Road Trip Drive With Music To Lybster On Visit To Caithness Scotland

Tour Scotland early Autumn travel video, with Scottish music, of a road trip drive to Lybster, Scottish Gaelic: Liabost, on ancestry, genealogy, history visit to Caithness in the Highlands. When driving in Scotland, slow down and enjoy the trip. The village of Lybster was founded in 1802 as a planned village by the local landowner, General Patrick Sinclair who was born in 1736 in Lybster. He enlisted in the Army at about age 18. In 1758 he was commissioned Ensign in the 42nd Foot and was involved in the attack on Guadeloupe later that year. By 1760, Sinclair was at Oswego, New York, America, where he was promoted Lieutenant, and involved in the Seven Years' War. The Great Lakes attracted Sinclair and he was able to change his commission to serve on the lakes. He started out commanding ships on Lake Ontario but, in 1764, he was moved to the upper Great Lakes where he served until 1767. In 1769, he went to England on a recruiting trip and tried to be reassigned to the Great Lakes. He was promoted Captain in 1772, but retired to his home in Lybster at half pay later the same year. However, in 1775, his wish to return to the Great Lakes was granted with an appointment as Lieutenant-Governor and Superintendent of Michilimackinac. He was thwarted in taking up his post by unrest in the Thirteen Colonies and he reached his posting via Nova Scotia and Quebec, Canada, in 1779. By 1782, when he was promoted Major, his expenses had come under investigation and he returned to Quebec to untangle his finances. Sinclair was not able to clear up his problems but he was allowed to return to Lybster. He continued to work on clearing up unpaid bills and ended up in debtors' prison for a time. He never recovered financially and spent his remaining years on his estate drawing his half pay from the military. Eventually as a private citizen, Sinclair acquired a large tract of land, which he called the Pinery, on the west bank of the St. Clair River in eastern Michigan. In 1780, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a prisoner at Fort Michilimackinac was the caretaker of the property. Du Sable and his wife, Kitiwaha, a Potawatomi Indian, oversaw the Pinery for four years, living in a cabin at the mouth of the Pine River in what is now the city of St. Clair, Michigan. Later in the 1780s, they became the original settlers of Chicago. Patrick died on 31 January 1820. All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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