Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

==Early life==
===Family and childhood===
[[File:MacGregor (R. R. McIan).jpg|thumb|upright|A romanticised depiction of a MacGregor clansman, by [[R. R. McIan|R&nbsp;R McIan]]|alt=A stereotypical Scottish clansman, wearing a kilt]]
Gregor MacGregor was born on Christmas Eve 1786 at his family's ancestral home of Glengyle, on the north shore of [[Loch Katrine]] in [[Stirlingshire]], Scotland. He was the son of Daniel MacGregor, an [[East India Company]] sea captain, and his wife Ann (''née'' Austin).{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=109}}{{#tag:ref|Some sources, including the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', give MacGregor's place of birth as [[Edinburgh]].{{sfn|Dawson|2004}}{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=32}} A statement prepared by MacGregor himself in 1826, for a French audience, also describes him as born in the Scottish capital.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=343}} Michael Rafter's 1820 biography of MacGregor says he was "born in the Highlands of Scotland";{{sfn|Rafter|1820|p=19}} Sinclair, in 2003, specifically identifies the place of birth as "the old MacGregor house of Glengyle" in Stirlingshire.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=109}}|group="n"|name="edinburgh"}} The family was Roman Catholic and part of the [[Clan Gregor]], whose proscription by [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]] in 1604 had been repealed only in 1774.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=25, 111}} During the proscription on their faith, the MacGregors had been legally ostracised to the extent that they were forbidden to use their own surname—many of them, including Gregor's celebrated great-great-uncle [[Rob Roy MacGregor|Rob Roy]], had participated in the [[Jacobite risings]] of 1715 and 1745.{{sfn|Brown|2006|p=32}} MacGregor would assert in adulthood that a direct ancestor of his had survived the [[Darien scheme]] of 1698, the ill-fated Scottish attempt to colonise the [[Isthmus of Panama]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=323–324}} Gregor's grandfather, also called Gregor and nicknamed "the Beautiful", served with distinction in the [[British Army]] under the surname Drummond, and subsequently played an important role in the clan's restoration and rehabilitation into society.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=109–110}}

Little is recorded of MacGregor's childhood.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=109–110}} After his father's death in 1794, he and his two sisters were raised primarily by his mother with the help of various relatives.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} MacGregor's biographer David Sinclair speculates that he would probably have spoken mainly [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]] during his early childhood, and learned English only after starting school around the age of five-and-a-half.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=109–110}} MacGregor would claim in later life to have studied at the [[University of Edinburgh]] between 1802 and 1803; records of this do not survive as he did not take a degree, but Sinclair considers it plausible, citing MacGregor's apparent sophistication and his mother's connections in Edinburgh.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=111}}{{#tag:ref|Frank Griffith Dawson, MacGregor's biographer in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', endorses this claim, writing that MacGregor studied chemistry and natural sciences at the University of Edinburgh—but places these studies during MacGregor's time in the British Army, around 1808.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}}|group="n"|name="uniofedinburgh"}}

===British Army===
MacGregor joined the British Army at 16, the youngest age it was possible for him to do so, in April 1803. His family [[Purchase of commissions in the British Army|purchased him a commission]] as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] in the [[57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot]], probably for around [[Pound sterling|£]]450.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=111}}<ref>{{London Gazette
|issue=15571|page=369|date=2 April 1803}}</ref> MacGregor's entrance to the military coincided with the start of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] following the breakdown of the [[Treaty of Amiens]]. Southern England was [[British anti-invasion preparations of 1803–05|fortified]] to defend against a [[Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom|possible French invasion]]; the 57th Foot was at [[Ashford, Kent|Ashford]], [[Kent]]. In February 1804, after less than a year in training, MacGregor was promoted without purchase to [[lieutenant]] — an advancement that usually took up to three years. Later that year, after MacGregor had spent some months in [[Guernsey]] with the regiment's 1st Battalion, the 57th Foot was posted to [[Gibraltar]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=112–114}}

