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DOWN to the reign of James
IV. the M'Gregors, broken
as they lately were into contending sections, and without a chief,
had still been able to hold their own safely. The Campbells of
Glenorchy, from 1452 downwards, had been gradually acquiring
heritable and leasehold titles to large tracts in the Breadalbane
district; but the royal and Charter-house possessions there were yet
extensive, and upon these the M'Gregors held their settlements
unquestioned, The Campbells, upon the lands they actually acquired,
were not yet in a position to exercise coercive measures with a high
hand. In 1473, John Stewart of Fortingall, and Neil his son, had a
nineteen years' lease from James III. of the royal lands and
lordships of Apnadull, Glenquaich, Glenlyon, Strathbrawin, and
Rannoch. They held the important office of bailairy of the same
lands for the period of their lease. The house of Roro, and the
off-shoot branches in Rannoch, Fortingall, &c, flourished and robbed
under the sway of Neil—for
his father died soon after the lease was obtained. The M'Gregors
amply repaid the kindness, and exhibited for Neil a degree of
fidelity which was no less honourable than fatal for both parties.
Neil, at the head of his own men and the faithful M'Gregors, fought
fiercely for his unfortunate monarch, and relative, James III.,
through the last sad troubles of his melancholy reign. After the
death of the king, Neil appears to have kept up for some time a
predatory band, and to have set the M'Gregors loose upon some of the
neighbouring barons who had espoused the side of the prince in the
late war. Whatever compunctions James IV.
might have felt for the death of his father, he did not always show
friendly feelings for those who had manfully espoused his side.
Neil's lease expired in 1492, and was not renewed. James
IV. visited Kinloch-Rannoch and the rest
of the district, and saw fit, in his royal wisdom, to confer the
power which he had taken from the hands of Neil upon the Lairds of
Glenorchy and Weem. In 1502, Glenorchy had a charter of the Barony
of Glenlyon. A similar charter, of the same" date, was granted to
Sir Robert Menzies of Weem, of the north side of Loch Rannoch, at
that time and long afterwards the very stronghold of the M'Gregors.
Neil Stewart died at Garth, 31st January, 1499, and was succeeded by
his son, also called Neil. This impetuous young man, maddened by the
slight put on his house, hurled immediately, with all the relentless
vigour of his forefather, the redoubtable "Wolf of Badenoch," the
fiery torrent of his Highland vengeance upon Sir Robert Menzies. The
M'Gregors of Rannoch, and indeed of the whole house of Roro, were
his willing associates. The charter of the lands of Rannoch is dated
1st September, 1502; and in the same month, Niall Gointe of Garth,
and his wild followers surprised, pillaged and burned Weem Castle,
took Sir Robert Menzies prisoner, and laid all his property waste.
They took with them all they could carry or drive, and what they
could not take with them they burned.
The Clan Gregor cannot be traced or identified by
means of existing records beyond 1400. But when first
met with they are a numerous and widely scattered tribe, devoted to
warlike pursuits and cattle lifting. Their whole attitude towards
law and authority is that of people who have suffered wrong and who
perpetually resent it. The surname itself is not to be found in
records before the beginning of the fifteenth, or near the end of
the fourteenth, century. As already mentioned, Mr. Gregory's
supposition that the John of Glenorchy, who lived in 1296 was, in
his day, chief of the Gregorian tribe will not hold water, that John
of Glenorchy was clearly a Macdougall, and a feudal baron, like his
distant kinsman, the John of Lome, who about 1370 introduced
M'Gregors into Glenlyon, and probably got a M'Gregor vicar appointed
to the Church of Fortingall. Still there was evidently a strong
connection of some kind between those feudal barons and the Clan
Gregor. The latter, I believe, were the soldiers or Feinne of the
former, and as such possessed lands and privileges. But what were
they before the Crown Thanages were granted out? Toisich and kindly
tenants of the Crown no doubt. Feudalism at first did not oppress
them much, because for a time they held the same relation towards
the feudal baron which they had formerly held towards the King. But
that state of things could not last long, and when the Clan Gregor
realised the fact that feudalism would gradually displace and
extinguish them they began war with authority and with society.
