On the resignation of his grandfather in 1590 George Sinclair had received the estates of the Dunbeath barony, and in May, 1591, obtained a Crown charter of confirmation. He was either facile or a spendthrift, for in 1602 he put himself under "Interdiction". In 1610 he resigned the barony in favour of his brother-in-law Arthur, Lord Forbes, in supersession of a deed by which he had entailed the estates on his kinsman the Earl of Caithness. He then withdrew from Caithness owing to the harassing conduct of the Earl, who is even accused of having contemplated his death, and resided with Lord Forbes. Dying in 1624, Alexander, Master of Forbes, sold Dunbeath to John Sinclair of Geanies, son of George Sinclair of Mey. The remainder of the barony and the lands of Spittal and Mybster were acquired by Sir Donald Mackay, first Lord Reay, who, in 1624, was infeft on a charter by the Bishop of Orkney, in Thura, Borlum, Downreay, and Brubster; and about the same time Sandside was purchased from Lord Forbes by William Innes, ancestor of the family of Innes of Sandside.6 |