Person:William MackGayhaye (1)

Scotland, Virginia, and the McGehees: A Timeline

This timeline contains no theories or opinions, only observations gleaned from factual research by a variety of sources.

1602, early winter: Luss, Scotland (beside Loch Lomond) Two MacGregors, traveling through the area as night falls, ask for food and shelter from a family of Colquhouns, who refuse — an offense against Highland custom. The MacGregors take refuge in a hut and dine on a sheep they have caught in pasture, which is in keeping with Highland custom. The next morning, the MacGregors are arrested and executed for the theft of the sheep, their offers of repayment ignored.

1602, December 7: Rossdhu, Scotland (Colquhouns’ castle by Loch Lomond) A raiding party of eighty MacGregor men takes revenge on the Colquhouns, killing two men and taking hundreds of sheep, goats, horses and cattle into Argyll.

1603: Stirling, Scotland Several women are paraded before King James VI, bearing aloft bloody shirts allegedly worn by their husbands who supposedly were slain in the MacGregor raid (in fact, the shirts were stained with sheep’s blood). The King, unable to stand the sight of blood, grants the Colquhoun chief the right to take revenge on the MacGregors.

1603, February 7: Glenfruin, Scotland The MacGregor chief, Alasdair of Glenstrae — heeding the advice of the Campbell chief, the Earl of Argyll (who though feuding with Colquhoun had no reason to wish the MacGregors well) — leads his clan against the Colquhouns to avenge the bald deceit undertaken at Stirling. Although the Colquhouns had 800 men to the MacGregors’ 300, the battle was a rout in favor of the MacGregors. Eighty Colquhouns were killed, and yet another lifting of Colquhoun sheep, goats, horses and cattle ensued.

1603, March 24: England Queen Elizabeth I dies; her designated heir, Scotland’s King James VI, becomes England’s King James I.

1603, April 3: Scotland Responding to the King’s order to “extirpate Clan Gregor and to ruit oot their posteritie and name,” the Privy Council proscribes the names Gregor and MacGregor and prohibits any MacGregor from carrying arms.

1603, April 5: Scotland King James VI departs Scotland for London to take the English throne.

1604, January 20: Edinburgh After having been treacherously taken prisoner by Argyll and delivered to Edinburgh, Alasdair of Glenstrae and five of his close kin are hanged at the Mercat Cross.

1604, January: Scotland Clan Gregor, in a spontaneous rising, takes revenge on the Campbells — laying waste to their holdings across the country, before dropping from sight and taking the names of other, neighboring clans.

1607, Virginia Colony Settlers establish a capital town on an island off the north bank of the James River, and name it for the King of England and Scotland: Jamestown.

1611: Scotland MacGregors are forbidden the sale of arms.

1612: Scotland James Graham, destined to lead a Highland army (including MacGregors) for King Charles I in the Scottish Civil War, is born to the Earl of Montrose. He inherits his father’s title in 1626 at the age of 14.

1613: Scotland MacGregors are forbidden to assemble in groups of five or more; they are also forbidden to cut their meat with pointed knives.

1621: Scotland The 1603 Proscription is extended to the new generation of MacGregors.

1625, March 25: England King James I dies, is succeeded by his son Charles I.

1627: Scotland The 1603 Proscription is further applied to the children of the generation proscribed in 1621.

1633: Scotland Members of the clergy are forbidden to christen any child with the name Gregor; also, “Letters of Fire and Sword,” authorizing more reprisals, are issued in response to new MacGregor uprisings.

1639: Edinburgh, Scotland In rebellion against attempts by King Charles I to anglicize the Scottish church, Scottish Calvinist leaders have established a political Covenant and forced the King to accede to their demands. As a result, the Covenanter regime comes to power, led by Archibald Campbell, the 8th Earl of Argyll — son of the man whose treachery led to the death of the MacGregors’ chief in 1604. Among the Covenanters at this early stage is James Graham, Earl of Montrose.