Glenorchy was the cradle of their race, and to Glenorchy they stuck
with wonderful tenacity for two centuries after John of Lome's
death. The oldest of the Clan Gregor song in the Dean of Lismore's
Gaelic collection must, as internal evidence proves, have been
composed about 1480. It claims for the then head of the house of
Glenstrae, descent from Toisich or Thanes, and asserts an equality
of rank between the old captains of districts and feudal lords. We
learn from these old songs that, from 1400 to 1500, the Clan Gregor
made a great deal of peculiar history, although as yet their
separate clan history had scarcely commenced. We are told that the
dwellings and folds of the chieftains were full of spoils and
"lifted" cattle, but on looking below the surface we can see that,
as yet, the clan waged their wars as hired soldiers under the
banners of contending feudal potentates. In the next century they
carried on forays and wars on their own hand and under their own
banner. The moan which the Monks of Scone put into one of their
charters, leaves little room to doubt that the M'Gregors had
squatted by force on the Charter-house lands in Bread-albane long
before the end of the fifteenth century, and carried on systematic
robberies. They would seem to have been much earlier than that
troublers of Strathearn. To Glenlyon they were introduced as
soldiers of John of Lome, and the Stewarts of Garth planted
seemingly a colony of Glenlyon M'Gregors as their soldiers, on the
north side of Loch Rannoch, who being reinforced from Glenorchy and
entering into brotherhood with the lawless men of Lochaber and
Badenoch, gave the Government and country much trouble for two
hundred years afterwards. Rannoch, if we can rely upon the silence
of records, was as peaceful and orderly as any place in Perthshire,
until, in an evil hour, the Stewarts of Garth placed M'Gregor Feinne
in Dunan and Slismin. They were not long there before they realised
the advantages of the position. They developed the "creach" system
accordingly, and defied authority. But the Fourth James was a strong
ruler, and as soon as he saw the nature and extent of the evil, he
took prompt measures to remedy it.
After a struggle, in which he exhibited the
hereditary obstinacy of his family to the utmost, Neil Stewart
finally succumbed, and about 1507 resigned his Barony of Fortingall
into the hands of the Earl of Huntly.
The feudal Baron was ruined; not so the landless
Clan Gregor. Menzies, by giving his daughter in marriage to M'Gregor
of Roro, attached the latter to his interest—who acknowledged Sir
Robert as over-lord, and at the same time deprived the Rannoch
M'Gregors of their legitimate head. For the next twenty years, the
Rannoch M'Gregors are designated "brokin men of the Clan Gregour." A
leader, however, appeared in the person of the redoubtable Duncan
Ladosach M'Gregor, related both to the houses of Roro and
Glenstrae. Before this hero came upon the stage, Menzies attempted
to obtain a real footing in his nominal Barony of Rannoch, by
putting in effect that plan—so often tried for pacifying the
rebellious districts of Scotland—of colonising the unsettled lands
with new inhabitants. Being unable to effect his purpose unaided, he
entered into a contract with Huntly in 1505, wherein it was
stipulated, "Sir Robert's heir would marry Lady Jean Gordon,
daughter of the Earl; the lands of Rannoch would be let to Huntly
for five years, during which time the latter bound himself to stock
them with the best and most obedient tenants that could be found."
Huntly's efforts proved unavailing; for in 1523,
on being charged by the Countess of Athole to expel the M'Gregor
chief from Rannoch, Sir Robert stated to the Lords of Council he
could not do it, "seeing that the said M'Gregour on force enterit
the said Robertis landis of Rannoche, and withaldis the samyn fra
him maisterfullie, and is of far greater powar than the said Robert,
and will nocht be put out be him of the saidis landis." His
successors downwards obtained from the governments of the day
exemption from answering for the peace of their lands of Rannoch, as
the M'Gregors continued to act the part of masters therein. This was
the case down at least to 1684, in which year "Sir .Alexander
Menzies of Weyme" obtained an exemption of the kind, and in fact
their feudal investiture little availed the Lairds of Weem until the
untameable race were broken to the yoke, along with the other
rebellious septs, by the Dutch and Hanoverian garrisons established
throughout the country after the Revolution of 1688.
