Rob Roy MacGregor

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 1^st, 1671.  By at least one source, his baptism at March 7.  Sir Walter Scott's text above comes from the intro to "Rob Roy".

From Rob Roy

One indicator of how much influence a person has is when one's words are repeated, especially when they come into common use in a society.  Such an indicator is found in a letter which Jane Welsh Carlyle wrote to her husband Thomas on August 18, 1831.  Jane begins her letter with words right out of "Rob Roy".
 

‘My foot is on my native heath, and my name's Magregor [sic]!’ And now dear Love I can breath[e] again, and think, and feel, and write. Well, it is an invaluable privilege to have a house of ones own,—to be entitled to take a rank in society—tho' it were even below the craziest sort of gig. Robert Barker said one day, naively enough, when I had been skipping all his remarks and sparing myself the fatigue of answering: “What does ail you? At Craigenputtoch she is the brightest, most delightful creature in the world—and here always sullen and miserable looking!” “It is a pity it should be so,” said my Mother with much emphasis and tossing— “Fortunate rather” I coolly replied—“it is surely fortunate that I produce the pleasantest impression in the place where I oftenest am and where it is my duty to be”—...'

Rob Roy MacGregor

'Far and near, through vale and hill,
Are laces that attest the same,
And kindle like a fire new stirr'd
At sound of Rob Roy's name.'
 
Most people are familiar with Rob Roy MacGregor, at least from the movie with Liam Neeson playing the lead role.  The text above comes from Walter Scott's introduction to his "Rob Roy", which according to Edinburgh University's Walter Scott site was well received, both critically and with the public.  Scott provides background to the action of his story in the intro: 'There had been a long and bloody feud betwixt the MacGregors and the Laird of Luss, head of the family of Colquhoun, a powerful race on the lower part of Loch Lomond. The MacGregors' tradition affirms that the quarrel began on a very trifling subject. Two of the MacGregors being benighted, asked shelter in a house belonging to a dependant of the Colquhouns, and were refused. They then retreated to an out-house, took a wedder from the fold, killed it, and supped off the carcass, for which (it is said) they offered payment to the proprietor. The Laird of Luss seized on the offenders, and, by the summary process which feudal barons had at their command, had them both condemned and executed. The MacGregors verify this account of the feud by appealing to a proverb current amongst them execrating the hour {Mult dhu an carbail ghiT) that the black wedder with the white tail was ever lambed. To avenge this quarrel the Laird of MacGregor assembled his clan, to the number of three or four hundred men, and marched towards Luss from the banks of Loch Long, by a pass called Raid na Gael, or the Highlandman's Pass...'
 
Rob Roy fought with Jacobites in the risings of 1688 and 1715, the year "Rob Roy" the novel is set in.  Rob Roy's career as a cattleman developed after this period, and it was dealings with James Graham that caused him to be imprisoned.  Rob Roy MacGregor died on December 28, 1734.