Stepping back in time:
Rob Roy MacGregor was certainly an inspirational figure.
The legendary Scottish outlaw was the subject of an overture by Berlioz, a poem by Wordsworth and an operetta.
The latter inspired a bartender in the Waldorf Astoria to create the Rob Roy cocktail, a heady mix of whisky and vermouth with a dash of Angostura bitters.
And it has to be said the drink outlasted the show, which hasn’t been seen since it closed in Manhattan’s Herald Square Theatre a year after its first performance in 1894.
McGregor, Iowa, where many of his descendants settled, was named after him and it’s said to be where you’ll find Rob Roy’s seal, inscribed “S’Rioghal Mo Dhream” – Royal is my race, the motto of the MacGregor clan.
And last, but by no means least, a football team, Kirkintilloch Rob Roy, was named in his honour after being formed in 1878.
The club’s badge shows MacGregor in full Highland warrior mode, broadsword swinging and kilt swirling. And the club colours of red and black were taken from the MacGregor Black or “Rob Roy” tartan.
But, as with so many Scottish folk heroes, his myths and legends have been exaggerated, with serial offender Sir Walter Scott among the usual suspects.
The publication of
The Highland Rogue, a fictionalised account of his life, 11 years before his death in 1734, made MacGregor a living legend and moved George I to issue a pardon for his crimes just before he was due to be transported to the colonies.
Scott’s novel of 1817 might have been titled Rob Roy and added to his fame while further burnishing his romantic hero status, but MacGregor is a secondary character.
Nevertheless, he’s described as a strong, bold, upright and fearless Highland gentleman forced into a life of blackmail and cattle rustling.
And that’s balderdash. Rob Roy was only branded an outlaw after he’d become a respected cattleman and borrowed a large sum to increase his herd.
But his chief herder disappeared, so money and cattle were lost, and MacGregor defaulted on the loan.
Evicted from his house at Inversnaid, which was burned to the ground, Rob Roy’s lands were seized by his principal creditor, the Duke of Montrose, and it was the debt and MacGregor’s private blood feud with the Duke that had him on the verge of transportation.
What Scott did get right was Rob Roy’s involvement in the Jacobite rising of 1715 as he’d fought for the cause since 1689.
After he was pardoned in 1727, Rob Roy retired to his house in Balquhidder and, though he died there aged 63, his legend continues to grow.