When the battle of Flodden deprived Scotland of
its king and leading nobility, feuds and agressions, in all parts of
the country, broke out with unusual ferocity, and threatened the
unfortunate realm with evils more fatal than those of the stricken
field. The Laird of Struan, William Robertson, was the most
conspicuous of the Perthshire chiefs who entered without check or
remorse upon this course. In the Rannoch M'Gregors he found willing
coadjutors, who, joined to his own men, gave Struan a "following" of
upwards of 800 warlike and unscrupulous freebooters. For three years
the band held together ; and though we have no detailed
account of their exploits, the havoc committed must have been
something unprecedented, to have drawn Buchanan's attention from the
intrigues of courtiers and ecclesiastics, and to have justified the
following strong expressions of the learned historian:—"Ante ejus
adventum (that is, Albany's arrival from France) cum nemo
unns auctoritate praecipua poller et, passim caedes et rapinae
fiebant: et, dum potentiores privatas opes et factiones contrahunt,
vulgus inopum,desertum, omnigenere miseriarum affligebatur. Inter
prcedones illius temporis, fuit Macrobertus Struamcs, qui per
Atholiam et vicina loca, octingentisplerumque latronibus, ae interim
pluribus comitatus omnia pro arbitrio populabatiir." Struan was
caught at last by guile, when sojourning with his uncle, John
Crichton, and expiated his crimes at Tully-met, 7th April, 1516,
which was the year after the Regent Albany's arrival in Scotland.
In these, and several raids which followed, the
chief men of the clan appear studiously to have kept their hands
clean; but the caution was unavailing, and they soon found to their
dismay, that the desperate deeds of the "brokin men" brought the
whole clan face to face with destruction.
On the fall of Struan, Duncan Ladosach
rallied round him the M'Gregors of Rannoch, and all the other
desperadoes of the clan who wished to defy the law, or had done so
already. The name of this remarkable man became a byword; but time
had so much obliterated traditions regarding him, that, beyond the
name of horror with which the mother stilled her child, little else
was known about him in my boyhood. The publication of the Black
Book of Tay-mouth has now, however, thrown floods of light upon
the life of the daring freebooter. Among the other interesting
documents included in that volume, we find, though not published for
the first time, "Duncan Laideus alias Makgregouris Testament"
It is a poem of considerable length, treating, in the first
person, of the life of our hero. Duncan, of course, never wrote a
line of it, nor is the author known. It was written, evidently, by a
foeman of the clan Gregor, probably by a Campbell; but it has great
merit notwithstanding, and, except that Duncan's good qualities, if
he had any, are passed over in silence, the principal passages of
his exciting life seem faithfully enough preserved. Like a real
will, the poem is divided into two parts, narrative and
testamentary. Like most poems of that age, the Testament opens with
allegorical personifications of the virtues and vices, and a
relation of how the latter prevailed, till finally
"Falsehood said, he
made my house right strong,
And furnished weill with meikill wrangous geir,
And bad me neither God nor man to feir."
And then, under the
influence of this precious household, Duncan tells us how
"First in my youthead
I began to deal
With small oppressions and tender lambis,
Syne with Lawtie I brak baith band and seill,
Cleikit couplit kiddis with their damis;
After, fangit beafe with great hammis;
Then could I nocht stand content with ane cow,
Without I got the best stirk of the bow."
Duncan continuing in
his evil courses, and to theft adding manslaughter, his misdeeds
were related in the Court of that "royal prince," King James
IV., who gave orders for his capture.
"The loud corrinoch
then did me exile,
Through Lome, Argyle, Menteith and Braidalbane
But like ane fox with mony wrink and wyle,
Frae the hunds eschapis oft onslane,
Sae did I then, syne schupe me to remain,
In Lochaber with gude Ewin Alesoun,
Where that we wan mony ane malesoun."
