".
- Matilda, born 1889 in Camberwell, married and died 1928, after
giving birth to Edwina (who also died, aged 6 weeks).
- Elizabeth Roberta Sinclair, 21 February 1891 in Camberwell
to 12 June 1970, known as "Berta". She married
Henry Johnson (born 1879) on 21 August 1915, when living
at 63 Tulsemere Road, West Norwood.
- Warrender, always known as "Warren", born in Camberwell, drowned in the River Thames in 1919. The name Warrender is a reference
back to Warrender Reid, the father of Mrs Matilda Sinclair,
his father’s mother’s father, who was a seaman of Leith.
- Robert Sinclair, born in 1897 in Camberwell and died in the
First World War, on 19 July 1916.
- Andrew Sinclair, always known as "Don" or more formally
as "Donald", 21 June 1902 in Camberwell to Jan 1967 (for
family, see later).
We know that Andrew and Elizabeth Sinclair were living at
17 Bromar Road, London SE 5, on 29 March. 1891,
as that appears on Berta’s baptismal certificate.
In the 1901 Census, 17 Bromar Road was then in the Civil Parish
of Camberwell, the Ecclestical Parish of St Saviour's, the Municipal Borough of Camberwell, the Parliamentary Borough of Dulwich
and the Ward of Municipal Borough of Lyndhurst. The family is listed
as follows:
- Andrew Sinclair, head, married, aged 41, Manufacturer's Managers Printer, worker, born in Glasgow, Scotland;
- Elizabeth Sinclair, wife, married, age 39 (mistakenly stated to have
been born in Glasgow);
- Charlotte Sinclair, daughter, single, aged 14, born in Glasgow;
- Matilda Sinclair, daughter, single, aged 13, born in Camberwell, London;
- Elizabeth Sinclair, daughter, aged 10, born in Camberwell;
- Warrender Sinclair, son, aged 6, born in Camberwell, London;
- Robert Sinclair, son, aged 4, born in Camberwell [born between
October and December, 1896].
The 1901 Census shows that the father and mother, Robert and
Charlotte Bruce Sinclair, and brothers and sister of Elizabeth had
by that time moved from Kelso, Scotland to live at 7 Gateley Road,
Stockwell, Brixton, London SW9. This house is only a mile or so down-hill from 17 Bromar Road, Dulwich, Camberwell, where Elizabeth
and Andrew and their family were then living. There is no similar entry
for that address in the 1891 census, so we can establish that the move
to London was in the ten year period between 1891 and 1901, but we do
not yet know the sequence and who came first.
The 1901 Census shows that the family living at 7 Gateley Road were:
- Robert Sinclair, aged 71, living on his own means;
- Charlotte, aged 65;
- son Robert, aged 34, Printer-compositor;
- son Andrew, aged 32, Baker and confectioner;
- son John, aged 30, Journeyman baker – bread man;
- son Charles E.P., aged 28, "civil engineer" [clerk];
- son Alexander, aged 26, "gas engineer" [clerk];
- daughter Charlotte (aged 24)
The move from Scotland must have been an ordeal for all of them.
It was a major upheaval for the whole of the family to move from
Kelso to south London. It was probably caused by the need for the
family to find work. This is strengthened by the fact that
both Andrew and his cousin Robert were in the printing
trade.
What probably happened was that Andrew moved first, found a job,
and then encouraged his cousin Robert to join him in their same trade.
That this move was successful was that, as shown by the 1901 census
for 7 Gateley Road, all the male members of the family were
in employment. The fact that Andrew and Elizabeth were already there
must have been the reason, and they would provided a base from which
to search for a suitable house and also a link between the old and
the new.
Nevertheless, the situation must have been quite desperate for
all the family to have moved some 400 miles south, and so leaving
all that was familiar to them.
The change from living in a small Scottish border town to the
strange, heavily populated south London must have taken them years
to accept and for them to acclimatise.