1642 Civil War erupts in England; King Charles I is opposed by the Parliamentarians in England who, later, establish an alliance with the Covenanters in Scotland. For many Highland clans Argyll’s involvement in the Covenanter regime is by itself enough to side them with the King.

1644-46: Scotland Montrose’s campaign against the Covenanters in Scotland. The young Earl has been elevated to Marquess and granted royal commissions as Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General of Scotland. Clan Gregor’s participation under their new chief, Patrick Roy of Glenstrae, leads Montrose to pledge (7 June 1645) in the name of King Charles that the MacGregors’ name and lands will be restored once Parliamentarian leader Oliver Cromwell and his allies are defeated. When the King unexpectedly surrenders to the Covenanters in 1646, the campaign ends suddenly and Montrose escapes to the European mainland.

1649, January 30: London King Charles I is beheaded. Cromwell’s Commonwealth is proclaimed in London.

1650: Scotland Montrose returns to champion the cause of the late King’s son, but is again defeated and — this time — captured and executed in Edinburgh, where his head is displayed on a spike at the Tolbooth prison.

1651, January 1: Scone, Scotland Charles II is crowned King of Scotland under terms with the Covenanter regime; Scotland then finds itself at war with Cromwell's English Parliamentarians.

1651, September 3: Worcester, England Cromwell defeats the Scots and the young King is forced to flee to France (17 October). Thousands of Scottish prisoners are deported to New England, Bermuda, the West Indies -- and Virginia.

1653, April 14: York County, Virginia William MackGahye is listed as a “headright” on a grant of 1000 acres to William Hoccaday. This means MackGahye is indentured to Hoccaday for a term of years, while the indenture accounts for a portion of the land grant to Hoccaday.

1658, September 3: England Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, dies. He is succeeded by his son, Richard, who will maintain the Commonwealth until May 25, 1659.

1658, November 17: York County Court, Virginia William MaGahee is a witness in a case concerning a canoe. In testimony he gives his age as 40 years. This would put him in his mid to late 20s during Montrose’s campaign.

1660, May 29: London Charles II arrives to take the throne denied him since his father’s death in 1649.

1661: Edinburgh, Scotland The Marquess of Argyll, who led the Covenanters in the Scottish Civil War, is executed at the Tolbooth, where his head replaces that of the Marquess of Montrose.

1661: London King Charles II lifts the 1603 Act of Proscription against Clan Gregor. Although the MacGregors hope to regain their lands as well, this does not come about due to fears that the new Marquess of Argyll might become too powerful; Charles’ advisers choose to groom John Campbell of Glenorchy — who holds the lands Clan Gregor wants restored — as a counterbalance to Argyll. John Campbell is later created 1st Earl of Breadalbane.

1671: Glengyle, Scotland Robert MacGregor, called “Rob Roy” for his red hair, is born to Donald “Glas” (“the Pale”) MacGregor and the former Margaret Campbell.

167?, New Kent County, Virginia William MackGehee was born about this time. He is widely believed to have been the younger brother of the better known Thomas MackGehee (see below) whose will was recorded in 1724.

1679, April 25: Virginia Thomas Mackgehey purchases 150 acres in Pamunkey Neck from George Smith. This strongly implies his date of birth was no later than 1658.

1685, February 6: England King Charles II dies, is succeeded by his Catholic younger brother, James II.

1685: England The Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of the late King Charles II, stages a brief rebellion aimed at claiming the Crown. His effort ends when he is captured and beheaded.

1688 King James II is driven from the throne, and William of Orange, husband of James’ daughter Mary, takes the throne as William III — inaugurating the reign of “William and Mary.”

1689: Scotland John Graham of Claverhouse, who bears the title Viscount Dundee and is a cousin of the late 1st Marquess of Montrose, leads a Highland army bent on reversing the ouster of the Stuart dynasty. At Killiecrankie his Highlanders rout their enemy but lose the war when “Black John of the Battles,” as the Highlanders call him, is mortally wounded by a stray bullet.

