Mysteries of the Templars
The Legend of Glooscap

"It is known that the Templars fled to Scotland, too, after the dissolution of 1312, and it is known that some found refuge among the Saint-Clairs of Rosslyn in Midlothian. There is a Templar cemetery there."
- Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

"No family in Europe beneath the rank of royalty boasts a higher antiquity, a nobler illustration, or a more romantic interest than that of St. Clair."
- Sir John Bernard Burke, Vicissitudes of Families and Other Essays

"...We encountered repeated references to the Sinclair family - Scottish branch of the Norman Saint-Clair/Gisors family. Their domain at Rosslyn was only a few miles from the former Scottish headquarters of the Knights Templar, and the chapel at Rosslyn - built between 1446 and 1486 - has long been associated with both Freemasonry and the Rose-Croix. In a charter believed to date from 1601, moreover, the Sinclairs are recognized as 'hereditary Grand Masters of Scottish Masonry'. This is the earliest specific Masonic document on record."
- Baigent and Leigh, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail

"The famous Grail Seeker Trevor Ravenscroft claimed in 1962 that he had finished a twenty year quest in search of the Grail at Rosslyn chapel.....His claim was that the Grail was inside the Prentice Pillar (as it is known) in this chapel. The chapel is often visited now by Grail Seekers and many references to the Grail can be found in its stonework and windows. Metal detectors have been used on the pillar and an object of the appropriate size is indeed buried in the middle. Lord Rosslyn adamantly refuses to have the pillar x-rayed."
- Chris Thornborrow, "An Introduction to Current Theories about The Holy Grail"

Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, "was born about 1345, about a generation after the Templar dispersal.... Henry's ancestor and namesake, Henri de Saint-Clair fought beside Godfroi de Bouillon at the taking of Jerusalem. Several Saint-Clairs became Templars themselves."

"In the confusing and purely familial pattern of the Middle Ages, Henry Sinclair held Rosslyn as a vassal of the Kings of England and Scotland, but held Orkney as a vassal of the King of Norway."

"By 1390, Henry's fleet numbered 13 ships: two undecked oared galleys of Mediterranean type useful for maneuvering in the narrow channels of the Orkney and Shetland island groups (and a favored labyrinth for pirates and discontented island smugglers); one decked longship for battle, based on the old Viking lines; and ten decked sailing barks suitable for oceanic patrols around the island groups."

"In 1391 a Venetian ship entered the Orkney earldom. Aboard was Nicolo Zeno, brother of Carlo Zeno [the "Lion" of Venice] who had pioneered the use of cannon for Venice at the Battle of Chioggia. After spending some time with Sinclair, Nicolo Zeno wrote home to Venice and instructed his brother, Antonio, to join him in the Orkneys. Nicolo and Antonio together supplied the expertise that Henry lacked. They knew how to forge the new lightweight cannon for shipboard use, and they were familiar with the latest navigational theories and cartographic skills. They stayed in the service of Sinclair until death."
- Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

Unable to take in wood and water in Iceland because of a hostile reception by the inhabitants,

"Sinclair, seeing he could do nothing, and that if we were to persevere in this attempt, the fleet would fall short of provisions, took his departure with a fair wind and sailed 6 days to the westwards; but the winds afterwards shifting to the southwest, and the sea becoming rough, we sailed 4 days with the wind aft and finally sighted land." "As the sea ran high and we did not know what country it was, we were afraid at first to approach it, but by God's blessing the wind lulled, and then there came on a great calm. Some of the crew pulled ashore and soon returned with great joy with news that they found an excellent country and a still better harbor." "After eight days the 100 soldiers returned, and brought work that they had been through the island and up to the hill, and that the smoke was a natural thing proceeding from a great fire in the bottom of the hill, and that there was a spring from which issued a certain substance like pitch, which ran into the sea, and that thereabouts dwelt a great many people half wild, and living in caves. They were of small stature and very timid. They reported also there was a large river, and a very good and safe harbor."
- The Zeno Narrative

Apparently in 1398, Harry Sinclair, the Earl of Orkney, sailed to Nova Scotia, accompanied by the Zeno brothers of Genoa (one of whom mailed an account home to another brother left in Italy). He started a settlement where the "royal family" took refuge.
- Timothy C. Green

"Burning pitch deposits at Stellarton [Nova Scotia] behind Mt. Adams were responsible for the 'burning hill' Sinclair's explorers first thought they saw. The description confirms Cape Caruso as the area of landfall on June 2, 1398."
- Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

Sinclair's castle was built "in the middle of the peninsula, at the headwaters of both the Gold and the Gaspereau Rivers, the mouth each of which is indicated by an Oak Island (the one at the mouth of the Gold is THE Oak Island of treasure fame...These are apparently the only two islands with oak trees growing on them in all of NS, and acorns don't float. All that is left of the castle are footings of walls (partial plan in book) level with the ground, and to the author, these are very similar to rubble wall constuction in Scotland, and unlike anything else in the area. There were also some small artificts picked up the the owner of the site, who was an avid gardener.
- Timothy C. Green

"Glooscap was the first,
First and greatest,
To come to our land -
Into Nova Scotia...
When the Master left Ukakumkuk,
Called by the English Newfoundland,
He went to Pictook or Pictou,
Which means the rising of bubbles,
Because at that place the water is
Ever strangely moving,
There he found an Indian Village
A town of a hundred wigwams."
- Frederick Pohl, Prince Henry Sinclair

In the body of Micmac legends, "Pohl was the first to identify Gooscap as Henry Sinclair. Pohl was able to make a list of 17 specific similarities between Glooscap and Sinclair, including the fact that they each had three daughters."
- Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

Glooscap "invited all to a parting banquet
By the great lake Minas shore
On the silver waters' edge.
And when the feast was over,
Entered his great canoe
And sailed away over the water,
The shining waves of Minas."
- Frederick Pohl, Prince Henry Sinclair

"And, in memory of this parting, the Micmacs traditionally chanted:

"Nemajeeck, Numeedich."
This, as Frederick Pohl noted, sounds like the words of an old Norse sea-chantey sung when weighing anchor.

"Nu mo jag, nu mo deg."
- Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic

"Samuel de Champlain was in on the scheme for when he showed up 200 years later, he did what he could to hide the existence of the refuge (his normally detailed maps became vague in the area, his reports were deliberately false with respect to prospects for settlers). As a result, colonization of the area was slowed down for about a generation until the family could be moved to Ville Marie (Montreal), not hidden this time, but disguised as the Sulpician religious order."
- Timothy C. Green