MacLean, Sinclair family fonds

[ca. 1768], 1815-1973, predominant 1833-1939

1.5 m textual records

Gaelic poet and shoemaker, John MacLean (1787-1848), emigrated from Scotland to Pictou, N.S. in 1819. He settled at Barneys River, Pictou Co. and later Glen Bard, Antigonish Co. where he farmed and composed poetry and hymns. MacLean and his wife Isabella (Black), married in 1808, and had six children: Christy, Charles, Archibald, born in Scotland, and John, Allan, and Elizabeth, born in Nova Scotia.‚Alexander MacLean Sinclair (1840-1924) and his son D.M. Sinclair (1899-1988), both clergymen for the Presbyterian church in Nova Scotia and P.E.I., were also recognized Gaelic scholars and authors of numerous books and articles on Gaelic studies and theology. A. MacLean Sinclair was the son of John Sinclair and Christy MacLean, and grandson of the Gaelic poet John MacLean of Barneys River and Glen Bard, N.S. The Gaelic literature manuscripts and account book kept by John MacLean in Scotland and Nova Scotia were inherited by A. MacLean Sinclair, who had most of the manuscripts bound between 1903 and 1905. The material was then inherited by his son, George MacLean Sinclair of Hopewell, N.S. and donated to the archives through his estate in 1953. A. MacLean Sinclair's youngest son, D.M. Sinclair, donated additional material between 1966 and 1987. Scrapbooks were received from Rev. Dr. C.M. Sinclair, Halifax, in 1987.

Fonds consists of eight scrapbooks, correspondence, and other records created, accumulated, and used by three generations of the MacLean and Sinclair families, including John MacLean, his grandson Rev. Dr. A. MacLean Sinclair and great-grandson, Rev. Dr. D.M. Sinclair. Scrapbooks were compiled by A. MacLean Sinclair and son D.M. Sinclair, late1800s-1973, and contain newspaper clippings and articles relating to history and events in Scotland and Pictou County, articles written by both Sinclairs, obituaries of clergy and early settlers, genealogical notes and charts, Gaelic poems, and ephemera. Correspondence primarily consists of letters written to A. MacLean Sinclair concerning genealogy and writing activities, 1866-1906, although some letters contain personal and community news and parish affairs. The fonds also includes sixteen bound volumes, ca. 1768, 1815-1891, containing Gaelic poems, songs, hymns, psalms, historical sketches and grammar, most of which were accumulated by John MacLean in Scotland and Nova Scotia. Aside from MacLean's poems and hymns, there are several volumes of writings or translations by Dr. Hector MacLean of Mull, Scotland, Rev. Duncan Blair Black and Rev. James MacGregor of Pictou Co., and one volume by Dr. MacKintosh MacKay including an essay on the "Loss of Gaelic". All of John MacLean's poems together with the poems in Dr. Hector MacLean's manuscript given to him in 1818, and others, were later published by A. MacLean Sinclair. Other records included in the fonds are an account book kept by John MacLean, ca. 1815-1854, assorted poems and songs, financial statements, newspaper clippings and articles, notes, printed material, a few letters and other items relating to family members Christy MacLean Sinclair and Isabella Black MacLean, the Clan MacLean Association, and a minute book of the Strathbeg Reading Society, 1866-1869.

Notes:

Formerly known as the Alexander MacLean Sinclair collection.

A small number of John MacLean's poems and hymns were published in 1818, 1835, and 1856. All of his compositions in the manuscript volumes, as well as those of Hector MacLean and James MacGregor, were later edited and published in A. MacLean Sinclair's first collection of Gaelic poetry which appeared in 1880 (second edition 1928).

Material in English and Gaelic.

Microfilm copy of Gaelic literature volumes (MG 15) available.

File list and index to scrapbooks available. English index to the volumes of Gaelic literature prepared by D.M. Sinclair also available.
File list available.

Correspondence and other material relating to A. MacLean Sinclair is held at the National Library of Scotland. Angus L. Macdonald Library, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, holds the extensive library collection of A. Maclean and D.M. Sinclair.

Books and other published material donated by D.M. Sinclair are found in the NSARM Library and on microfilm.

Access Points:

MacLean (family) Sinclair (family)

MacLean, John, 1787-1848 Sinclair, A. MacLean, 1840-1924 Sinclair, D.M., 1899-1988 Blair, D.B., 1815-1893 MacLean, Hector, d. ca. 1785 MacGregor, James, 1759-1830

Retrieval Code:
MG 1, vol. 2660; MG 9, vol. 538-45; MG 15, series G vol. 22-24 (use reel 15, 112)