Being chased from Lochaber by Archibald, Earl of
Argyle, he returned to his old haunts, but the toils were everywhere
set against him, and so he was made prisoner by Sir Duncan Campbell
of Glenorchy. Cast into " ane dungeoun deep," and expecting merited
doom, the Battle of Flodden, in which Sir Duncan fell, gave him
hopes of liberty, which he soon realised by bribing his keepers :—
"Deliverit, then, of danger and of deid,
Lettin again unto my libertie,
By help of friends, keparis of that steid,
To whom I promissed ane pension yeirlie;
But in gude faith my intent was trewlie
Never worde to keep of that promiss than
Nor yet sensyne made to nae uther man."
The meeting with his companions is so graphically described that
I give it without curtailment:
"Then be the way me haistilie their meetis
My companions swift as ony swallows;
For great blythness sittis doun and greetis,
Sayand, ' Maister, welcome, be Alhallows.
May we be hangit heich upon ane gallows
Gif we be not blyther of you alane.
Nor that we had baith God and Sanct Phillans.
'What tidings, sir,' quod I, ' frae the host? '
Quod they, ' In gude faith we bide not for to lane;
The King, with mony worthy man, is lost,
Baith Earl Archibald and Sir Duncan slain.'
'Off thae tidings,' quod I, ' I am richt fain,
For had the King lived, or yet the Lord,
They had me worrit stark dead in ane cord.
Now, gude fallows,
hearken what I say to you,
This country think I for to rule my self;
Be true to me all, theirfor, I pray you,
And we among us ay shall pairt the pelf,
And ripe, in faith, mony poor widow's skelf;
For she shall say that Duncan and his men
Have not her left the valoure of ane hen.'
Then answerit they,
all with ane voice attanis,
But gif we do, as thou bidst us, ay,
The devil tak us, saule, body, and banis,
Quick unto hell, withouten more delay.'
I hearing them thir wordis, gladlie say,
Sik courage could into my mind incress,
And soon began the commons to oppress.
Like ane wolf, greedy
and insatiabill,
Devouring sheep with mony bludie box,
To the people I was als terribill,
Reiffand frae them mony ane cow and ox.
Were the grey mare in the fetter lox
At John Upalande's door knit fast eneuch,
Upon the morn he mist her to the pleuch."
The weak and troubled
Regency of Albany allowed Duncan full scope to "rule the land
himself," and everything went smooth with him in all his attempts as
long as
"James mewed in
Stirling's tower,
A stranger to respect and power."
But a storm arose
when that vigorous monarch took the reins in his own hands. In 1530,
James raised an army of ten thousand men, with which he swept the
borders. During this expedition, "Johnnie Armstrong" and thirty-six
of his men were hanged at Carlenrig. James, unwearied in punishing
malefactors, and in adding terror to the administration of justice,
established the Court of Session in 1532, visited the Isles in 1540,
and altogether showed such determination to put down oppression and
disorder in all parts of his dominions, as gave his kingdom a degree
of peace scarcely known before, and fairly earned for the chivalrous
monarch the endearing title of "King of all the Commons." Duncan
Ladosach found, to his cost, his hand was now in the lion's mouth.
In 1531, we find the following "Memorandum" made by the Curate of
Fortingall:—
"Rannoch was hareyed
the morne efter Sanct Tennenis day in harist, be John Erlle of
Awthoell, and be Clan-Donoquhy (Robertsons), the yer of God ane
M.vc.xxxi., and at the next Belten (May) after that, the quhylk was
xxxii. yer, the bra of Rannoch was hareyd be them abown wryttyn, and
Alexander Dow Albrych war heddyth at Kenloch-trannoch : the quhylk
Belten and yer I coun till the cwyr of Fortyr-gill fyrst, and
Alexander M'Gregor of Glenstra our scheyff (chief) was bot ane barne
of xvii. yer that tyme."
