Series 1 > Diary of the Reverend John Mill, minister of the parishes of Dunrossness Sandwick and Cunningsburgh in Shetland, 1740-1803. With selections from local records and original documents relating to the district

INTRODUCTION
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part of the Earldom estate, were made over to Sir David
Sinclair, son of Earl William St. Clair, by his brothers and
sisters, the other sons and daughters of the Earl, by charter
dated at Edinburgh, 3d Dec. 1498.1 Sir David, by his Will,
dated at Tingwall, 9th July 1506, bequeathed all his landed
property in Shetland to Lord Sinclair, from whom the lands
of Sumburgh would appear to have passed to the Crown,
and to have continued as part of the succession to the Earl¬
dom until now finally alienated by Earl Patrick Stewart.
William Bruce of Symbister was a Fifeshire gentleman who
came to Shetland as a connection and assistant of Laurence
Bruce of Cultemalindie after the appointment of the latter in
1571 as Great Foude of Shetland under Lord Robert Stewart.
He eventually retired to his native country, where his tomb
remains in Crail churchyard, leaving his Shetland properties
to his eldest son, and the Fife estate to a son by a second
marriage. His grandson, William Bruce, third of Symbister
and Sumburgh, left Sumburgh to his eldest son, Robert
(1642), and Symbister to the second son, Laurence. The two
families have continued distinct to the present day.
XI.—Discharge by Patrick, Earl of Orkney, to Malcolm
Sinclair of Quendale. 1609.
It has already been mentioned that this Sinclair of Quendale
held at this time a tack of the vicarage of Dunrossness
granted to him by Laurence Sinclair, ‘Vicar and Titular.’
The present deed shows that he also held, in the same
way, various other Church revenues, which are detailed. A
complaint by Mill to the Presbytery of Zetland in 1763
shows that Robert Sinclair of Quendale of that date still
claimed to hold the vicarage of the parish.
1 Charter, printed in Peterkin’s Notes; Edinburgh, 1822.