Ripley Roots Stories / Munro Introduction

	Ripley Roots

The Highland Connection
by theresa m. ripley

A Member of the Black Watch Regiment

William had always been proud to have Highland roots. His father had been born there and his father's father had lived, fought, and finally moved from there to central Scotland. These men made him who he was and he enjoyed the opportunity to think about their shared past.

William's connection to the Highland was through his paternal grandfather, Archibald. His grandfather had lived in the Highlands until 1747 when he moved his wife and two small children to Central Scotland, settling in the Sterling area. His grandfather had decided change was coming to the Highlands, and it was better to be a part of a new life in the Lowlands.

William adored his grandfather and had spent hours and hours with him, listening to him tell family stories of his early life, which seemed very adventuresome. Now with the perspective of his fifty years, he imagined such a life was very dangerous and could understand why his grandfather had wanted to leave and give his children a different chance at achieving a satisfying life, just as he wanted to do for Archibald, Robert, Euphemia, and Willy.

His grandfather had given him an appreciation of what it meant to be a Munro and part of the Munro clan. Clans were splitting apart when his grandfather left the Highlands in 1747 and succumbing to English law. Prior to that time clan life was the life of the Highlands.

When William was small, he would ask his grandfather again and again to describe his part in the Battle of Culloden and what it was like to be a part of the Black Watch Regiment. William wanted him to talk about his foreign travels to fight for King George II. His grandfather retold the tales each time as if it was the first time, but always with the same details. By age 8 or 9 William could have told the stories without leaving out a detail, but he preferred the retelling by his grandfather.

It was not until William was older that he realized the importance of what his grandfather had done and what place it stood in the history of his country. The Highlands and Lowlands were just not names for sections of the country, but had separated the country into very distinctive differences for centuries. The Highlands, because of their separateness, had bred a very different people with different customs, religion, and language. A people that some called barbaric and others saw as closeknit families who stood up for family and kin no matter what else. The reality was probably somewhere inbetween, but warlike and close family ties were certainly important dimensions of the Highland life.

His grandfather had been a part of all of that and it culminated in his being a member of the Black Watch Regiment that fought for the king. Prior to the Union of 1707, which officially joined England and Scotland, the Highland clans had fought each another, for land or sometimes even for something trivial. After 1707 the clans still fought each other, but just as often they would fight the King of England. The clans had split along two lines, those that were loyal to King George II of England and those that supported the Stewarts or the Jacobites as they were called. The Munros were loyal to the King and became a part of the vigilante patrol, called the Black Watch, that routed out the disloyal clans and often looked for cattle thieves among the clans.

William's grandfather had been a member of the Black Watch during its most glorious time. The year had been 1745 and his grandfather was 26. He served under Sir Robert Munro, one of the greatest Munro Chiefs. When a European war was a certainty, the Black Watch was sent to France on the behalf of England. On May 11, 1745, the Black Watch followed Sir Robert into battle at the Battle of Fontenoy and fought valiantly, but lost. Three months later, Sir Robert and the Black Watch were back in the Highlands fighting the disloyal clans, finally beating them in what was to be the final routing of the clans in the Battle of Culloden in 1746 against Bonnie Prince Charles of the Stewards. Following the battle, the wilder clans, that had previously been unwilling to succumb, finally agreed to live by the rule of English law. An era had passed. The English were initially very punitive to Highlanders, not allowing them to carry firearms, wear Highland dress, or even play their traditional pipes.

William's grandfather was a fighting man, and a good one, and he had been a part of all these big changes in the Highlands. Could William have been a fighting man? Would he have done the colors of the clan proud? His life had taken such a different turn than his grandfather's.

William had never traveled to retrace the steps of his grandfather in the Highlands. He had not been to the places that seemed so vivid in his imagination from the tales that his grandfather told about his youth and his memories of living as a "true Highlander."

William stopped short in all this reverie and realized that he had never taken the time to tell these stories to his sons. They probably felt little connection to their Highland roots. Perhaps it was too late for his older sons, Archibald and Robert, but it certainly was not too late for Willy. Willy was just the age he was when he enjoyed hearing the stories from his grandfather, and in many ways William was more like a grandfather to Willy because he was 44 when Willy was born. I must take more time to assure that Willy has a sense of his past, he thought. Otherwise, the Munro tradition will be lost.

Yes, storytelling to Willy...that will have to be done. But what shall he tell him, and how shall he start, mused the ironmaster as he gazed out the window and to the sea. William had learned his Munro history well, both in school and from his grandfather. Now it was his duty to pass it on to the next generation.