John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness

John Sinclair (died 1529) was a Scottish nobleman, 3rd Earl of Caithness and chief of the Clan Sinclair, a Scottish clan of the Scottish Highlands.

Early life

He was the son of William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness and Margaret, daughter of Sir Gilbert Keith of Inverugie. His father had been killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

Earl of Caithness

Soon after Flodden, Adam Gordon, Earl of Sutherland and husband of Elizabeth Sutherland, 10th Countess of Sutherland, made overtures to John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness in anticipation of dangers in the North, and they entered into a bond of friendship for mutual alliance and support. This included an exchange of lands.

The Earl of Caithness and Earl of Sutherland later came into continuous opposition with each other and eventually Sutherland brought a case before the Lords of Council and Session to recover his lands. Gavin Dunbar, Bishop of Aberdeen pronounced his decision at Edinburgh on 24 March 1524, and both parties were satisfied and the two Earls lived in peace with each other from then onward. In 1528, the Earl of Caithness was one of those included in James V of Scotland's proposed extirpation of the "Kin of Clanquhattane" (Clan Chattan), although nothings seems to have been done about that troublesome clan.

John Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Caithness was killed in an expedition to Orkney in 1529. His wife was Margaret Calder, heiress of Dun, with whom he had the children: John the heir of Dun, William of Forss, Alexander, Henry, John the Archdeacon of Caithness, George and Donald.