William Sinclair, 5th Lord Sinclair

William Sinclair (died 1570) was a Scottish nobleman and the 5th Lord Sinclair. In The Scots Peerage by James Balfour Paul he is designated as the 4th Lord Sinclair in descent starting from William Sinclair, 1st Earl of Caithness and 3rd Earl of Orkney, but historian Roland Saint-Clair designates him as the 5th Lord Sinclair in descent from the father of the 1st Earl of Caithness and 3rd Earl of Orkney, Henry II Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, who is the first person recorded as Lord Sinclair in public records.

Early life

He was the son of Henry Sinclair, 4th Lord Sinclair and Margaret, daughter of Adam Hepburn, Master of Hailes and sister of Patrick Hepburn, 1st Earl of Bothwell. Upon the death of his father in 1513, his mother Dame Margaret Hepburn held the Crown lands of Orkney for nearly thirty years without disturbance or interruption. Her husband, the 4th Lord, had in about 1489, been appointed one of the commissioners to collect the King's rents in Orkney and Shetland and in 1501 had taken a step towards regaining the Isles by obtaining a lease of the earldom for nineteen years. In 1514, it is recorded that the 4th Lord, then deceased, had sold to James IV of Scotland eight pieces of artillery for £100 to be paid to his widow.

Royal relations

In 1543, the Queen Dowager instituted a suite against Oliver Sinclair of Pitcairns and William Sinclair, 5th Lord Sinclair protested that he should not be connected with what Oliver Sinclair had done. Magnus Sinclair, of Kinninmonth, who according to The Scots Peerage was born from the 5th Lord Sinclair's second marriage to Mariota Bruce. Margaret Sinclair.