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Jean or Janet Sinclair (died before 1557), was the Scottish nurse of Mary, Queen of Scots.Retha M. Warnicke, Mary Queen of Scots (Routledge, 2006), p. 28.
Mary, Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace in December 1542. At Linlithgow on 22 March 1543, Mary of Guise asked Jean Sinclair to unwrap the queen from her swaddling clothes to show the English ambassador Ralph Sadler that she was a healthy infant.Arthur Clifford, Sadler State Papers, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1809), p. 88 The scene was depicted by a 19th-century artist Benjamin Haydon. Mary, Queen of Scots as an infant, Benjamin Haydon Cardinal David Beaton gave the nurse at Linlithgow £11 on 29 December 1542.Robert Kerr Hannay, Rentale Sancti Andree (Edinburgh: SHS, 1913), p. 139.
In July 1543, the infant queen was moved to Stirling Castle. As the war with England now known as Rough Wooing continued, Mary and her household including her governess Janet Stewart, Lady Fleming went to Dumbarton Castle on the River Clyde and sailed to France.Rosalind K. Marshall, Scottish Queens: 1034-1714 (John Donald: Edinburgh, 2007), pp. 127-128.
In 1552 or 1553, Mary of Guise paid her 2,633 livre tournois.L. Merlet, Inventaire-Sommaire des Archives Départementales Antérieures a 1790: Eure-et-Loir, 2 (Chartres, 1884), p. 367, E.2972. When Jean Sinclair wrote to Mary of Guise from the Château de Blois in 1553 she signed her letter "Jaine Syncler, nureis to our soveraine lady". In French records, her name was recorded as "Jehanne de St Clere".Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (SHS: Edinburgh, 1925), p. 313.
She was anxious that she had been omitted from the household allowances and hoped that Mary of Guise would be able to help. Sinclair wrote that she was "come of honest folks" and would not be persuaded to abandon the service of Queen Mary.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (SHS: Edinburgh, 1925), p. 312.
Around this time, Françoise de Paroy, d'Estainville, Mary's governess, wrote to Mary of Guise that more attendants, beside the nurse or nourrice were required.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (SHS: Edinburgh, 1925), pp. 188, 199. The young queen's household in France was re-organised again in 1554 by Comptroller Astier, who subsequently came to Scotland as director of military finance during the refortification of Eyemouth and Inchkeith.Marguerite Wood, Balcarres Papers, vol. 2 (SHS: Edinburgh, 1925), p. 224.
She was granted lands at Cornton and at Newtonlees near Dunbar in March 1543. Her husband was John Kemp, probably a brother of Henry Kemp of Thomastoun, pursemaster to James V and keeper of his jewels.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 463: Register of the Great Seal, 3, p. 674 no. 2876.
Jean (or Janet) Sinclair died sometime before 1557. Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. 19, p. 28 John Kemp outlived her and continued to receive her pension from the lands of Cornton. Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1568–1579, 20 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 346.
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