Sir John Sinclair

Sir John Sinclair (November 10, 1754 - December 21, 1835) Scottish writer on finance and agriculture is best remembered today for his huge survey of Scotland which introduced the word “statistics” into the English language.

Sinclair's modern fame rests on his 21-volume work, Statistical Account of Scotland drawn up from the communications of the Ministers of the different parishes. This is generally known as the "Old Statistical Account." In volume XX (p. xiii) Sinclair explained the choice of name and also the purpose of the inquiry:

"Many people were at first surprised at my using the words “statistical” and “statistics”, as it was supposed that some in our own language might have expressed the same meaning. But in the course of a very extensive tour through the northern parts of Europe, which I happened to take in 1786, I found that in Germany they were engaged in a species of political enquiry to which they had given the name “statistics,” and though I apply a different meaning to that word—for by “statistical” is meant in Germany an inquiry for the purposes of ascertaining the political strength of a country or questions respecting matters of state—whereas the idea I annex to the term is an inquiry into the state of a country, for the purpose of ascertaining the quantum of happiness enjoyed by its inhabitants, and the means of its future improvement; but as I thought that a new word might attract more public attention, I resolved on adopting it, and I hope it is now completely naturalized and incorporated with our language."

For Sinclair, statistics involved collecting facts of a particular kind or with a particular end in mind; the facts were not necessarily, or even typically, numerical. Plackett reports that when the Statistical Society of London (now the Royal Statistical Society) was founded in 1834, Sinclair at 80 was the oldest original member. In the same year he presented a paper on agriculture to the British Assocation for the Advancement of Science, but this was found to lack "facts which can be stated numerically."

The entry in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica reads as follows.

SINCLAIR, SIR JOHN, BART . (1754-1835), Scottish writer on finance and agriculture, was the eldest son of George Sinclair of Ulbster, a member of the family of the earls of Caithness, and was born at Thurso Castle on the 10th of May 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 mainly instrumental in the creation of the Board of Agriculture, of which he was the first president. His reputation as a financier and economist had been established by the publication, in 1784, 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. He was a member of most of the continental agricultural societies, a fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, as well as of the Antiquarian Society of London, and president of the Highland Society in London. Originally a thorough supporter of Pitt's war policy, he later on joined the party of " armed neutrality." In 1805 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 member of the privy council and, next year, received the lucrative sinecure office of Commissioner of Excise. He died on the 21st of December 1835.

Sir John Sinclair, who was created a baronet in 1780, was twice married, first to a daughter of Alexander Maitland, by whom he had two daughters, and secondly to Diana, daughter of the first lord Macdonald, by whom he had thirteen children. His eldest son, Sir George Sinclair (1790-1868) was a writer and a member of parliament, representing Caithness at intervals from 1811 till 1841. His son, Sir John George Tollemache Sinclair, the 3rd baronet, was member for the same constituency from 1869 to 1885. The first baronets third son, John (1797-1875), became archdeacon of Middlesex; the fifth son, William (1804-1878), was prebendary of Chichester and was the father of William Macdonald Sinclair (b. 1850), who in 1889 became archdeacon of London; the fourth daughter, Catherine (1800-1864), at one time enjoyed some vogue as an author.

See Correspondence of the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair, Bart., with Reminiscences of Distinguished Characters (2 vols., London, 1831); and Memoirs of the Life and Works of the Right Hon. Sir John Sinclair (2 vols, Edinburgh, 1837).

Discussions

• Plackett, R. L.. (1986) The Old Statistical Account, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, A, (149) , 247-251.

• Sinclair, John pp. 70-2 in Leading Personalities in Statistical Sciences from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, (ed. N. L. Johnson and S. Kotz) 1997. New York: Wiley. Originally published in Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.

External Links

• Statistical Accounts of Scotland.

The National Portrait Gallery has 7 images of Sir John Sinclair, 1st Bt (1754-1835), Agriculturalist

• Search the collection