He stole most of the cattle from his earlier benefactor, the Duke of Montrose. However he was not deterred, and absconded with £1000 that had been invested in the business by various chieftains and became a cattle thief. Rob Roy was not the sort of man to argue with!Īpart from leading a raid in the Lowland parish of Kippen in 1691, his early days were spent peacefully as a drover, buying and selling Highland cattle under the patronage of the Duke of Montrose.īut 1712 was not a good year and Rob Roy lost most of his capital as there was a ‘slump’ in the cattle market. Those who did not pay regretted it …as he had them stripped of all they possessed. He had complete control over the other raiders in Argyll, Stirling and Perth and so could guarantee that any cattle stolen from his customers would be returned to them. In the early eighteenth century, Rob Roy MacGregor had established a flourishing protection racket, charging farmers an average 5% of their annual rent to ensure that their cattle remained safe. The Wild MacGregors earned their name and living through ‘cattle lifting’ and extracting money from people in exchange for offering them protection from thieves. The most famous, or infamous, member of the clan was Robert MacGregor, who acquired the name of ‘Roy’ early in life due to his mop of red curly hair. Of course, the truth was a little less glamorous.įor centuries the ‘Wild MacGregors’, cattle rustlers and brigands, were the plague of the Trossachs in Scotland. In Victorian times, people were enthralled by the novels of Sir Walter Scott, who portrayed a man called Rob Roy in his work… a dashing and chivalrous outlaw.
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