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 and
many a bang,
Hard crabtree and cold iron
rang.
Rob Roy MacGregor’s birth is placed at February 1st,
1671. By at least one source, his
baptism at March 7. Sir Walter Scott's text above comes from the intro to "Rob Roy".
