James Mor MacGregor

James Mor MacGregor or James Mohr (Gaelic: Seumas Mór MacGriogair) was the eldest son of the Scottish outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor. The nickname "Mor" comes from the Gaelic Mór meaning "big" or "mighty". He was a Major during the Jacobite rising of 1745 and he fought, it is said, with valour and honour alongside Prince Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Prestonpans when the Jacobite army defeated the Government Forces of Sir John Cope. He fought at Culloden where he was Captain of the Glengyle battalion. He arrived too late, however, to provide as much support as he would have liked to as he and the Glengyle battalion were in Sutherland confronting the Hanoverian Mackenzies and Mackays.^[1] He was imprisoned in Edinburgh for being associated with his brother, Robert Óg's, abduction of Jean Keay. Robert Óg was hung but James promptly escaped from prison and died in Paris in 1754 aged 59.^[2]

Descendants

James Mor married Annabella MacNicol, and with her he had thirteen children. His sixth child, who was the third of his eight sons, was called James Roy MacGregor. The spelling of his name has been recorded as both Macgregor and MacGregor. After Culloden, James Roy dropped the name MacGregor due to the proscription of the name and his posterity took Roy as their surname, and there are a number of surviving direct male lines. "Roy" comes from Gaelic "Ruadh" which means "red", but specifically referred to "red hair". It was also a nickname given to people with a rugged complexion.

James Mor's youngest son, William MacGregor left Scotland around 1763 to live in Wooler, Northumberland. There he changed his name to Landless.

References