| The earliest Findlater on
record is Galfridius (or Geoffrey) de Fynlater. He was the hereditary
sheriff of Banff and is recorded as holding an inquest in 1342. His
daughter married Richard Sinclair, a younger son of Roslyn, in 1366. She
resigned the lands into the hands of the king and they were regranted to
"Ricardus de Sancto Claro and his wife Joanna de Fynletyr." In
1381 Robert II granted Sir John Sinclair the Grieveship of Cullen. In 1391
Johannes de Sancto Claro de Deskford and Ricardus de Fynletter were put to
the horn, or outlawed, possibly in connection with the burning of Elgin
Cathedral in 1390 by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, son of King Robert
II, who was known as the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’. The lands of
Findlater passed by marriage from the Sinclair family to a branch of the
Ogilvies, descendants of the Mormaers of Angus. |
