Page:Life and exploits of Rob Roy MacGregor.pdf/8

 a corps of militia raised to protect the lives and property of the people from marauding plunderers. This corpse, from the celebrity they acquired, afterwards became regular troops, and were the origin of the gallant 42nd regiment, long known by the name of the 'Highland Watch,

Rob Roy's birth, as a gentleman, and his respectable connexions, when he attained to manhood, procured him access to the first families, and admission into the best company in the country, He formed a matrimonial engagement with a daughter of M'Gregor of Comar, a woman of an agreeable temper and domestic habits, active and economical in the management of her family. But she took no part in the predatory concerns of her husband, except on one occasion afterwards mentioned.

Rob was not possessed of any patrimonial property, but became master of the estate of Craigcrostan, in the following manner.—When M'Gregor of M'Gregor, was driven from his possessions in Glenorchy, by the Campbells, he bought the Lands of Inversnait and Craigcrostan, then of small value, tho' of considerable boundaries, extending from the head of Loch Lomond, 12