Thomas Sinclair

“ BALTRODDI, WALTER de (d. 1270) , bishop of Caithness, succeeded Bishop William in 1261. He was doctor of the canon law, and his diocese included Caithness and Sutherland, the chapter consisting of ten canons, comprehending dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer. By the constitution created by one of his predecessors, the eminent prelate Gilbert Murray, he as bishop held the foremost position in chapter as well as in diocese. Thurso was the seat of the bishopric of Caithness in Bishop Walter's time, although it had been temporarily removed to Dornoch between 1222 and 1245. ”

“ He is characterised as 'a man discreet in counsel and commendable for the sanctity of his life' in the seventeenth century Latin MSS. of Father Hay, the historian and relative of the Roslin family, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. According to the collections of Sir James Dalrymple, an earlier antiquarian, he is one of three Caithness bishops described as 'of good memory' in a writ dated the 10th of the calends of October, 1275. ”

“ Alex. Nisbet, in his famous work on 'Heraldry,' published in 1722, declared that he saw and examined the writ referred to above. In Sir Robert Grordon's 'Genealogical History of the House of Sutherland,' written in the reign of James I, its contents are summarised ”