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Lot 491

ROB ROY - MANUSCRIPTS

16 – 31 August 2011, 11:00 BST
Edinburgh

Sold for £240 inc. premium

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ROB ROY - MANUSCRIPTS

Two autograph letters, referring to Rob Roy: (i) the first by a writer signing himself "M.M.", to the Laird of Tarbert: "I think it will not be amiss to give you the following account of your freind Rob roy in case you have not heard it already. However it be take it thus. Munday last the said Roy haveing got notice that the young Laird of Killearn sheriff deput of Stirling shire & the D. of Montrose his Chamberlane had been at Chappell Carrock... gathering in the Dukes rents & entries. He surprised him with a party & caryed him off prisoner with 6 or 7000 merks of money. We hear that he has sent the D. a message that if he did not procure his pardon & discharge the old debt that he would apply the money to his own use & sacrifize his chamberlane to the bargain. of this I thought it convenient to acquaint you leaveing it to your self how he has money among his hands", 2 pages, address panel on verso, trace of seal, docket, dust-stained where folded for delivery and exposed, 8vo, 24 November 1716; (ii) the second signed by "[?]A McAlester", to Patrick Ca[?mpbell] of [?] Kildrisk, discussing his financial predicament ("...I am ashamt to send you three pounds which as I live is ll my store..."), and making reference to the difficulties he has experienced with Rob Roy ("...Rob Roys return I got last night he declaires he can not serve me at the time or doe I hope to be served of him bit by forsing him with freands assistance more then my pith his cawready decleares his onworthyness I served him must part with yours which holds us both in difficultys..."), 3 pages, part of address-leaf torn away, some creasing and dust-staining, 8vo, place and date unspecified

Footnotes

The first of these letters dates from soon after George I's accession to the throne and with it renewed Jacobite activity, when Robert MacGregor, known to history and folklore as Rob Roy (1671-c.1734), was seeking to restore his fortunes by embarking on a campaign of raiding Montrose's estates, in the hope of gaining concessions from him.: "Parties of soldiers sent to track him down were thwarted by the wild terrain, the weather, and his evasive skills. In November he kidnapped Montrose's factor, John Graham the younger of Killearn, while he was collecting rents, and demanded that for his ransom Montrose cancel all his debts, pay him for his losses through the destruction at Craigrostan, and give his word that he would not trouble Rob in future. If men were sent against him Killearn would suffer for it. The demands were unrealistic, as Rob probably knew, and he had not the ruthlessness to make good his threats against his captive, whom he freed after a week or two. To Rob, no doubt, the gesture was worthwhile in so far as it showed his contempt for Montrose and humiliated him. The duke complained furiously to London of this insult done to the authority of the state, but the military was reluctant to act, believing that Rob would always succeed in slipping away when troops were sent against him—and there are indications that in any case it was feared by some that if Rob was captured he might cause political embarrassment by revealing Argyll's contacts with him and other Jacobites during the rising of 1715" (David Stevenson, ODNB). The second letter probably dates from a little earlier, when Rob Roy was engaged, not always successfully, in cattle trading, receiving advances from landowners and others to buy cattle, delivery often being due months later; a dubious business which was denounced by Montrose.

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