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In 1603 James VI outlawed the Clan MacGregor, forbidding its members to call themselves by their own name. For this reason, as Alan Breck Stewart informed one of
his Sons in Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, Rob Roy MacGregor 'had the ill-taste to clap the name Campbell tae his own' when in 1712 he had to go into hiding to avoid arrest for defrauding the duke of Montrose. If
truth be known, however, Rob Roy was doing no more than adopting his mother's maiden name. The king's proscription of the MacGregors had quite the opposite effect to that intended. Deprived of their legal rights and
only able to hold land by the good will of others, the MacGregors were driven into criminal attitudes, if not acts. These attitudes were perhaps encouraged by the fact that, by inhabiting the southern Highlands, the
braes of Balqubidder and the country around Loch Lomond, they were living on the frontier between Lowland and Highland Scotland, and much of their behaviour was characteristic of frontier tribes. Rob Roy was the younger
son of the 15th chief of the 'children of the mist', Donald MacGregor of Glengyle. who is said to have been a lieutenant colonel in James VII's army. Rob's mother was a daughter of Campbell of Glenfalloch and he himself
was laird of Inversnaid. He also seems to have had a right to the property of Craig Royston on the east side of Loch Lomond. Nothing certain is known of Rob Roy's life. He is said to have taken the lead in
an affair known as the Hership or Devastation of Kippen in 1691 (it was a fairly mild devastation for only one man was killed). Then he lived for some years under the protection of the duke of Montrose, and followed the
trade of cattle dealer. What little cash economy there was in the Highlands depended on the export of black cattle to the Lowlands and England, and Rob was soon well known as a man who could get his clients a fair price
for their beasts. In these prosperous years the duke confirmed his right to the properties of Inversnaid and Glengyle, and Rob Roy might have passed a successful and peaceful life totally unknown to history or legend
but for an unfortunate incident that took place in 1712. There was at that time a depression in the cattle trade and, having been cheated by one of his partners. Rob found himself insolvent. He did, however, have cash
to hand, for he had been entrusted by some of his clients with the considerable sum of £1000 sterling in order to buy cattle for them in the Highlands. One of these customers was his protector Montrose. Faced with his
own difficulties and the temptation offered by this money, Rob Roy made off with the cash and, in doing so, exchanged the respectable career of cattle dealer for that of bandit. The duke immediately took
action against him, attaching his landed property by due process of law, and driving Rob's wife out of the house that she occupied. From that time on Rob was at war with Montrose and, for his own security, put himself
under the protection of the duke of Argyll. That made good sense: the Campbells and the Grahams were hereditary enemies with many scores to settle, and Argyll found it useful to have a man like Rob at his disposal; he
could be called upon to persuade recalcitrant tenants or political opponents to fall into line. In the political divisions of the time Rob called himself a Jacobite, even though his protector Argyll was a Whig. It seems
likely that he acted on occasion as a spy for both sides. His politics, however, enabled him to class all those who supported the Revolution Settlement and the Union with England as legitimate targets, unless they were
prepared to buy him off. His specialty was what was then called blackmail, though we would now term it a protection racket; that is to say, he promised to protect the property and stock of landowners in return for
payment. Those who declined his offers of protection soon learned why it was necessary to have it. Although a Jacobite, his performance in the '15 was equivocal. He joined the Jacobite leader, the earl of Mar, who sent
him to Aberdeenshire to recruit among the MacGregors settled there, and he later acted as the Jacobite army's guide on its march from Perth to Dunblane. However, since his protector Argyll was commanding the Hanoverian
army, and Rob had no high opinion of Mar's success, he almost certainly played a double role. In a letter to Field Marshal Wade, after the collapse of the Rising, Rob Roy claimed not only that he had been
forced into rebellion 'to avoid being flung into prison' (on account of the action that Montrose had raised against him), which would have happened, he said, 'had I followed my real inclinations in joining the king's
troops at Stirling', but also that he had supplied the duke of Argyll with 'all the intelligence I could, from time to time, of the strength and situation of the rebels'. This is probably true; certainly Argyll did not
withdraw his protection from him. Rob Roy was with the Jacobite army at the battle of Sheriffmuir; the following ballad sums up his behaviour there: "Rob Roy he stood to watch, On a hill for to catch ,The booty, for
aught that I saw, man; For he ne'er advanced, From the place where he stanc'd, Till nae mair was to do there at a', man". Rob Roy survived the battle by at least 20 years in which time he continued with his various
illegal dealings. On one occasion he kidnapped the duke of Montrose's factor. John Graham of Killearn, in the act of collecting the duke's rents. He took possession of the rent money, even giving receipts to those who
had paid, and then held the unfortunate factor to ransom. It was characteristic of him, however, that he eventually released the factor unharmed. Rob Roy's fame spread even to England. During his own
lifetime a decidedly inaccurate biography of him was published in London with the title 'The Highland Rogue'. Arrested more than once, Rob Roy always managed to escape. While awaiting transportation in London's Newgate
Prison in 1726, he was saved by a pardon and returned to Scotland for his last few years. He died peacefully at Balquhidder, at the age of 63, practically a national hero. The Highlands had roads, and, as a result of
improved communications, law and order. Rob Roy's life had come to an end at the same time as a period in Highland history when behaviour such as his was possible. A story is told of his behaviour on his deathbed which
may not be true, but nevertheless says something about the light in which he was regarded. Hearing that someone whom he considered to be an enemy had called to see him, he insisted upon rising from his bed and receiving
him fully dressed and armed. 'It shall never be said that a foeman saw Rob Roy MacGregor defenceless and unarmed', was his reasoning. When the man had left he said: 'Now all is over - let the piper play Ha til mi tulidh
(we return no more).' And, so the story goes, he passed away before the lilting tune had drawn to a close. |
