Raibart Ruadh (Rob Roy) MacGregor

Sources

1. Old Parish Registers of Births and Baptisms, Scotland

   Church of Scotland

   Baptisms 1671, Buchanan, 474/10 49, entry for Robert, son of Donald McGregor in Glengyle and Margaret Campbell (register image read)

   Very high confidence Cited for birth, baptism, parentage

   Transcript and reading notes

   Old Parish Registers of Buchanan, births and baptisms, 474/10 page 49, entry of 7 March 1671. Transcribed from the register image, read 11 September 2026.

   Heading: “On the 7 day of March 1671”.

   Entry: “Donald m’grigor in Glengyll [...] upon testificat from the min[iste]r ther[e]of [...] Margaret Campbell [...] son baptized called Robert [...] witnesses Mr Wm Anderson min[iste]r & Johne m’grigor”.

   Reading note. The hand is a fast seventeenth century secretary hand and several words cannot be read with confidence; they are marked [...]. The sense is not in doubt. Donald McGregor in Glengyle and Margaret Campbell had a son baptized, called Robert, on a testificate from the minister of the parish the family belonged to, and the witnesses were Mr William Anderson, minister, and John McGregor. The entry is written across five short lines, with the mother’s name and the child’s name each on a line of their own.

   Glengyle lies in the parish of Callander in Perthshire, which explains the testificate for a baptism in the parish of Buchanan in Stirlingshire. The Callander register has no entries before 1700, so no baptism could have been recorded there.

   Scotland counted the year from 1 January from 1600, so the date is 7 March 1671 and not 1672.

   ScotlandsPeople index: MCGREGOR, ROBERT; parents DONALD MCGREGOR and MARGARET CAMPBELL; male; 07/03/1671; parish number 474; reference 10 / 49; Buchanan. The index also carries the frame number FR54.

2. Genealogy of the Clan Gregor

   Peter Lawrie. Glen Discovery, glendiscovery.com (online, cited by page)

   Page 31, Descendants of Rob Roy: Rob Roy born about 1671, died 28 Dec 1734, married Mary MacGregor of Comer 1 Jan 1693 (page read 11 Sep 2026)

   Low confidence Cited for marriage, death, partnership, parentage

   View the source
3. Kirk Session Records, Scotland

   Church of Scotland

   Balquhidder kirk session minutes, CH2/469/2 image 5, minute of 21 May 1725: Patrick McCallum, servitor to Robert Campbell of Innersnait in this parish (minute book image read on Virtual Volumes)

   Very high confidence Cited for residence, parentage

   Transcript and reading notes

   Balquhidder kirk session, minutes and accounts 1724 to 1739, CH2/469/2, image 5 of the ScotlandsPeople Virtual Volumes copy, page 5 of the book. Minute of 21 May 1725. Read from the image on 12 September 2026.

   “May 21 1725. The said day the Session being met [...] pro renata: This day and place Janet McCallum in Glenlochaym [?] in the parish of Kilmadonn [?] this day compeared before the Session having a child to be baptised, and fathering the child on Patrick McCallum, servitor to Robert Campbell of Innersnait in this parish. The said Patrick McCallum also compearing owned that child to be his, and both parties pleaded that the child might be baptised [...]”

   Reading note. The hand is clear but the crossings out and the bound edge take some words; those are marked [...]. The mother’s residence and her parish are not read with confidence. What matters here is read without difficulty: “servitor to Robert Campbell of Innersnait in this parish”.

   Why it is cited. Robert Campbell of Innersnait is Rob Roy. The minute is a primary record, read as an image, which shows that designation in use for him in Balquhidder parish in May 1725, in the same year and the same parish as his granddaughter Katharine’s baptism of 26 April 1725. It is therefore a witness to the identification on which the link from Rob Roy to Coll rests, since Coll’s discharge of 1721 calls his father “Robert Campbell late of Inversnaid”. It also says something about his household: he kept a servant, Patrick McCallum.

