Editing Gregor MacGregor (section)

===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}}