Scottish Blog

1754-1835

Sir John Sinclair was a politician and financial writer during the Scottish Enlightenment.

Sir John Sinclair was born on the 10th of May 1754 in the Thurso Castle, Thurso, Caithness. He was born as the oldest son to George Sinclair, member of the Earls of Caithness. Born into a privileged life, Sir John Sinclair had the option of education at many of Scotland’s premier institutes. He took this opportunity and completed studies at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow and the Trinity College in Oxford. He was then admitted into the Faculty of Advocates, a body of lawyers in Scotland. Sir John Sinclair was also called to the English bar, but he never practiced law in England.

In 1780 Sir John Sinclair was joined the British House of Commons for the Caithness constituency. He moved to represent several different constituencies until his departure from the realm of politics in 1811. At his point he moved back to Scotland, he became an important factor in the creation of the Scottish Board of Agriculture.

Sir John Sinclair was also renowned for his economic and financial intuition. He is credited in turning Scotland away from a path of a major economical downturn when his idea to issue Exchequer Bills was adopted by Banks.

Interestingly, Sir John Sinclair was also the first person in the history of the English language to use the word “statistics”. He first applied it in his 1791 work “Statistical Account of Scotland”.

See also: Famous Scots.