The Riddell Collection of Wax Seals:
Seal Life Stories: the remarkable careers of 23 individuals from the Riddell Collection of Wax Seals
4: Sir John Sinclair of ulbster, 1st baronet (1754-1835)
Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster (1754-1835)
Born at Thurso Castle in 1754 to George Sinclair, of Ulbster and Lady Janet Sutherland. He studied at The University of Glasgow where he was a pupil of Adam Smith, before becoming a member of the Faculty of Advocates, and was afterwards called to the English bar. Most of his career was spent in politics, being elected member of parliament for the county of Caithness, Lostwithiel and Petersfield between 1780 and 1807.
Sinclair was not an orator and preferred to express himself in writing and publishing. He took an active part in addressing the issues of the day, most notably in 1782. One of the worst famines in memory hit Scotland due to a late summer, starvation among the poorer population reached a critical level. Sinclair successfully negotiated a grant to provide emergency food and other supplies to those in greatest need.
He also wrote on the subjects of national defence, finance, and political economy, but on returning from a lengthy tour of Europe, during which he met many heads of state, his philanthropic interests were entirely focused on societal and agricultural improvement. He had studied German state surveys (from which the word ‘statistics’ is derived), and become inspired with the possibility of measuring and improving the happiness of the population.
By collecting information relating to the economic and social activities and the natural resources of Scotland by means of questionnaires sent to each parish, Sinclair hoped to build an account of ‘the quantum of happiness’ of the communities of Scotland and also be a ‘means of future improvement’.
Sinclair published his pioneering Statistical Account of Scotland between 1791 and 1799 to great acclaim, with two further Accounts being produced in 1832 and 1951. There is also a Fourth Statistical Account of East Lothian. Sinclair’s work represents one of the finest contemporary records of life in Scotland - and indeed of any country - in the late eighteenth century.