James Sinclair, 14th Earl of Caithness

Who was James Sinclair, 14th Earl of Caithness?

James Sinclair, 14th Earl of Caithness FRS, styled Lord Berriedale from 1823 to 1855, was a Scottish Liberal politician, scientist and inventor.

Caithness was the son of Alexander Sinclair, 13th Earl of Caithness, and his wife Frances Harriet, daughter of the Very Reverend William Leigh, Dean of Hereford. He inherited the title in 1855 on the death of his father.

He was a Vice-Admiral of Caithness, tutor to Edward, Prince of Wales, and was a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria - 1856-58, and 1859–66. Queen Victoria created him the 1st Baron Barrogill, in 1866, taking the Barony’s name from the Castle of Mey which was then known as Barrogill Castle. This is a peerage of the United Kingdom which can only pass down the direct male line, and became extinct on the death of his son, George Sinclair, 15th Earl of Caithness. He sat as a Representative peer for Scotland in the House of Lords from 1858-66. He was elected a Scottish Representative Peer in 1858, and served in the Liberal administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell as a Lord-in-Waiting between 1859 and 1866.