4. Registers of Testaments, Scotland

   Commissary Courts of Scotland. National Records of Scotland, CC series; images on ScotlandsPeople, Wills and Testaments

   Dunblane Commissary Court, CC6/5/24, images 125 and 126, testament dative and inventory of Robert Roy Campbell in Innerlochlarigbeg, confirmed 6 February 1735 (register images read)

   Very high confidence Cited for death, probate, partnership, parentage

   Transcript and reading notes

   Register of Testaments, Commissariot of Dunblane, National Records of Scotland CC6/5/24, images 125 and 126 (the register’s folios 145 and 146). ScotlandsPeople: Wills and testaments, Robert Roy Campbell, 1735. The heading and executry clause are transcribed from the images. The inventory is given in the order written, with the amounts shortened.

   In the margin: Robert Roy Campbell.

   The Testament Dative and Inventary of the goods gear cattle Household plenishing and others which pertained to the Deceast Robert Roy Campbell in Innerlochlarigbeg within the parish of Balquhidder and Commissariot of Dunblane the time of Decease which was in the Month of December last. Faithfully made and given up by Mary McGrigor alias Campbell the Defuncts Spouse only Executrix Dative decerned as Creditrix to her said Deceased husband for payment and satisfaction to her of the sum of Four hundred and thirty six pounds ten shillings and four pennies Scots money expended and debursed by her on the Defuncts funerals and for Masters rent and Servants fees and for medicaments and other Necessaries furnished during his Sickness, conform to a particular Accompt and several Instructions thereof produced, whereon she made faith as use is. As also for payment of the expences of Confirmation hereof, by Decreet of the Commissary principal of the said Commissariot as the samen of the date of thir presents in itself more fully bears.

   Inventory. Imprimis two [...] at eight pounds Scots per piece. Two yeld kine at six pounds each. Two old kine with a stirk. Two forrow kine with a stirk. Two six-quarters-old queys. A quarter-year-old quey, three pounds. Thirteen ewes and one ram, fourteen pounds. Seven hoggs, three pounds ten shillings. Fourteen goats with a buck, twenty pounds. Eight minchaks, four pounds. An old mare with a filly, eight pounds. Two horses, thirty pounds. A blind horse, one pound ten shillings. Two bolls of gray corn with the straw, ten pounds. The hay, twelve pounds. The saddle and arms with the bridle, twenty four pounds. Betwixt his body clothes and household plenishing, eighty four pounds six shillings and eight pennies.

   Item, the said Defunct had justly addebted and resting to him the time of his decease by Alexander McFarlane in [...] the sum of One hundred pounds Scots money and whole annualrents thereof, as a part of the sum of Six hundred merks Scots money principal specified in a Bond granted by him to the said Defunct therein designed Robert Campbell of Innersnait, dated the twenty eight day of November [...] One thousand seven hundred and seven years.

   Summa. Confirmed 6th February 1735. Raynold Drummond and John [...] of [...], Cautioners.

   The month of death is given as December last, that is December 1734. No children are named, and neither is Coll. The second cautioner’s name is not confidently read. It looks more like Fisher than MacGregor, although an earlier reading gave it as John MacGregor of Glengyle.

5. Stirling Observer

   Stirling Observer (newspaper). Stirling; Saturday edition, The Stirling Saturday Observer. Pages read on Newspapers.com

   28 Aug 1880, p. 4, letter to the editor, Rob Roy’s Sons, signed N. A.: Coll, his children John and Kate Col, his gravestone of 1770, and Duncan of Strathyre (page read)

   Normal confidence Cited for death, burial, parentage

   Transcript and reading notes

   The Stirling Saturday Observer, 28 August 1880, page 4, Letter to the Editor, “Rob Roy’s Sons”, signed N. A. Transcribed from the downloaded page. Only the passages about Coll, his children, and Duncan McGregor of Strathyre are given.

