Sinclair , Sir , John , 1754-1835 , 1st Baronet , politician and agriculturalist

John Sinclair was born in Thurso, Caithness in 1754. He was educated at the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford. He qualified as a lawyer in both Scotland and England but never practised law. In 1780 he entered the House of Commons as MP for Caithness, subsequently serving as MP for several English and Scottish constituencies between 1784 and 1811. Sir John wrote several works on economics and agriculture and became the first president of the Board of Agriculture in 1793. His Statistical Account of Scotland popularized the use of the word 'statistics' in English.