Rob Roy | Page 7

blood of the Lairds and Lords of MacGregor, and therefore
acknowledged him as their chief on all lawful occasions and causes
whatsoever. The deed was subscribed by eight hundred and twenty-six
persons of the name of MacGregor, capable of bearing arms. A great
many of the clan during the last war formed themselves into what was
called the Clan Alpine Regiment, raised in 1799, under the command
of their Chief and his brother Colonel MacGregor.
Having briefly noticed the history of this clan, which presents a rare
and interesting example of the indelible character of the patriarchal
system, the author must now offer some notices of the individual who
gives name to these volumes.
In giving an account of a Highlander, his pedigree is first to be

considered. That of Rob Roy was deduced from Ciar Mhor, the great
mouse-coloured man, who is accused by tradition of having slain the
young students at the battle of Glenfruin.
Without puzzling ourselves and our readers with the intricacies of
Highland genealogy, it is enough to say, that after the death of Allaster
MacGregor of Glenstrae, the clan, discouraged by the unremitting
persecution of their enemies, seem not to have had the means of placing
themselves under the command of a single chief. According to their
places of residence and immediate descent, the several families were
led and directed by Chieftains, which, in the Highland acceptation,
signifies the head of a particular branch of a tribe, in opposition to
Chief, who is the leader and commander of the whole name.
The family and descendants of Dugald Ciar Mhor lived chiefly in the
mountains between Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine, and occupied a
good deal of property there--whether by sufferance, by the right of the
sword, which it was never safe to dispute with them, or by legal titles
of various kinds, it would be useless to inquire and unnecessary to
detail. Enough;--there they certainly were--a people whom their most
powerful neighbours were desirous to conciliate, their friendship in
peace being very necessary to the quiet of the vicinage, and their
assistance in war equally prompt and effectual.
Rob Roy MacGregor Campbell, which last name he bore in
consequence of the Acts of Parliament abolishing his own, was the
younger son of Donald MacGregor of Glengyle, said to have been a
Lieutenant-Colonel (probably in the service of James II.), by his wife, a
daughter of Campbell of Glenfalloch. Rob's own designation was of
Inversnaid; but he appears to have acquired a right of some kind or
other to the property or possession of Craig Royston, a domain of rock
and forest, lying on the east side of Loch Lomond, where that beautiful
lake stretches into the dusky mountains of Glenfalloch.
The time of his birth is uncertain. But he is said to have been active in
the scenes of war and plunder which succeeded the Revolution; and
tradition affirms him to have been the leader in a predatory incursion
into the parish of Kippen, in the Lennox, which took place in the year

1691. It was of almost a bloodless character, only one person losing his
life; but from the extent of the depredation, it was long distinguished by
the name of the Her'-ship, or devastation, of Kippen.* The time of his
death is also uncertain, but as he is said to have survived the year 1733,
and died an aged man, it is probable he may have been twenty-five
about the time of the Her'-ship of Kippen, which would assign his birth
to the middle of the 17th century.
* See Statistcal Account of Scotland, 1st edition, vol. xviii. p. 332.
Parish of * Kippen.
In the more quiet times which succeeded the Revolution, Rob Roy, or
Red Robert, seems to have exerted his active talents, which were of no
mean order, as a drover, or trader in cattle, to a great extent. It may well
be supposed that in those days no Lowland, much less English drovers,
ventured to enter the Highlands. The cattle, which were the staple
commodity of the mountains, were escorted down to fairs, on the
borders of the Lowlands, by a party of Highlanders, with their arms
rattling around them; and who dealt, however, in all honour and good
faith with their Southern customers. A fray, indeed, would sometimes
arise, when the Lowlandmen, chiefly Borderers, who had to supply the
English market, used to dip their bonnets in the next brook, and
wrapping them round their hands, oppose their cudgels to the naked
broadswords, which had not always the superiority. I have heard from
aged persons who had been engaged in such affrays, that the
Highlanders used remarkably fair play, never using the point of the
sword, far less their pistols or daggers; so that
With many a stiff thwack