   “Col or Colin was a quiet-living respectable man, and being the eldest son, his occupation was to look after the affairs of his aged father in his declining years. Col died a young man in 1735, the same year his father, who died 28th December, 1734, was buried, and the remains of both were laid in the Churchyard of Balquhidder. Col left two children, a son and a daughter, respectively named John and Kate, or Kate Col, as she was commonly called in the district. When John grew up he sought fortune abroad as a soldier in the German Wars, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant, and was known as Lieutenant John M’Gregor. He returned to Balquhidder, and in 1770 he erected a handsome memorial stone in the churchyard to the memory of his father. The inscription upon the stone tells that ‘This stone is erected by Lieut. John Macgregor, 1770.’ Below this inscription, the Macgregor armorial bearings are elaborately displayed, with the legends, ‘E’en Do and Spare Not,’ and underneath follows the words ‘Heir lyes interred the corps of Col Macgregor, who died in the year 1735, aged 31 years.’ Lieut. John Macgregor was never married. It may be noticed that the finger-ring of Lieut. Macgregor is still preserved carefully, and bears his initials. Col’s daughter Kate lived to a great age, and was married, but of her it will be proper to treat hereafter.”

   On Duncan: “In his trial Duncan is described as ‘Duncan M’Gregor, alias Drummond, in Strathyre, in the parish of [...], and Shire of Perth, and now prisoner in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh.’” And later: “It so happens that a grand-daughter of Duncan’s still survives, and is a very worthy person, and to her are due the following statements relating to the grandfather. Duncan, as mentioned in the trial, belonged to Strathyre, and was in no way directly connected with Rob Roy’s family, although he was on very friendly terms with the young M’Gregors. It was this intimacy that led him to take part in the abduction of Jean Kay, and this affair was the cause of much loss and suffering to him for years afterwards. He was long imprisoned in Perth as well as in Edinburgh, and when he regained his liberty he was to be considered very much as a broken man. But his cup of bitterness seems to have been drained off with his trial at Edinburgh. He returned to Balquhidder, and afterwards married Kate Col, the daughter of Rob Roy’s eldest son, and subsequently followed the calling of a farmer, and was considered on the whole a prosperous man. In his later years he occupied the lands where the present Railway Station stands at Lochearnhead. Kate survived her husband many years.”

   The letter argues that Rob Roy left four sons, Col or Colin, James, Ronald and Robert, and that Duncan was not a son. The editor’s note after it agrees, from The Trials of Rob Roy’s Sons (Edinburgh, 1818). The letter first appeared in the Thursday Observer of 26 August 1880, according to the article of 27 August 1881.

6. Caledonian Mercury

   Caledonian Mercury (newspaper). Edinburgh, from 1720. Issues read on Newspapers.com, which holds the run 1720-1867

   9 January 1735, page 3 (printed page number 16327), the notice of Rob Roy’s death at Balquhidder (read on Newspapers.com 13 September 2026)

   High confidence Cited for death

   Transcript and reading notes

   The Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh, issue of Thursday 9 January 1735, page 3 (the printed page number is 16327), right-hand column, among the home news. Read on Newspapers.com on 13 September 2026; the issue has four pages and this is the third.

   “On Saturday was se’nnight died at Balquhidder in Perthshire, the fam’d Highland Partizan Rob Roy.”

   That is the whole notice. It is the earliest contemporary record of the death yet found, printed twelve days after it.

   The date. “Saturday se’nnight” means the Saturday a week before the most recent one. Reckoned from Thursday 9 January 1735 it falls on Saturday 28 December 1734, which is the date the tree already carries. Scotland was still on the Julian calendar in 1735 and 9 January fell on a Thursday. Newspapers.com labels the issue “Sun, 09 Jan 1735” because it computes the weekday on the Gregorian calendar; that label is wrong for an Old Style date. The same caution applies to every British date before 1752 on that site.

   What it adds. The testament (CC6/5/24, images 125-126) gives only “the month of December last”. Until now the day of 28 December rested on the Stirling Observer letter of 1880 and on Lawrie, both at a long remove. This notice fixes it from within a fortnight of the event, and names him as Rob Roy. It gives the place no more precisely than Balquhidder, which is the parish containing Inverlochlarig Beg.

   Confidence. Rated High rather than the Normal usually given to newspapers. That rating is for a paper reporting local knowledge at a distance, as the Stirling Observer does in 1880; this is a news notice in the city’s principal paper twelve days after the event.

