Glengyle and its owners

A clipping from The Glasgow Herald of 3 June 1926, archived via Newspapers.com, with a full transcription below. The article is by John MacGregor, W.S.¹

Transcription

GLENGYLE AND ITS OWNERS

By JOHN MACGREGOR, W.S.

By the purchase of the estate of Glengyle the Corporation of Glasgow now owns the whole lands round the shores of Loch Katrine. Truly the wheel of time brings many changes, and one wonders what Rob Roy would have said had he seen, as I have done, a descendant of Bailie Nicol Jarvie residing in the family mansion.

This small property, extending to about 2200 acres, is situated at the extreme west end of Loch Katrine. The loch for rather more than a quarter of a mile and the Glengyle Water for another two and a half miles form its southern boundary. To the north the property is separated from the Braes of Balquidder by the hill tops, which rise to a height of over two thousand feet.

The dwelling-house, a two-storied building with attic or window above, is pleasantly situated facing towards the south, and overlooks the west end of Loch Katrine. It is sheltered from the west and north by a strip of trees, in which there is a small burying-ground. In front of the house is a grassy field which slopes gently to the level of the loch.

Glengyle at one time formed a portion of the extensive estates of the Buchanans of that ilk. The last male of the old family to possess the property was John Buchanan, who died before September 6, 1681, leaving two daughters, and his lands were purchased from his creditors by James, third Marquis of Montrose.

When the MacGregors first occupied Glengyle is not clearly ascertained, but they were there in 1536 as tenants of the Buchanans, and in 1656 Lieutenant-Colonel Donald MacGregor (Rob Roy’s father) was designed as “of Glengyle.” He was the Ceann Tigh or head of the house of Clan Douill Chere, or mouse-coloured Dougal. Lieutenant-Colonel Donald MacGregor took a leading part in the affairs of the time. Donald had taken an active part in the rising under the Earl of Glencairn in favour of King Charles II in 1653, and probably then had a commission as lieutenant-colonel, a designation which he retained for the rest of his life. At one time he was a man of considerable means, and appears as lending or paying considerable sums of money. He frequently was accepted as cautioner or surety for executors of deceased clansmen, and figured in many of the transactions in which his young chief was concerned. Notwithstanding the part he had taken in Glencairn’s rising, General Monk authorised him to secure all of the name of MacGregor or other broken men and to send them prisoners to Perth, and in 1669 John, Earl of Athole, as Justice-General of Scotland, gave him a commission for uplifting all forfeitures and fynes of fugitives from the Justiciary Court. Unfortunately, his circumstances suffered a great eclipse, due to his loyalty to his Sovereign. On 28th August, 1689, he, along with the chiefs of several Highland clans, signed at Blair Athole a Bond of Association, under which he undertook to raise one hundred men for King James. When Dundee fell at Killiecrankey, every hope of his King perished, and on 12th January, 1690, it was announced in a letter from the Earl of Crawford to Lord Melville that “the great robber Lieutenent Collonell Macgregor was taken by a party of my Lord Kenmuir’s men and brought prisoner to Edinburgh.” His rents had been sequestrated, and the Privy Council recommended the Lord Advocate to proceed against him for treason, having been in rebellion against King William and Queen Mary, and also for depredation, theft, and robbery. Apparently that recommendation was not adopted, for Donald MacGregor petitioned the Privy Council to be set at liberty on 5th February, 1691, and on 1st October following, on taking the oath of allegiance, he was released from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. It is also stated in his petition that any little means he had had been spent and that his wife was lately dead. The last occasion that I have proof of Lieutenant-Colonel Donald MacGregor being alive was on 23rd May, 1693, when he and John Buchanan of Arnpryor entered into a Bond of Friendship.

John MacGregor, eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Donald, was born about the year 1647, married in 1685, and, dying young, left two sons and at least one daughter. His eldest son, Gregor, was commonly called Gregor glun dubh, or of the black knee, was a child at the time of his father’s death, and to him Rob Roy, who was a younger son of Lieutenant-Colonel Donald, and consequently John’s uncle, acted as his guardian.

Until this time the family had only been tacksmen or tenants of Glengyle, at first under the Buchanans and latterly under the Montrose family. Rob Roy, however, obtained from James, Marquis of Montrose, a feu charter of the two merklands of Glengyle, dated March 25, 1703, to himself, as tutor at law to James Graham (as Gregor glun dubh was called, owing to the proscription of the name MacGregor), and to said James Graham at his lawful age.

Rob Roy wrote the following letter to the Earl of Breadalbane:—

Portnellan Nover. 12th 1707.

