Ann Campbell Sinclair 1788-1857

By John A. Macfarlane, as reported at the Macfarlane Family Reunion October 21, 2005

Ann Campbell was born in Killin in 1788. Killin, is a beautiful place. Many of our ancestors are buried there. Ann married Daniel Sinclair in Killin in 1808. They had nine children, three of whom died as infants. Four of her children came to America. She had one son, Peter, who didn't come, and became lost to the family after they left for America. Ann was a nurse midwife, although when she undertook this profession I don't know. Her daughter Annabella also practiced midwifery after, and maybe before, the death of her husband John Macfarlane, and probably learned what to do from her own mother, Ann Campbell. After emigrating to America, Ann settled in the Sessions settlement, now Bountiful, Utah, and practiced midwifery there. She arrived in Utah in 1849, and died in 1857. So, for up to eight years she may have provided some competition for that other famous midwife, Patty Sessions. As the matriarch of the family in America, we owe her a great debt of gratitude for her faith and fortitude in making it all the way in spite of the death of her husband on the plains of Iowa. Each Macfarlane in the audience is likewise a Sinclair and a Campbell.