   Finding it again. The site’s OCR does not reach the paragraph: a search of 1735 for Balquhidder returns nothing and the in-page find does not hit it either. It was found by eye in the news column. Browse to the paper, 1735, January, the 9th, page 3.

7. Stirling Observer

   Stirling Observer (newspaper). Stirling; Saturday edition, The Stirling Saturday Observer. Pages read on Newspapers.com

   25 Sep 1880, p. 3, Rob Roy, from Local Notes and Queries, signed N. A.: Duncan and Kate Col of Cuilt and their children, on the authority of their granddaughter (page read)

   Normal confidence Cited for burial

   Transcript and reading notes

   The Stirling Saturday Observer, 25 September 1880, page 3, “Rob Roy (From ‘Local Notes and Queries’ in the Stirling Observer)”, signed N. A. Transcribed from the downloaded page. Only the passages about Rob Roy’s burial place, Duncan and Kate Col are given.

   On the grave: “The M’Farlanes seem to have been wholly unaware that Rob Roy was buried in the south-east quarter of the churchyard of Balquhidder.”

   On Duncan: “Of Duncan, the alleged son of Rob Roy, much less is, however, generally known. Though Duncan was not a son of Rob Roy, his connection with the sons has made his name very famous, and it is now proposed to add a few notes of him, authorised by his grand-daughter, still alive, with a view to reflecting some more truthful light upon the character and individuality of the man. A large body of the Macgregors followed the fortunes of Prince Charles in the rebellion of 1745, and Duncan was out with the clan, and was engaged in all the conflicts of that daring and disastrous enterprise. After Culloden he returned to the district of Balquhidder, and remained there for more than a year under hidings among the hills and glens, suffering many privations. ... At this period Duncan was in the prime of youthful manhood, and is understood to have resided at Strathyre. Duncan was married to Kate Col, as she was called, daughter of Colin, the eldest son of Rob Roy, but it is now an open question when the marriage took place, whether before or after 1750.”

   “Duncan was long confined in the jails of Perth and Edinburgh, and was not brought to trial till the month of January, 1753. The Court did not recognise him as a principal in the affair, and he was accordingly discharged from the bar. As formerly stated, Duncan, soon after his acquittal, returned to Balquhidder, and it is known that about this time he was living in the associations of married life with Kate Col, the daughter of Rob Roy’s eldest son Colin, and followed the calling of a hill farmer, having taken the lands of Cuilt, where the present Lochearnhead railway station stands, and where he died towards the close of the century. Duncan’s widow, Kate Col, survived her husband many years, and died so recently as 1812 at Auchtow, in Balquhidder, aged 88 years, having been born in 1724. Sir John MacGregor, of Lanrick Castle and Balquhidder, recognised her as a near relative, and was very kind to her in the decline of life. Duncan and Kate had eight children, four sons and four daughters. Two of the sons emigrated to America, one of whom was accidentally drowned there, the other two sons remained at home in the district. Three of the daughters were married, one to a farmer at Raploch near Stirling, another to a farmer in the carse of Blairdrummond, and the third was well married in the home district, and one daughter died young. The youngest member of the family was a son, John, who died in 1845, aged 80 years, having been born in 1765, being the youngest of eight children.”

   “There were eight children born of the marriage, the latest event taking place in 1765, and, according to the ordinary rates of succession in these cases, and making allowance for Duncan’s long imprisonment, inquiry goes back to 1748, and fixes the time of the marriage at or about this year, and the probability is that the marriage took place at that time.”

   On the burial ground: “One note more may be added in conclusion, relating to the burying-place of Rob Roy’s family in the churchyard of Balquhidder. The resting-place has been enclosed within a stone wall on three sides, the remains of the wall being still visible among the grass. The enclosure contains eight tombstones, in two divisions of four each, forming a square space. Three of the stones are quite intelligible, but the other five stones are perfect blanks, being turned upside down.”

   The Balquhidder register has nine baptisms to Duncan Drummond and Katharine McGrigar from 1748 to 1767, not eight children ending in 1765.

