Peter Sinton

     
     Peter Sinton was born say 1752 prob. at ?Bairnkine, Par. of Southdean, ROX, SCT, (from age of eldest known child).
     Peter Sinton married Janet Donaldson, daughter of ?John? Donaldson and ?Janet? UnknownSurname, say 1772 prob. in ?Southdean, ROX, SCT, (from age of eldest known child).¹
     Peter Sinton died cir. Oct 1811 at Bairnkine, Par. of Southdean, ROX, SCT; According to son Peter's death cert, he was still alive in 1866 (!), but given as deceased on dtr Janet's in 1855, NB I've changed the spelling from Bairnkin to that on the modern OS.^1,3 He was buried on 23 Oct 1811 at Abbotrule, Par. of Southdean, ROX, SCT, entry reads: "Peter Sinton cattle dealer Burnkin buried Abbotrule" (the immediately preceding entry was for his grddtr Agnes d/o James Maither of Dykeraw).⁴
     Peter Sinton was also known as Patrick (on the baptism records of sons John and James). It is my assumption that Peter and Patrick Sinton of the same area are one and the same person, especially as James is of about the right age to be the one married to Mgt Wilkie).²
     By 1773 Peter Sinton and Janet Sinton were living at Southdean Mill, Par. of Southdean, ROX, SCT, (bap. of son James).⁵
     I wonder how many more children will eventually be found for Peter and Janet? There are still quite a few gaps in there, eg between Peter and Isabella? This comment being prompted by the discovery of dtr Isabella in Jan 2008, when I received an email from a descendant, Bruce Riddell. Which made Isbaella the 2nd known dtr, and led me to posit that Isabella was the missing name of the first wife of James Snr?
(In Feb 2009 a daughter Margaret was found, and supplanted Isabella as James' first wife's possible name.)
In my review of my Sinton data, I also decided that the Patrick with sons James and John is actually my Peter, so have combined these two people in my database, James being the one married to Margaret Wilkie, and John possibly being the John in Northumberland married to Mary Wilson.⁶
     Peter Sinton was a cattle dealer according to: his own burial record, dtr Janet's and son James' death certs, and later in 1877, on dtr Cecilia's in 1855 presumed to be in ?ROX, SCT.^7,8,9,10 He was a drover according to son Thomas' death cert in 1861 prob. in ?Southdean, ROX, SCT.¹¹
     Given the exciting news (Oct 2008) from the Sinton Surname DNA Project that there is a match between a descendant of John Sinton and Alison Hall, and the descendants of Peter Sinton and Janet Donaldson, I have been rechecking all my Sinton data to see how the families might actually be connected.
Much of the original data was in the form of transcripts of the patchy Southdean and Abbotsrule OPRs received many years ago from Margaret Steele in Canada, a descendant ofJohn Sinton & Margaret Kay, John being believed to be a son of James Sinton & Janet Oliver.
The match is 64 out of 67 markers, so with the same surname and evidence of the families both being in the same small locality on the Borders, there is highly likely to be a close connection.

Anyway, as a result, I have currently surmised that:
- there was only one James, carrier of Abbotrule, in this timeframe, not two
- that this James married firstly someone unknown (poss. a Margaret by naming pattern of Peter and Janet's currently known children?) and had "my" Peter, plus at least three other children 1755 thru 1760
- that he then married Janet Oliver (1762). This makes step-brothers of my Peter and the James bap. 1772 to James and Janet.
- that this 1772 James is the one who married Barbara Oliver, this being based on the Clesleepeel connection. (James Snr died Clesleepeel in 1802, and a Barbary Sinton died there in 1809)
- that this Clesleepeel connection is also sufficient to identify the "son born to Jas Sinton Clesleepeel" as being the baptism of the John Sinton who married Alison Hall (he is of an age, and currently the only candidate).
- and now that Ken has found Classleypeel for me on a map (about 2.5km directly east of Chesters, passing Southdean Mill en route, assuming there was a road) I'm even more convinced, as this is slap bang in the middle of a heap of haunts and events connected with the Sinton families.

Regardless of how these families do all connect, somehow they do, and I do so wish Margaret was still with us to share this exciting new development.

Still looking for male Sinton representatives of as many different lines as possible for the Sinton surname dna project to try and identify further connections, particularly if your family is from Southdean and/or Northumberland. A subsidy may be available for first of a line to test, or where a participant may be able to help unravel "puzzles".^12,13,14