My Lord,

I long to see your Lordship, and I presume to tell your Lordship that I have the honour to have come of your Lordship’s family and shall keep my dependency suitable to the same of which I sed your Lordship, when I parted with your Lordship and when I sayed to you Lordship, ever promised shall be keeped while I live. My Nephew is to see your Lordship, whom I hope will be capable to serve your Lordship and will do it tho I were in my grave he is a young man so my Lord give him your advice he is Begging his house and I hope your Lordship will give him a precept for the four trees your Lordship promised him the last time I was there I beg pardon for the subscriving and I am,

My Lord

Your Lordship’s Servant,

Ro: Campbell.

If the house of Glengyle was only built in 1707, it cannot have been the same house in which Rob Roy was born about thirty-six years earlier. The room in which he is said to have been born is, however, still pointed out in Glengyle house. Since Rob Roy’s birth, Glengyle house has been rebuilt at least twice.

It was doubtless in preparation for his marriage that Gregor Ghlun dubh was building the house mentioned in the foregoing letter. He married Mary Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton of Bardowie, and their marriage contract was signed six days after the date of the above letter. Gregor was then still in minority.

The MacGregors were at Sheriffmuir under Rob Roy in the year 1715. “The Flying Post” of October 18, 1715, records:—“Some days ago a party was ordered from Perth, another from Stirling, and a third from Glasgow toward the house and haunts of that notorious robber and rebel Robert Roy MacGregor with a design to have surrounded him and his men, but one of the parties being prevented by the waters being out from coming up in time enough to the rendezvous, the design miscarried; and tho’ our men came within sight of him, he and his clan escap’d to the mountains. Our men shot at them, but ’tis not certain whether any of the rebels dropp’d. They fir’d again and kill’d one of our grenadiers, so that all our men cou’d do was to burn his house, and what was not worth or capable of being carry’d off.” The house burnt on this occasion may have been that of Glengyle.

Gregor ghlun dubh was engaged in the ’45. Prince Charles appointed him Colonel and Commandant of the fortress of Doune, Cardross, and Balinton, and Murray of Broughton in his memorials says he was judged the ablest man in the country to keep the garrison at Stirling Castle in awe and to prevent their making excursions into the country to disturb the families of such as were in arms. In a footnote, Murray describes Glengyle’s character as follows:—“Glengyle … in person a tall, handsome man and more of the mein of the antient heroes than our modern gentlemen, possest of a Singular deal of humanity and good nature, honest and determined to a Proverb, extreamly modest, brave and intrepide, and born one of the best Partizans in Europe, in that the whole people of that Country declared that never did people live under so milde a Government as Glengyles, not a man having so much as lost a chicken while he continued there.” When in the Tower of London, Murray gave an account of the Highland clans. In his account of Glengyle there differs somewhat from that given above. He says M’Gregor of Glengyle “is a very humanly honest man in private life, but seldom to be depended upon, being frequently delirious.”

According to the Scots Magazine, on June 7, 1746, a body of 700 men entered Balquidder and proceeded to the Braes of Montieth, but, not finding Glen gyle and his party there, burnt his house, and all the houses in Craigroyston possessed by the MacGregors and carried the cattle to Crieff. Gregor ghlun dubh, under the name James Graham of Glengyle, was excepted by name, from the Act of Pardon passed in the year 1747.

In the small burying-ground a short distance to the west of Glengyle House there is a white marble slab in the north wall with the following inscription to Gregor ghlun dubh:—

To the Memory of Gregor M’Gregor of Glengyle, who died 21st August, 1777, aged 88.

Not with vain flatt’ry to insult the dead But place the stone above thy honour’d head But that, while wand’ring here, the Good and Brave May sighing pause to mark thy silent grave And awful o’er thine ashes as they bend, Think on their Chief, their Father or their Friend Speak of thy Steady Soul, and martial flame That burnt for Liberty and Virtue more than fame, And tell their sons to hold thy Mem’ry dear Thy footsteps follow and thy name revere.

Over the door of Glengyle House there is a stone inscribed as follows:—

1704.   J. M’G.            J.B.
        G. M’G.    1728.   M. H.

Obviously the inscription was not carved in 1704, for, as we have seen above, the house was only built in 1707. The initials “G. M’G.” and “M. H.” stand for Gregor MacGregor and his wife, Mary Hamilton, who were married in 1707, as mentioned above.

