Rob Roy Macgregor
Rob Roy Macgregor - A Famous Scottish Outlaw
'Rob Roy' the Scottish freebooter
Robert MacGregor ('Rob Roy') (1671-1734). MacGregor was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Donald MacGregor and was born in Glengyle, at the head of Loch Katrine in the Trossachs. The MacGregors were devoted Jacobites, and cattle-dealing and stealing was the main source of livelihood. Young Rob's first exploit was the recovery of the Earl of Breadalbane's cattle, stolen by the Macraes in 1690. The family farm at Balquhidder was situated between the lands of the Earl of Breadalbane and those of the Marquis of Montrose, so, with consummate opportunism, Rob Roy played one off against the other. A series of successful cattle raids increased his notoriety and, despite the unstable period in Scotland following the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, he kept his family and followers in comparative prosperity. But when Rob Roy's chief drover absconded in 1712 with the Duke of Montrose's capital for a joint venture, Rob Roy was declared bankrupt. In 1713 his deeds caused him to be declared 'an outlaw' and he was evicted from his home at Inversnaid, which he had built following his marriage in 1693 to Helen Mary MacGregor of Cromar.
In 1715 Rob Roy took part in the Jacobite rising but stood by at the battle of Sheriffmuir in probable loyalty to his superior the Duke of Argyll, commander of the government troops. On the run for a time, Rob Roy won the protection of John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, and increased his guerrilla warfare against the 1st Duke of Montrose. Rob Roy was captured more than once and escaped transportation only by a timely pardon. After various adventures he settled comparatively peacefully at Balquhidder, his life interspersed with nefarious cattle deals and collecting protection money from local farmers to ensure their cattle went unmolested. There he died on 28 December 1734.
It was Sir Walter Scott who added more romanticism to the already well-established popular and much-exaggerated perception of Rob Roy, in his book of 1817 of the same name, than anyone before or since. For his characterization Scott talked to people who remembered Rob Roy's generation and his book altered the 'MacGregor country' very little so that readers and visitors could identify specific landmarks. Yet, Scott's Rob Roy became a symbol of supposed Highland courage in defending a way of life against a 'civilizing' incursion from the Lowlands, represented by Scott in the character of Baillie Nicol Jarvie.
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