Stories of the clans

Among those who suffered at the hands of the Earl, was one of his own Kinsmen, a man named William Sinclair of Dumbaith who was constantly harrassed by Caithness, and who, after annoying Sinclair for some time, then employed the illegitimate half brother of William Sinclair and another man, Kenneth Buidhe, to waste and destroy part of the lands of Sinclair at Dumbaithe.
After a fair amount of destruction had been carried out on his property. Sinclair appealed to John, the Earl of Sutherland for aid
Sutherland sent one of his most trusted friends, a man named MacKay with a number of men to rescue Sinclair who by now was under seige in his own home.
MacKay then took Sinclair to Sutherland where he remained under the protection of Earl John.

Sinclair later left Sutherland for Moray where he died.
He was succeeded by is grandson, George Sinclair who married the sister of Lord Forbes, and she induced her husband to sign a deed of Entail, by which, failing heirs of his body, the whole lands of Sinclair would go to the Earl of Caithness.
Once the Earl took possession of this deed he began to make plans to be rid of George Sinclair, and was assissted in this by Sinclair's own wife.
Becoming aware that he was in some dager, Sinclair left Caithness to take up residence with his brother-in-law, Lord Forbes who received him well and deplored his sisters wicked behaviour.
Sinclair now declared the earlier deed to be void and made a new will wherein all his estates would go to Lord Forbes.
Not long after the drawing up of the new will, Sincllair became ill and subsequently died. Lord Forbes now took control of the esatates of Dumbaith and Dunray.
The furious Earl of Caithness now took every chance to harrass Forbes and in is positoin of Sheriff, he began to harrass the tenants on the estates.
Forbes appealed to the Privy council which brought him some small redress and in order to protect his tenants, Lord Forbes now took up residence in Dunray in Caithness.
The Earl of Caithness was by now aware that any direct attack on Forbes would bring dire legal consequences so he induced the Clan of Gun to do his dirty work for him by bestowing many favours on the Guns.
After some time he talked with John Gun, chief of the clan, and his half brother Alexander Gun and a third man, a cousin who was also named Alexander Gun.
The Guns promised to serve the Earl well, but on being informed that the Earl wished them to burn the cornfields on the lads of Forbes, Aleander Gun, the cousin was appalled and refused to do this, saying he would undertake any other deed, but not the burning of corn.
(Murder in those days was seen as something of a gentlemanly pursuit, but to burn Cornfields was viewed as a heinous and very serious offence.)
The two Gun brothers were not in the least happy about this either and felt that they would never be able to escape to safety if they committed such a deed.
Caithness reassured them both, promising to send them to safety ihn the Western Isles till a pardon could be arranged.

The Cornfields at Sandsett which were tenanted by a William Innes, servant to Lord Forbes, were the object of the plot and late one Night the Gun brothers and two accomplices entered the cornfields and set all the corn stacks ablaze.
Caithness then immediately spread a rumour that the outrageous deed had been done by the tenants of MacKay, but this attempted deception was short lived.
Not long before this deed was perpetrated, John, the Earl of Sutherland had died and he was succeeded by his son, also John, who was a lad of only six years.
Sir Robert Gordon had been appointed as tutor to the child and on behalf of the boy Earl, Gordon resolved to get to the root of the burned cornfields.
It did not take Gordon long to pinpoint those who had committed the crime, due to quarrelling among the clan Gun.
Alexander Gun fled into Sutherland from Caithness, promising that he would lay the facts of the event before the Privy council if Gordon guaranteed his safety.
Gordon agreed to shelter the man and even promised him a small possession in Strathbogie.
When the Earl of Caithness heard of the flight of Aleaxander Gun, he became extremely alarmed for his own safety because if Gun brought his name into the affair, it would almost certainly have fatal results for the Earl.
He now spread yet another rumour to the effect that it was Sir Robert Gordon, Sir Alexander Gordon and MacKay who had hired the clan Gun.
Again this rumour fell on deaf ears.
As soon as Lord Forbes had received word from REobert Gordon of the circumstances of the crime, he summoned the Gun Brothers to appear for trial at Edinburgh to answer to the charge of burning the corn.
Caithness, as Sheriff was cited to deliver the Gun brothers for trial but on the appointed day, neither the Guns, the Earl or his son, Lord Berrisdale, who had also been summoned and as a result both these nobles were denounced as outlaws and declared rebels and on these charges, they were again summoned to court.
Lord Berrisdale appeared on the second date, but Caithness did not.
Lord Forbes was now more determined than ever to bring the wayward Earl of Caithness to justice, and realising this, Caithness now changed his tactics.
Knowing his downfall was imminent, he implored Forbes and Mackay to try to reach an agreement, saying he would agree to any terms.
An agreement was eventually reached which removed the Earl of Caithness and his heirs from their lands. The Earl was further ordered to deliver the Gun brothers to Lord Forbes.
The Gun Borothers went to prison, but on their release, Gordon, true to his word, gave them some land in Strathnaver.