John, Earl of Athole,
and the Robertsons, succeeded in taking the castle in the Isle of
Loch Rannoch, and in expelling thence the "brokin men of the Clan
Gregour," of whom Duncan Ladosach was by this time the acknowledged
leader. The Earl, however, complained next year that the expenses of
the expedition, and the charge of garrisoning and keeping the
castle, had not been paid him, as promised by the King, and solemnly
protested that any inconvenience which might arise from the Council
refusing or delaying to receive the castle from him should not be
laid to his charge. This protest perhaps arose more from the Earl's
fears of Duncan recovering his prize before he had been able to
deliver it up to Government, and so fulfil the commission with which
he was charged, than from any doubt his expenses should not be
reimbursed. The same year, 1532, Athole strengthened his hand
against Duncan and his "broken men" by a Bond of Mutual Help,
between John Stewart, Earl of Athole, on the one part, and Duncan
Campbell of Glenurchay, and William Murray of Tullibardine,on the
other, irvwhich the said parties bound themselves, "to be gude
friendis in pece and weir," the which Bond was "ackit in the
officialis buikis of Dunkell, under the panis of curssing and uther
censuris of Haly Kirk." Next year, 1533, James V.
made a summer tour to Athole, and shortly after Duncan was
outlawed and put to the horn, and as a fugitive from sharp justice
was reduced to great misery. But when the King died, he was again
abroad at his old work.
The Curate of Fortingall has an entry, of which
the following is a translation:
"The House of Trochare in Strathbraan was burned
by Alexander M'Gregor of Glenstrae, 25th August, 1545; on which day
Robert Robertson of Strowan was captured by the same Alexander, and
four of the said Robert's servants slain. 'God the Just Judge,
render to every one according to Ms work?''
From the last sentence the curate gives us to
understand, in his usual equivocal way, that Strowan, in his opinion
at least, received only what he deserved. By this time the chief of
the clan had been fairly drawn into Duncan's schemes, the cause of
the "broken men" had become the cause of the clan, and thus the
enormities originally committed by a few, led to the legal
contamination of the whole, and by degrees subjected the entire race
to extirpating vengeance. The house of Glenorchy had shown special
severity to the landless tribe, and upon their heads Duncan now
resolved that a full measure of wrath should fall. The Chief of
Glenstrae died, and Duncan was chosen tutor by the clan. This office
enabled him fully to consummate his former attempts
to lead the whole clan into his own evil courses. There can be
little doubt the murder of Alexander Ower M'Gregor of Morinch, was
committed by Duncan, in revenge of the former having forsworn his
allegiance to the Tutor, and having become the vassal of Campbell of
Glenurchay. The M'Gregors of Roro would appear, as we shall
hereafter notice, to have in a manner refused to bear Duncan's yoke,
and as much as possible to have kept clear of aiding him in his
misdeeds. Alexander Ower was a cadet of this unfriendly house.
Should his example be followed—and the Tutor's tyrannical measures
might make it contagious among the powerful sept to which Ower
belonged—then farewell to Duncan's power; let the M'Gregors learn to
give the calp of "Ceann-Cinne " to any other than the Laird of
Glenstrae, and Duncan's authority, and the superiority of his pupil
would at once become a dream; the ligatures of clanship being cut,
as a race the M'Gregors would become extinct. Duncan saw the
magnitude of the evil, and met it by a prompt and bloody remedy. It
brought Duncan to the block, but contributed not a little to the
preservation of the Clan Gregor. Allaster Ower signed the Bond of
Vassalage to Colin of Glenurchay upon the 10th July, 1550, and was
slain by Duncan and his son Gregor upon Sunday, the 22nd November,
1551. The slaughter of Allaster made the Campbells' cup of wrath
against Duncan overflow. The Laird of Glenorchy associated the
neighbouring barons, and all who had suffered from Duncan and his
band, against the desperate freebooter. The issue is related by the
Curate of Fortingall:— "Slaughter and beheading of Duncan
M'Gregor and his sons, namely, Gregor and Malcom Roy, by Colin
Campbell of Glenurchay, Duncan Roy of Glenlyon, and Alexander
Menzies of Rannoch, and their accomplices; on which day John Gorm
M'Duncan Vc Allexander Kayr, was slain by Allexander Menzies, at ...
. 16th June, 1552."
The public documents
concerning Duncan's doings are reserved for another time. He it was
undoubtedly that set the mark of outlawry and destruction upon the
clan first, and therefore it is meet we should know as much as
possible about him. |