[[File:George Watson Gregor MacGregor.jpg|thumb|upright|MacGregor in the [[British Army]], painted by [[George Watson (painter)|George Watson]], 1804|alt=A young, rosy-cheeked man in the red uniform of the British Army.]]
MacGregor was introduced to Maria Bowater, the daughter of a [[Royal Navy]] admiral, around 1804. Maria commanded a substantial [[dowry]] and, apart from her by-now-deceased father, was related to two [[general officer|generals]], a member of parliament and the botanist [[Aylmer Bourke Lambert]].{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=114–115}} Gregor and Maria married at [[St Margaret's, Westminster|St Margaret's Church]], [[Westminster]] in June 1805 and set up home in London, at the residence of the bride's aunt. Two months later, having rejoined the 57th Foot in Gibraltar, MacGregor bought the rank of [[Captain (armed forces)|captain]] for about £900, choosing not to wait the seven years such a promotion might take without purchase. The 57th Foot remained in Gibraltar between 1805 and 1809. During this time MacGregor developed an obsession with dress, rank insignia and medals that made him unpopular in the regiment; he forbade any enlisted man or [[non-commissioned officer]] to leave his quarters in anything less than [[full dress]] uniform.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=114–117}}

In 1809 the 57th Foot was sent to Portugal as reinforcements for the [[Anglo-Portuguese Army]] under the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], during his second attempt to drive the French out of Spain during the [[Peninsular War]]. MacGregor's regiment disembarked at Lisbon about three months into the campaign, on 15 July. By September it was garrisoning [[Elvas]], near the frontier with Spain.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=117–120}} Soon thereafter MacGregor was seconded to the 8th Line Battalion of the [[Portuguese Army]], where he served with the rank of [[Major (rank)|major]] from October 1809 to April 1810. According to Michael Rafter, author of a highly critical 1820 biography of MacGregor, this secondment came after a disagreement between MacGregor and a superior officer, "originally of a trivial nature", that intensified to such an extent that the young captain was forced to request discharge. This was promptly granted.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=117–120}}{{#tag:ref|MacGregor would assert much later that, as he was a Roman Catholic, the British Army had discriminated against him. There is no evidence to confirm this.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=284}}|group="n"|name="catholic"}} MacGregor formally retired from the British service on 24 May 1810, receiving back the £1,350 he had paid for the ranks of ensign and captain, and returned to Britain. The 57th Foot's actions at the [[Battle of Albuera]] on 16 May 1811 would earn it considerable prestige and the nickname "the [[Die hard (phrase)|Die-Hards]]"; MacGregor would thereafter make much of his association—despite having left the regiment one year prior.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=117-121}}

===Edinburgh to Caracas===
On his return to Britain the 23-year-old MacGregor and his wife moved into a house rented by his mother in Edinburgh. There he assumed the title of "[[Colonel]]", wore the badge of a Portuguese knightly order and toured the city in an extravagant and brightly coloured coach. After failing to attain high social status in Edinburgh, MacGregor moved back to London in 1811 and began styling himself "Sir Gregor MacGregor, [[Baronet|Bart.]]", falsely claiming to have succeeded to the MacGregor clan chieftainship; he also alluded to family ties with a selection of dukes, earls and barons. This had little bearing on reality but MacGregor nevertheless created an air of credible respectability for himself in London society.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=121–124}}

In December 1811, Maria MacGregor died. At a stroke MacGregor lost his main source of income and the support of the influential Bowater family. His options were, Sinclair suggests, limited: announcing his engagement to another heiress so soon after Maria's death might draw embarrassing public protests from the Bowaters, and returning home to farm the MacGregor lands in Scotland would be in his mind unacceptably dull. His only real experience was military, but the manner of his exit from the British Army would make a return there awkward at best.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|p=125}}

MacGregor's interest was aroused by the colonial [[Spanish American wars of independence|revolts against Spanish rule]] in Latin America, particularly Venezuela, where seven of the ten provinces had [[Venezuelan Declaration of Independence|declared]] themselves an [[First Republic of Venezuela|independent republic]] in July 1811, starting the [[Venezuelan War of Independence]]. The Venezuelan revolutionary General [[Francisco de Miranda]] had been feted in London society during his recent visit,{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=125–126}} and may have met MacGregor.{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} 

Noting the treatment London's highest circles gave to Miranda, MacGregor formed the idea that exotic adventures in the New World might earn him similar celebrity on his homecoming. He sold the small Scottish estate he had inherited from his father and grandfather and sailed for South America in early 1812.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=125–126}} On the way he stopped in Jamaica, where according to Rafter he was tempted to settle among the planters and traders, but "having no [[Letter of introduction|introductory letters]] to that place, he was not received into society".{{sfn|Rafter|1820|p=23}} After a comfortable sojourn in [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], he sailed for Venezuela and disembarked at [[La Guaira]] in April 1812.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=126–127}}