On January 20th Alister MacGregor, Laird of Glenstrae was hung along with eleven of his chieftains were hanged in Edinburgh.
Numbers vary on this, the dates also differ of the executions, the Clan chief’s name also differs depending on the source you read.
This was all embroiled in clan warfare, most notably against the Colqhouns, the Clan MacGregor members were accused of having……
“conspired the destruction of the name of Colquhoun, its friends and allies, and the plunder of the lands of Luss; of having, on the 7th of February preceding, invaded the lands of Sir Alexander Colquhoun of Luss, with a body of four hundred men, composed partly of his own clan and of the clan of Cameron, and of lawless thieves and robbers, equipped in arms, and drawn up on the field of Lennox, in battle array; of having fought with Sir Alexander, who, being authorised by a warrant from the Privy Council, had convocated his friends and followers to resist this lawless host; of having killed about one hundred and forty of Sir Alexander’s men, most of them in cold blood, after they were made their prisoners; of having carried off eighty horses, six hundred cows, and eight hundred sheep; and of burning houses, corn-yards, etc.”
This was a consequence of the Battle of Glen Fruin, much has been written about this episode in the history of the Scottish Highlands, I won’t go into the full story again, you can use the search option to find out more, or you can wait until the anniversary of the battle on February 7th, either way it had massive repercussions for the MacGregor Clan.
A royal warrant was signed by James VI on February 24, 1603, accusing the MacGregors of attacking members of Clan Colquhoun at Glen Fruin “without pitie or compassion” or regard for young or old. King James, eager to make an example of the most troublesome clan later also decreed on April 3rd the
“.. the name of McGregor should be altogether abolished, and that (all) persons of that Clan should renounce their name and take same some other name, and that they nor none of their posterity should call themselves Gregor or McGregor thereafter under the pain of death.”
In my opinion part of the motives in all this was to show the English how he dealt with those that crossed him in any way, Queen Elizabeth had died on March 24th and our erstwhile monarch had taken his place on the throne of England.
The abolition of the Macgregor name was probably better than the alternative available to King James and one which he was not squeamish of taking even against his own citizens: the actual killing of the entire Macgregor clan, women and children included although, in the result, it was no picnic to be a Macgregor in Scotland or England circa 1604 to 1660. Remember the Stuart King had already led a campaign against supposed witches sending countless women to their deaths after their confessions were obtained through torture.
Anyway back to the MacGregors, Alister Macgregor was caught and brought to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. According to the Newgate Calendar, he was unanimously convicted by jury of many crimes including the presentation of an illegal surname, that of Macgregor. But the worse charge was the allegation that he and his clan members had “killed about 140 men, mostly in cold blood, after they had been made prisoners”. Apparently, even according to Macgregor historians, Alister and his Clan warriors had completely lost control of themselves, even killed a party of schoolboys who had simply stopped to watch the battle.
The long and short of it is Alister MacGregor and up to 17 of his followers were drawn and quartered at Edinburgh. His limbs were cut off and exhibited in larger cities in Scotland as, one can only suppose, some kind of macabre warning. From what I can gather 11 were killed on one date, and another six a month or so late, add to that how ever many were slain being hunted down I would go so far to say this time in our history is quite shameful, and was a form of genocide, or maybe Clanocide.
According to the Newgate Calendars, the abolition of the surname Macgregor lasted “until the Restoration” (about 1660), some 57 years later.
The Macgregor clan now flourishes in Scotland, proud of a unique Tartan, with an active clan leader and a website, and with descendants in every part of the world and under a variety of variations from the original Galeic “MacGhriogair”, such as Gregor, McGregor or MacGregor.
Okay now I am going to direct you below to a link with some details on this on the previously mentioned Newgate Calendars. If I was to compare this source to anything nowadays it would be the Daily Mail or The Sun, sensationalised and to be taken with a pinch of salt, that’s not to dismiss the story, just the shoddy way it has been put together, so ignore the dates on it.
To end with I have to point out that the MacGregor motto is not “Despite them” this is only a modern add on put on the most famous MacGregor’s grave, Rob Roy, and only dates to 1981!
The MacGregor Clan motto is in fact “’S rioghal mo dhream” which means “My race is royal” and refers to the claim that they are descended from Griogar, a son of Alpin, king of Dalriada.
