Clan Gregor

Clan Gregor claims descent from the royal house of Alpin, which is the sense of its motto. Its lands lay at the heads of the Perthshire and Argyll glens — Glen Orchy, Glen Lochy, Glenstrae, Glengyle and Balquhidder — held by occupation rather than by charter, and steadily encroached upon by the Campbells of Glenorchy.

That vulnerability ended in catastrophe. After the MacGregors routed the Colquhouns at Glen Fruin in February 1603, James VI issued an edict in April 1603 abolishing the name itself. To bear the name MacGregor became a capital offence; gatherings were forbidden, arms prohibited and lands forfeit. The chief, Alasdair of Glenstrae, was hanged at Edinburgh in 1604 with eleven of his leading men, and families took names such as Murray, Drummond, Grant and Campbell. The proscription was relaxed in 1661, reimposed in 1693 and repealed in 1774. Rob Roy MacGregor, who fought in the 1715 rising and at Glen Shiel in 1719 and lies at Balquhidder, lived much of his life under the name Campbell.

The MacGregor tartans

The tartans are recorded late by comparison with the clan’s story. A specimen of the red-and-green sett survives in the Cockburn Collection, assembled about 1810 to 1820 and now in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, and Wilsons of Bannockburn’s 1819 Key Pattern Book titled it “MacGregor Murray”.

The red-and-black Rob Roy sett is represented in the Highland Society of London collection gathered from 1815, bearing Sir John MacGregor Murray’s seal. MacGregor of Cardney dates from about 1930.

A note on honesty: the clan’s descent from Kenneth MacAlpin is a traditional claim rather than documented genealogy, and the association of the red-and-black sett with Rob Roy personally is tradition rather than record.

Clan facts

References

1. MacGregor tartans — The Scottish Register of Tartans
2. The Proscription of the MacGregor Name — American Clan Gregor Society
3. The Cockburn Collection — Glasgow Libraries
4. The History of Tartan — The Scottish Tartans Authority