Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

===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Catholic and part of the [[Clan Gregor]], whose proscription by [[James VI and I|King James VI and I]] in 1604 had been repealed only in 1774.{{sfn|Sinclair|2004|pp=25, 111}} During the proscription on their faith, the MacGregors had been legally ostracised to the extent that they were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"}}