8. History of the Clan Gregor

   Amelia Georgiana Murray MacGregor. Compiled at the request of the Clan Gregor Society, 2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1898 and 1901. Volume II read on archive.org

   Vol. II, Appendix O, printed pages 490 and 491 (archive.org scan pages 518 and 519): discharge of the tocher of Margaret Campbell, eldest lawful daughter of John Campbell in Kerletter, signed by Coll Campbell at Inveraray, 21 February 1721, reciting their marriage the December before (page images read)

   Normal confidence Cited for parentage

   View the sourceIn the archiveBibliography

   Transcript and reading notes

   A. G. M. MacGregor, History of the Clan Gregor, volume II (1901). Passages found by searching the text of the archive.org copy on 11 Sep 2026. Page numbers are the archive.org scan pages, with the printed page numbers in brackets.

   Scan pages 518 and 519 (printed pages 490 and 491), Appendix O, headed “Marriage Contract of Coll Campbell (Rob Roy’s Eldest Son)” and cited to the Edinchip Papers. It is a discharge by Coll Campbell, “Son to Robert Campbell late of Inversnaid”, of the tocher of two thousand merks Scots promised by his father-in-law. It recites that “in the month of December last bypast there was a marriage betwixt me and Margaret Campbell eldest lawful daughter to John Campbell in Kerletter in Glenfalloch”. Her mother is named as Katherine Campbell.

   Reading note, 11 Sep 2026, from the page images. The document ends “written upon stampe paper by Angus Campbell writer in Inverary the 21st day of Feb. 1721 years before these witnesses Charles Stewart and Colin Campbell both writers in Inveraray. (Signed) Coll Campbell.” If that date is right, the December “last bypast” was December 1720, a year earlier than the December 1721 given in the main text (scan page 364, printed page 336).

   Resolved later on 11 Sep 2026 in favour of December 1720, the date this discharge gives: Scotland counted the year from 1 January, and the main text’s 1721 appears to be worked out from this document.

9. History of the Clan Gregor

   Amelia Georgiana Murray MacGregor. Compiled at the request of the Clan Gregor Society, 2 volumes, Edinburgh, 1898 and 1901. Volume II read on archive.org

   Vol. II, printed pages 336, 337, 344 and 510 (archive.org scan pages 364, 365, 372 and 538): Coll, eldest son of Rob Roy, married December 1721 Margaret, eldest daughter of John Campbell or MacGregor in Kerletter, Glen Falloch; tacksman of the Kirkton of Balquhidder; died 1735; married a second time, no family by that wife (page images read)

   Normal confidence Cited for parentage

   View the sourceIn the archiveBibliography

   Transcript and reading notes

   A. G. M. MacGregor, History of the Clan Gregor, volume II (1901). Passages found by searching the text of the archive.org copy on 11 Sep 2026. Page numbers are the archive.org scan pages, with the printed page numbers in brackets.

   Scan page 364 (printed page 336): “Coll married in Dec. 1721 Margaret eldest daughter of John Campbell, or MacGregor in Kerletter in Glenfalloch i.e. Caol-letir.” And: “He was tacksman of the Kirkton of Balquhidder, he died in 1735 a few months after his Father.”

   Scan page 365 (printed page 337): “Coll married a second time, but the name of his wife is not known, and by her he had no family.”

   Scan page 372 (printed page 344), of Rob Roy’s sons: “Happily the eldest son Coll was of a different stamp.”

   Scan page 538 (printed page 510), genealogical index: “Coll, eldest son of Rob Roy, in Kirkton of Balquhidder, d. in 1745, he married first Margaret, dr. of John Campbell or MacGregor, in Kerletter, and married a second time, name of wife not known, and no family.” The year 1745 there disagrees with the 1735 of the main text and of his testament.

   Reading note, 11 Sep 2026. The sentence on Coll’s marriage is part of a quoted list of Rob Roy’s sons; printed page 337, note 3, says most of the details of his descendants came from Gregor MacGregor in Glasgow by way of Mr Lee and Mr Skene of Avonmore. It describes Margaret in the words of the tocher discharge in Appendix O, which page 337 says was found among the Edinchip Papers while the book was being compiled. That discharge dates the marriage to December 1720, and its date is preferred to the 1721 here.

