Back to The MacIntoshes of Black River.
Notes passed down through Duncan MacIntosh's daughter indicate that Duncan's maternal grandfather was Laughlin Sinclair "of Oban of Lorne", Scotland, and maternal grandmother was Selina Cameron of Glencoe. Other notes in the same collection indicate that he had the following six children:
The documentary facts are these:
One theory consistent with all the presumed facts is the following:
Laughlin Sinclair, born in Oban, moves to Glenelg and marries Selina Cameron. There she bears him two children, Elisabeth in 1830 and Angus in 1832. In 1835 he sets out for New Brunswick in search of better economics. Having found work in Campbellton, he sends for his family who arrive in 1838. Selina bears him another son, Archibald, in 1840, and twins Isabella and Donald in 1841. She dies, perhaps bearing the twins.
Laughlin very shortly marries Sarah Campbell. She also bears him twins, but one twin does not survive long enough to be named. The other, Alexander, survives. Sarah herself then dies in the summer of 1843, leaving Laughlin twice widowed and now caring for six children (Elisabeth, Angus, Archibald, Isabella, Donald, Alexander). At the time of the 1851 census, Donald is away -- fostered somewhere? The census taker for some reason gets the ages of the two eldest children too young by two years, and mistakenly writes "Annabella" for "Isabella".
By the time of the 1861 census, Laughlin has passed away. Angus is listed as the head of the household, and his siblings Elisabeth, Isabella, Donald and Alexander live there also. Archibald is absent in 1861 -- dead, or away?
Of course many other theories would also be consistent with the documentation available, just from choosing different resolutions of the apparent errors in dates and names.
In any case, Laughlin's son Angus was a lumberman who worked in Maine, Quebec, and New Brunswick. He married Mary Jardine around 1862. They had numerous children, including Robert Laughlin Sinclair who married Annie MacLelland daughter of Flora MacIntosh and Robert MacLelland of Galloway.
Laughlin's daughter Isabella married Archibald MacIntosh and also had numerous children.
The fates of Laughlin's other four (or five?) children remain an open question. I have an unsourced note that the eldest daughter Elisabeth married John Dempster and had at least one son (William), but I have not had leisure to pursue this branch yet.
Betsy daughter of Lachlan Sinclair [of] Bernera and Slan Cameron his wife born Sept. 1830 & was baptized.
Angus son of said couple born 26 Dec. 1832 & was baptized.
The wife's name is an interesting problem: "Selina"? "Slan"? Both rare and unusual. I stumbled across a birth record for a Slainte Cameron in the Glenelg parish register in 1805 which may be yet another variation on the name, but I'm still researching this.
1The Old Parish Registers have been indexed by the Latter Day Saints as part of the International Genealogical Index (IGI). The IGI is searchable online at www.familysearch.org. The Glenelg registers (1792-1854) from which these data are taken are on LDS microfilm 0990665.
Restigouche Co., New Brunswick. Page 29.
| Name | Sex | Relationship | Age | Race | Rank or Occupation |
Date of entering the Colony |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laughlin Sinclair | M | Father, widower | 49 | Scotch | Shoemaker & farmer | 1835 |
| Elisabeth Sinclair | F | Daughter | 19 | " | -- | 1838 |
| Angus Sinclair | M | Son | 17 | " | -- | " |
| Archibald Sinclair | M | " | 11 | " | at School | birth |
| Annabella Sinclair | F | Daughter | 9 | " | " | birth |
| Alexander Sinclair | M | " [sic] | 7 | " | " | birth |
Restigouche Co., New Brunswick.
| # | Name | Sex | Relationship | Age | Race | Rank or Occupation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 277 | Angus Sinclair | M | Head | 27 | Scotch | Master Lumberer |
| 278 | Elisabeth " | F | sister | 29 | " | Housekeeper |
| 279 | Isabella " | F | sister | 20 | Native | Seamstress |
| 280 | Donald " | M | brother | 20 | " | lumberer |
| 281 | Alexander " | M | " | 18 | " | General labourer |
Is there any evidence regarding where and to whom Laughlin was born?
The IGI (International Genealogical Index) indexes most of the Scottish parish records of the era -- such as they exist. I can find two entries which appear pertinent:
1. A "Lachlane" son of William Sinclair and Janet MacLeod, christened 24 October 1802 in Glenmoriston parish. Glenmoriston (or Glenmorrison) lies north of Loch Ness along the road that runs from Glenelg up to Inverness.
2. A Lachlan, son of Duncan Sinclair and Christian McCallum, born 11 December 1797, christened 14 December in Oban, parish of Kilmore & Kilbride, Argyllshire.
So we have one Lachlan born in Glenmoriston in 1802, in good agreement with the age he gave in 1851 (49 yrs). We have another born five years earlier, but in Oban in agreement with my family's internal history. And there are quite likely other Lachlan Sinclairs born in this period who do not appear in the records. The Glenelg register, for instance, is virtually silent before 1805, so if Lachlan were born there in 1802 he likely would not appear. The upshot of all this is that I don't know where Laughlin was born, nor when nor to whom.
However, there is one more coincidence which I discovered in the Scottish records which teases me. There is a Duncan Sinclair, shoemaker, who had three children baptized in Bernera, Glenelg parish, between 1807 and 1815. The most entertaining hypothesis this suggests (though by no means the most plausible) is the following:
Duncan Sinclair, a shoemaker in Oban, marries Christine McCallum about 1794. She bears him a daughter Elizabeth in 1795, and a son Lachlan in 1797. They decamp to Bernera where at least three more children are born (Christy, 1807, Donald, 1808, and Annie, 1815). Lachlan takes up his father's trade and carries it to the New World in 1835.
The five children named here are all drawn from actual parish register entries. This Duncan Sinclair only appears in 1795 and 1797 in the Kilmore & Kilbride register (although there is at least one other, earlier, Duncan Sinclair there). And 1807 is the first appearance of a Duncan Sinclair in the Glenelg register, athough as mentioned above the Glenelg register really only shows signs of completeness after about 1805.
Back to The MacIntoshes of Black River.
This page was last updated 2003 April 18.