By 21 August 1915, the family of Andrew and Elizabeth Sinclair
was living at 63 Tulsemere Road, West Norwood, as that address
appears on the marriage certificate of their daughter, Elizabeth Roberta
to Henry Johnson. Andrew Sinclair was described as a "printer machine minder".
After some 20 years of marriage, and after producing six children,
sadly the marriage of Andrew and Elizabeth floundered and the couple separated. Andrew Sinclair took up lodgings at 60 Milton Road,
Herne Hill, London, where he is recorded as living on 13 October,
1922. It is believed he died in 1928.
Elizabeth and the children – the eldest of whom was now
nearly 30 years old – moved to 8 Harborough Road, Streatham,
London SW16. The reason for the break-down of the marriage may well
have been the stress of living and working in London, and also
of the First World War which caused the death of their son, Robert.
Private Robert Sinclair was killed in action on Wednesday, 19 May 1916 whilst serving with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
(2/1st Bucks Battalion, Theatre of War: France and Flanders) in France
and he is "Remembered with Honour" on the Loos Memorial
of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Elizabeth outlived her husband Andrew and died on 12 March 1937.
It was good to see that at the wedding of her niece, Jean Charlotte Sinclair, only daughter of her brother Charles Purves Sinclair, on
a Saturday in 1932 at Bushey Parish Church, Herts, she was among the
200 or so guests. She is mentioned in the press report of the wedding
as "among the guests present were ... Mrs Andrew Sinclair (aunt
of the bride)", and also "Miss Sinclair".
Of the six children of Andrew and Elizabeth, Charlotte Rickets
Sinclair died in 1966, Matilda died in childbirth in 1928,
Elizabeth Roberta died in 1970, Warrender died in 1919,
Robert was killed in action in 1916, while the youngest, Andrew
(known as Don) died in 1967.
The only one of the children of Andrew and Elizabeth Sinclair
who produced children seems to have been Andrew, who was born 21 June
1902, died January 1967. He was known as Don presumably to differentiate
him from his father, Andrew. In 1921, Don married Anne Caterina Allen
(8 November 1901 to 1970), and they had 6 children:
- Stewart John Sinclair, born 15 May 1925
- Jean Barbara Allen Sinclair, born 30 May 1926
- Kenneth Robert Sinclair, born 8 October 1928
- Fay Charmaine Elizabeth Sinclair, born 8 June 1937
- Daphne Elaine Rene Sinclair, born 7 November 1939
- Alan Duncan Sinclair, born 4 October 1941
It was Alan Duncan Sinclair who would carry on the Sinclair
name as he has two children, a son and a daughter. Alan Duncan
Sinclair is the Transport Manager for Brent Council and lives
in Wormley, Witley, Surrey.
This section of the Sinclair story is evidence of the migration
of members of the Sinclair family in the second half of the 19th
Century to London, in search of a better life and a paying job.
It illustrates many aspects that are common to many families that
have their roots in Scotland.
One pattern is in the Christian names given to the children.
We see the great desire to pass on names from father to son —
in one case, three generations of Andrew, without a second Christian
name to distinguish them, although in the third generation one Andrew becomes known as Don. Similarly, other Christian names are handed down
from one generation to another in the female line – names like
Matilda and Charlotte. But it is in the 20th century that the new
modern pattern of drawing from a far wider range of names becomes
the practice.
Another theme, common in many emigrant families all over the world,
is how "to get on, you must go away". And that is why there
are millions more people of Scots descent who live away from Scotland — in England, and in many other parts of the former British Empire.
It is the desire to know about one’s roots and heritage that causes people like me, and no doubt you, my reader, to enquire into the past,
and one hopes to learn from it, and be grateful for the many blessings
which we enjoy to-day, which were not available to those who went before
us.
Ian C. Sinclair
ianc@clansinclaircanada.ca
The information on the family of Andrew and Elizabeth Sinclair
was kindly supplied by Alan Duncan Sinclair, during a visit
to his house on Tuesday, 11 June 2002.
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