SINCLAIR, SIR JOHN, BART. Scottish writer on finance and agriculture, was the eldest son of George Sinclair of Ulibster, a member of the family of the earls of Caith ness, and was born at Thurso Castle on May 10, 1754. After studying at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Trinity College, Oxford. he was admitted to the faculty of advocates in Scotland, and called to the English bar, but never practised. In 178o he was returned to parliament for Caithness, and subsequently represented several English constituencies, his parliamentary career extending, with few interruptions, until 1811. He established at Edinburgh a society for the improvement of British wool, and was the first president of the board of agriculture. His reputation as a financier and economist had been established by the publication, in of his History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire; in 1793 widespread ruin was prevented by the adoption of his plan for the issue of exchequer bills ; and it was on his advice that, in 1797, Pitt issued the "loyalty loan" of eighteen millions for the prosecution of the war. His services to scientific agriculture were
no less conspicuous. He supervised the compilation of the valuable Statistical Account of Scotland (21 vols., 1791-1799), and also that of the General Report of Scotland, issued by the board of agriculture; and from the reports compiled by this society he published in 1819 his Code of Agriculture.
Originally a thorough supporter of Pitt's war policy, he later on joined the party of "armed neutrality." In 18°5 he was appointed by Pitt a commissioner for the construction of roads and bridges in the N. of Scotland, in 1810 he was made a privy councillor and, 1811, commissioner of excise. He died Dec. 21, 1835.