The actual document shows that it is another example of  “neglected registrations”.

Madlina’s father Sir John Gordon Sinclair married Anne de Courcy in 1812. Naval officers recieved one months leave every two years. thise leaves were regarded as repeat honeymoons by their wives and more often than not, resulted in the conception of a child.

Therfore it could be expected that Sir John’s children would have been born in 1811/12, 1813/14, 1815/16 1817/1818. The union was prouctive so the gap from marriage in 1812 to a first birth in 1815 is difficult to understand. 

The birth certificate, produced in 1833, 20 years later shows a totally different pattern: –

Haddington 20th June 1855.

1 Sinclair, Sir John, Baronet of Stevenson and Lady Anne De Courcy had a son born 22 June 1815 named George Gordon, who died 7th January 1816. 

2  A daughter born 15th december  at Stevenson and baptised 30th of December mamed Anne 1816

witnessed by the Marquess of Tweedale and Robert Hey in ??

3   A daughter  born at Stevenson 5th November and baptised  8th of December 1817 named Madelina.

witnessed by the Marquess of Tweedale and Robert Hey in ??

The notes  are interesting indicating that in an earlier record Madelena’s birth was in 1815 not 1817, but according to this record, this could not be true as George Gordonwas born december 1715)

4   A daughter  born at Stevenson 5th November and baptised  17th of May1819 named Georgiana

5  A son  born at Buckland Abbey 25th August 1820 named Robert Charles.

6 A daughter  born at Tours in France 4th August 1822 named Mary.

7 A son  born at Tours in France  26th december 1823 named John Michael.

8  A daughter  born at Stevenson  25th February 1831 named Emily

9  A daughter  born at Stevenson  8th september 1832 named Susan Hay

 

The birth certificate  is to put it mildly suspicious.

Though there is now no possibility of asking penetrating questions of key witnesses.

Here are some questions which could perhaps have been asked.

What exactly were the “previous records’? If they still existed, why was a new registration required.

The choice of the Marquess of Tweedale as a  witness is interesting. Was he chosen because he was such an eminent person his word would never be questioned?

Why did he witness only two of the births? They were oviously all entered at the same time? In any case what is the significance of witnessing a birth which occured twenty years previously? 

Madelina Sinclair inherited the Stevenson estates (but not the Baronetcy) in 1890. after her death the estate was broken up and sold off.

If Robert Sinclair Milne  was her son there is a chance that in Scottish law his family were the rightful inheritors of the Stevenson Estate.

In truth a claim would have been unlikely to succeed as, one way or another, Robert sinclair Milne would have been found to be illigitimate.