10. Registers of Testaments, Scotland

    Commissary Courts of Scotland. National Records of Scotland, CC series; images on ScotlandsPeople, Wills and Testaments

    Dunblane Commissary Court, CC6/5/24, images 147 to 150, testament dative and inventory of Coll Campbell in Kirktoun of Balquhidder, confirmed 18 December 1735 (register images read)

    Very high confidence Cited for parentage

    Transcript and reading notes

    Register of Testaments, Commissariot of Dunblane, National Records of Scotland CC6/5/24, images 147 to 150 (the register’s folios 167 to 170). ScotlandsPeople: Wills and testaments, Coll Campbell, 1735. The heading and executry clause are transcribed from the images. The debts and the inventory are given in the order written, with the amounts as written, and minor items shortened.

    In the margin: Coll Campbell.

    The Testament Dative and Inventary of the goods gear Household plenishing and others which pertained and belonged to the Deceased Coll Campbell in Kirktoun in Balquedder within the parish of Balquidder and Commissariot of Dunblane the time of his decease which was in the month of [blank] last. Faithfully made and given up by Margaret Campbell Relict of the said Defunct, Robert Murray of Glencarnock for themselves and in name of Alexander Stuart Writer in Stirling and James Alexander Sadler in Stirling, Which Margaret Campbell, Robert Murray, Alexander Stuart and James Alexander are decerned only Executors dative qua Creditors to the said Defunct for payment and satisfaction to them of the sums of money respectively underwritten.

    Debts. To Margaret Campbell, 286 pounds 11 shillings and 6 pennies Scots, expended and debursed by her on the Defunct the time of his sickness, for his funerals, servants’ fees and rents, with the expenses of confirmation. To Robert Murray, 26 pounds sterling by a bill drawn by him on and accepted by the Defunct, dated 2 May 1733, payable at Martinmas next thereafter, protested for not payment and registered in the Books of Council and Session on 31 January 1734, with letters of horning raised the same day. To Alexander Stuart, 5 pounds 5 shillings sterling by the Defunct’s accepted bill of 28 August 1722. To James Alexander, 25 pounds Scots by a bill dated 18 December 1723, payable on demand, protested for not payment and registered in the Sheriff Court Books of Perth on 21 May 1734. Margaret Campbell is to be paid first, and the other three after her, equally.

    Inventory, apprized by virtue of the Commissary’s warrant of the twenty third of September last. A brown horse going six years old, forty merks Scots. A little old small shaltie horse, ten merks. An old brown horse, four pounds Scots. An old cow, ten merks. Two little stots, eight pounds. A copper chaldron and aquavitae stellator, sixty four pounds. The pewter vessels with a brass candlestick. The brewing vessels, barrels and puncheons. Five chests within the house. Three ambries or presses. The bedsteads of nine beds, twelve pounds. Two pots. Eleven chairs whole and broken. Three tables. Bed plaids, sheets and bed covers. His body apparel including his plaid and trews, fifteen pounds six shillings and eight pennies. A feather bed and seven bolsters. Bottles, drinking cups, two drinking glasses and seventeen spoons. Yarn, lint and wool. A saddle, eight pounds. Iron work, two little wheels, a wool creel and baskets. Corn and hay upon the land. Three bolls corn and a firlot bear sown upon the Kirktoun with the Red land, computed to be four bolls at eight pounds per boll, thirty two pounds. Upon the lands of Portnellan in Stra[...], eight bolls at the said price, sixty four pounds. Two swords, six pounds. Two holsters and pistols, four pounds. A gun not sighted but reputed by the friends, one pound ten shillings. Five two-year-old wedders. A little pot. Ewes. A little piece of cloth. Peats and turfs. Leather. An old gray pony, three pounds. Some plough irons. Potatoes, two shillings. Some green kail in the yard, six shillings. All Scots money.

    Summa Inventarij, the total in roman numerals not confidently read. Confirmed 18 Decr 1735. John Drummond Writer in Edinburgh Cautioner.

    The month of death is left blank and no children are named. The goods were apprized on 23 September 1735, in a testament confirmed that December, so he died before that date. The place after Portnellan is not confidently read.