Note 224 — PREFACE (continued 2)

Oliver Sinclair of Pitcairns was the third son of Sir Oliver Sinclair of Roslin. He was a favourite of James the Fifth; and Pitscottie says the King placed him as Governor of Temptallon or Tautallon Castle, when the powerful family of the Douglasses were driven into exile.—(Hist. p. 224.) It is more probable it was some years later that he received the command of this stronghold, which is on a cliff overhanging the sea, about two miles to the east of North Berwick. In the Treasurer's Accounts, June 1537, we find £120 "was delivered to Olivere Sinclare, in Cowper, to pay the Kingis gentillmen with." In the following month, £20 was paid "to Olivere inclare, in compleat payment of his lyveray clathis." And on the 6th Oct. 1540, there was "gevin to Olipher Sinclar at the Kingis command, to the warkis of Tamtalloun," £66, 13s. 4d. In November 1541, when the Queen Dowager died at Methven, he and John Tennant, two of the gentlemen of the King's Privy Chamber, were sent to take and lock up all her goods.—(State Papers, vol. v. p. 194.) He was taken prisoner after his shameful defeat at Solway; but obtained his liberty in 1543. Sadler mentions, that when he was about to repair to Tantallon Castle, at the end of that year, as a place of security, under the protection of Sir George Douglas, Sinclair was lying in wait, in a small village near hand, in the hope of seizing him and his retinue.—(Sadler's Papers, vol. i. pp. 220, 329, 333.)