Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/196

 the enemy in Scotland and perfidiously breaking the trust reposed in him' (, 9, Oct. 1648).

Munro was transferred to the Tower, where he remained about five years, during which he is said to have been often consulted by Cromwell. While in Ireland he had married Lady Jean Alexander, daughter of the first Earl of Stirling and widow of the second Viscount Montgomery of Ardes. He acquired lands through his wife, and there was every disposition to deal harshly with him until Cromwell interfered in his favour in 1654. He was allowed to return to Ireland, lived on the Montgomery estate near Comber, co. Down (, p. 138), and was pall-bearer at the funeral of his wife's son, Hugh Montgomery, earl of Mount Alexander, at Newtownards in October 1663 (, p. 252; see art. [sic]). Henry Cromwell had allowed the earl, although a royalist, to live in peace along with his mother, grandmother, brother, and sister, and 'honest, kind Major-general Munro, fitter than the other four to converse with his melancholy' (ib. p. 213). Lady Montgomery died in 1670, but Munro survived her for ten years or more, and continued to live in co. Down. Munro shares with Sir James Turner, who accuses him of wanting military forethought and of despising his enemy, the honour of furnishing a model for the immortal picture of Dugald Dalgetty in 'The Legend of Montrose.'

 MONRO or MUNRO, ROBERT, twenty-seventh  and sixth  (d. 1746), was the eldest son of Sir Robert, fifth baronet, high sheriff of Ross, by his wife Jean, daughter of  [q. v.] of Culloden. Sir [q. v.] was his granduncle. He entered the army at an early age and served with distinction in Flanders, obtaining, before the cessation of the war in 1712, the rank of captain in the Royal Scots. During the war he made the acquaintance of Colonel [q. v.], with whose subsequent religious views his own closely coincided. He entered parliament for Wick in 1710, and suffered a reduction of military rank for his lack of subservience to the tory ministers. He continued to represent the same burgh until 1741. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1715, Munro, with three hundred of his clan, assisted the Earl of Sutherland in detaining the Earl of Seaforth, with three thousand men, in Caithness, and preventing him from reinforcing the rebels under Mar at Perth until sufficient forces had been gathered under the Duke of Argyll to check Mar's progress southwards by Stirling. The rendezvous of Sutherland's men was at Alves, in the country of the Munros, and Seaforth resolved to attack him there; but Sutherland retired slowly northwards into his own country, whereupon Seaforth ravaged all the country of the Munros (Lord Lovat's ' Account of the Taking of Inverness ' in, Hist. of the Rebellion, 2nd ed. pt. ii. p. 144). On the capture of Inverness (13 Nov.), Munro, with his clan, was left to garrison it (ib. p. 154). On the retreat of Seaforth northwards, after the flight of the Pretender and the dispersal of his forces, Munro joined the Earl of Sutherland at Beauly in order to give him battle, being specially desirous to avenge the devastation of his lands; but Seaforth deemed it advisable to capitulate (ib. p. 157). In 1716 Munro was appointed one of the commission of inquiry into the forfeited estates of the highland chiefs, and it was chiefly at his instance that various new parishes were erected and endowed through the highlands out of the proceeds of the sale of confiscated lands. From the termination of the commission in 1724 Munro, with the exception of representing Wick in parliament, held no office of public trust until in 1739 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the new highland regiment, then known as the 43rd, or Black Watch, afterwards famed as the 42nd, formed out of the independent highland companies. The colonel of the regiment was the Earl of Crawford, but as he was abroad, the organisation and training of the regiment were deputed to Munro, who devoted sixteen months to this object, the regiment being quartered on the banks of the Tay and Lyon. The regiment remained in Scotland until March 1743, when it proceeded south to London, on the way to Flanders. A rumour reached the men that they were about to be sent to the plantations, and a large number, after the regiment arrived in London, 