1689: May 4: Virginia Thomas MackGehee is appointed a land processioner at a vestry at St. Peter’s Parish Church. The church serves portions of both James City County and New Kent County (a portion of which will later become King William County).

1693, June 15: Edinburgh The Scottish Parliament passes an Act for the Justiciary of the Highlands which contains a clause re-enacting the MacGregor Proscription.

1698: New Kent County, Virginia James MackGehee is born to William MackGehee and his wife. Among James’ descendants is his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson, your host, Kevin McGehee.

1699, June: Jamestown, Virginia A committee favors 28 separate grants in Pamunkey Neck, including 100 acres leased by Thomas MackGehee to Daniell Grant.

1699: Middle Plantations, Virginia Virginia gets a new colonial capital some miles inland from Jamestown, named for the present King: Williamsburg. Jamestown is all but abandoned.

1701: England The Act of Settlement establishes the line of succession to the English throne, excluding King William’s brother-in-law, James Edward Stuart, and his heirs in favor of the heirs of Sophia, granddaughter of James I and wife of Ernest Augustus, Elector of Hanover.

1702, March 10: King William County, Virginia James Johnson confers a power of attorney upon Thomas MackGehee, witnessed by Edward Huckstep, William Lacy, and John Williams.

1702: England King William dies, is succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne.

1702: October 28: King William County, Virginia Thomas MackGehee receives a land patent for 256 acres, which is re-affirmed in 1713.

1704: King William County, Virginia Thomas McGehee is listed for 250 acres on Virginia Quit Rent Rolls.

1706, June 7: King William County, Virginia Thomas MackGehee, Samuel Norment and William Lacey are sworn as appraisers of the estate of Alexander Autry, the value of which they place at 4000 pounds of tobacco.

1707: England The Act of Union dissolves the Scottish Parliament in favor of a unified British Parliament in London.

1712: Scotland The Duke of Montrose (4th Marquess) quarrels with Rob Roy MacGregor over a sum of money, beginning the feud that was the basis for the recent movie starring Liam Neeson. The real-life feud ends years later when Montrose realizes he can never get the better of his nemesis.

1714, August 1: England Queen Anne dies, is succeeded by George I, son and successor of Ernest Augustus as Elector of Hanover.

1715, September 9: Braemar, Scotland “Bobbing John” Erskine, the Earl of Mar, champions James Edward Stuart, son of King James II (who was deposed in 1688), in “the ’15,” the first Jacobite rebellion. The rebellion quickly fizzles.

1724, July 27: King William County, Virginia The last will and testament of Thomas MackGehee is recorded. If Thomas was born in 1658, he was 66 when he died.

1727, June 10: Germany King George I dies, is succeeded as King of Britain by his son George II.

1734: Inverlochlarig Beag, Scotland Rob Roy dies peacefully at home of old age.

1745, August 19: Glenfinnan, Scotland James Edward Stuart’s son, Charles Edward (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”), begins his campaign to claim the British throne from George II in “the ’45.”

1746, April 16: Culloden Moor, near Inverness, Scotland Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Highland forces are defeated, and the prince is put to flight. After a long and dangerous chase across Scotland, he finally escapes to France in September.

1760, October 25: England King George II dies and is succeeded by his grandson — George III.

1775, April 19: Concord, Massachusetts “The Shot Heard Round the World” begins the American Revolution.

1775: Britain The MacGregor Proscription enacted in 1603, lifted in 1661 and re-imposed in 1693, is repealed once and for all.

1776, July 4: Philadelphia The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.

1779: At or near Charlottesville, Virginia A group of local landowners draft and sign a Declaration of Independence for Albemarle County, home of Thomas Jefferson. Among the signers: William McGehee, son of James MackGehee.

1781: Yorktown, Virginia After being defeated in battle here by the shores of the York River not far from the sites of Virginia’s first and second colonial capitals, Lord Cornwallis, commanding British forces seeking to put down rebellion in Virginia, surrenders to General George Washington, effectively ending the American Revolution.