“J. M’G.” and “J. B.” stand for John MacGregor, the eldest son of the Gregor ghlun dubh and his wife. John was born in 1708, and died before his father in 1774. He married Jean, daughter of William Buchanan of Craigeavairn. I am not aware of the reason for putting the date 1728, as their marriage does not appear to have taken place till about the year 1743.

The remains of John MacGregor, who died on December 30, 1774, are also interred in the small burying-ground.

John MacGregor was succeeded in the representation of the family of Clan Douill Chere by his son James, who was at one time a quartermaster in the 105th Regiment. He was twice married. His first wife was Isabella, daughter of Captain Gregor M’Gregor, of the family of Inverardaran, whom he married in the year 1777. She died in 1789, and left him four daughters. His second wife was Henrietta, daughter of Alexander MacGregor of Ardmacmnin, whose place is also situated on the north shore of Loch Katrine, to the eastward of Glengyle.

In 1791 while driving a flock of sheep, James Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd lost his way and got permission to drive them through Glengyle. He went to Glengyle House to get permission. The laird, he says, “was then an old man, and seemed to me to be a very queer man; but his lady granted my request without hesitation, and seemed to me an active, social woman.” This was, of course, John’s second wife. By her he had three sons. The two eldest dying in infancy, was succeeded by his only surviving son John.

John MacGregor served for some time in the West Kent Militia, and married in 1816 Jane Isabella the daughter of Captain Daniel MacGregor who was the brother of John’s father’s first wife, and had three sons, James, John Daniel, and Gregor.

When the Commissioners of the Glasgow Corporation Water Works Act, 1855, proposed to raise the level of Loch Katrine, James, the eldest, lodged a claim for compensation. In this claim he states the property “has been in the family of the claimant for hundreds of years, and possesses a distinction of the highest value to him and his family as the birthplace and last resting place of a long line of ancestors. He, who were in succession the chiefs of his race and clan.” The effect of raising the level, he says, will be “in winter and during seasons of long continued rain, the land will be covered with water; but in summer and autumn his beautiful green meadow will be converted into an unsightly, offensive, and unwholesome swamp, exhibiting only decayed and decaying vegetation, and polluting the atmosphere with most offensive odours and exhalations.” The compensation claimed for the portion submerged, extending to 13 acres 3 roods and 21 perches, and the damage to the rest of the estate, was £25,903 11s 8d. Can some reader say how much he got?

John MacGregor in 1855, owing to financial difficulties, sold the estate to James MacGregor, proprietor of the Queen’s Hotel, Glasgow, for £9875, and the commissioners of the Glasgow Corporation in 1918 purchased the estate from James MacGregor’s daughter for rather less than half of that sum.

Of the three sons of John MacGregor, James, the eldest, died in Auchterarder Combination Poorhouse on January 26, 1897, aged 79. He had been an inmate for many years. He was buried in the little burying-ground at Glengyle among his ancestors by the generosity of certain members of the clan, who defrayed the expense of the funeral. The second son appears to have died young. Gregor, the third son, for some time practised in Callander as a doctor, and dying in 1867 was buried in the burying-ground there.

In the little burying-ground near Glengyle House also rests the remains of Major-General Sir Charles Metcalfe MacGregor, K.C.B., who died at Cairo on February 5, 1887. He was the heir-male of Rob Roy, and during his last illness expressed his earnest desire to rest among his ancestors in this little graveyard. The interment took place with difficulty through drifted snow on March 11 in that year.

James MacGregor, of the Queen’s Hotel, who had purchased the estate in 1855, died in 1870, and his only son, Robert Napier MacGregor, in 1881, when the eldest daughter, Jemima, succeeded to the property. She married George Sheriff, who assumed the name MacGregor and died in 1895. Their only son was killed in action at Spion Kop on January 24, 1900, and it was from his mother that the Commissioners bought Glengyle in 1918, as mentioned above. James MacGregor, his son and grandson, are also interred in the little burying-ground.

William Wordsworth, the poet, visited Glengyle in 1803, and was informed by a “well-educated lady who lived at the head of the lake” that Rob Roy’s grave was near the head of Loch Katrine, in one of those small, pinfoldlike burial-grounds, of neglected and desolate appearance, which the traveller meets with in the Highlands of Scotland, situated within a mile or less of her residence. And under this mistaken impression he composed the poem entitled “Rob Roy’s Grave,” in which the well-known lines occur:

The eagle, he was lord above And Rob was lord below.

The burial-ground indicated is evidently that at Portnellan. The information, however, was erroneous. Rob Roy was buried in Balquidder burying-ground, and that fact is stated in Notes to the later editions of Wordsworth’s poems.

Footnotes