This is Dull.
It s a hamlet in Highland Perthshire. As you can see it s twinned with Boring in
Oregon USA but a young lad who left here in 1808
means it probably has closer association with San Antonio in Texas
and The Alamo If you re interested in the people, places
and events in Scottish history then click the subscribe button at the bottom right of
the screen In the meantime, let me tell you the story.
The Loch Tay Area is one of my favourite places in Scotland.
Back in the day, it was MacGregor country, and I ve brought you to a place called Dull,
where very little happens, to tell you about a boy who started here,
but ended as a key player in a siege in an old Spanish Mission and fortress in
Texas but let s not get ahead of ourselves
John MacGregor was born on 1 December 1797 and grew up here in Dull with his dad Thomas
and the rest of the family. The fact that he was born a MacGregor
tells you something about the family in itself. That name had been banned.
For 170 years it had been illegal to hold the name MacGregor.
A MacGregor was banned from carrying out a legal contract,
owning livestock or land, carrying the weapons so essential to everyday
living..., from everything that constituted life at the
time. Proscription finally came to an end in
1774. Many had changed their names, and never changed
them back. Now if your very name has been banned for
generations and after 170 years, without knowing the future, you straightway
take it back that says something about the family of Thomas
MacGregor and their son John: rebellious,
stubborn, loyal,
brave. A couple of miles to the west
here at Drumcharry, the MacGregors of Glenlyon had a famous piping school.
They used to send their best pupils every year to the famous MacCrimmons in Skye.
Apparently between 1781 to 1813 seventeen MacGregors competed in the top competitions
and twelve won first prize. That s quite a tradition to follow.
Now I can t pretend to know what went through young John MacGregor s mind when he took up
the pipes, but it wasn t like joining a pipe band today.
People still lived who d fought at Culloden. A piper was there to rally the troops.
Right down to the 20th Century pipers led men into battle and struck fear into enemies
with nothing but deftness of fingers and the power of their very breath.
When others carried claymore, musket or Lee Enfield rifle...
the pipes were a weapon of war. So even a child must know that death in battle
was something a piper might always expect. The question is under what flag?
At the start of the 19th century people were leaving this beautiful place and crossing
the Atlantic. Some were pushed by forces we ve covered in
other videos. Others were pulled by the lure of opportunity.
One way or another, hard conditions in this beautiful landscape must have been part of
the decision for both. As a twelve year old,
young John MacGregor would have been taking on some of the roles and responsibilities,
chores and challenges of life, when the family headed west to Oban.
They probably stopped off at the Green Welly Shop in Tyndrum on their way to the port,
from which they sailed across the Atlantic. Like many Highlanders before them they landed
on Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown, what we here would call Canada.
There are still a few Gaelic speakers left there today
That was in June 1808. As he grew to manhood, the next few years
would have brought challenges and opportunities hardships and celebrations.
Eventually he would leave this pioneering family to make his own way
south By the time he was an adult there were big
changes going on in the United States. It was expanding and people were heading west.
There were also changes going on in the Spanish Americas.
In what would become Texas the Spanish had decided to allow controlled migration
so that selected empresarios, under licence, could bring people, settle and develop the
land. As a concession
they wouldn t have to convert to Catholicism. The only man who was actually granted rights
to set up a colony was Moses Austin so Moses would lead his people to the promised
land. But in true biblical style
Moses died before he got to the promised land and a revolution replaced Spain
with a new state called Mexico. Moses son Steven Austin
continued where his father had intended to go,
and yes, Steve Austin! If they had the slightest consideration for
biblical analogies in a video 200 years later they would have called him Joshua,
but they had to name him after the bionic bloody man!
Or a wrestler depending on your demographic. The point is that in the early 1820s Steve
Austin brought in Anglos from the United States to establish a colony in the East Texas part
of Mexico. Financial difficulties in the USA sparked
in 1819 meant that the floodgates to economic migrants
opened and through them poured English speaking Americans
Now I say Americans , but at least one of them was a Scotsman,
who d been born in Dull in North Perthshire. The point is that these Anglos
came with all their Northern European ways. Look, it doesn t matter what I call them I
m still going to have to make air quotes. The fact is they were a rag tag group of legal
immigrants, illegal immigrants, opportunists and nerdowells
and the Mexicans now wish they d built a bleedin wall.
There were a number of problems. At the end of the 1820s the Mexican government
banned slavery and a lot of these migrants had brought slaves.
They wanted to keep them as slaves, though some converted them to indentured servants.
The new Mexican government backtracked on the idea that these migrants could be non-Catholics,
and let s face it, nobody wants rosery beads shoved down their
throats... although I did once hear of a kinky priest
who It doesn t matter.
The Mexicans also moved from a federal to more centralised system, insisted that the
new colonists spoke Spanish, owned property, had a craft and report to
the Mexican authorities for permission to settle ,
but frankly it was too late.
Now I don t know if he was as one of the official
entrants or one of the squatters, but it seems that it was as part of this influx
John MacGregor settled himself as a single man in Burnett s Colony in East Texas,
just north west of Nachcho Dochochas,
Nacho Dotches, Nacho Goodess
Naco Gdchchchchsss What I m trying to say is
he settled near the first town ever established in Texas
and he wisnae married. Anyway before long, for some of the reasons
I ve mentioned and I m sure some others that I haven t,
tensions built between a centralising Mexican government and non-conforming settlers.
The Mexican government thought: Better safe than sorry.
and sent troops to recover a cannon that had been left at a place called Gonzalez.
Little did they suspect the cannon would turn into a tinderbox.
The Americans , Anglos North Europeans Ner-do- colonists settlers
nobody knew what to call the people who converged on the town to stop the troops taking the
cannon, but the Battle of Gonzales is what started
the Texan revolution, rebellion,
potato potato, tomato, tomato aside
it s tomato Mexican president Santa Anna sent troops from
the south towards San Antonio de Bexar
San Antonio to you and me. The Colonists in growing numbers headed there
from the east and with them went
John MacGregor of Dull. As Texas donned autumn s cloak in 1835
a siege began that saw the Mexican troops fall back to
San Antonio de Valero Mission, You will know it as The Alamo.
Mexicans on the inside, Texians on the outside.
Long story short eventually the Mexicans surrendered The colonists occupied the mission, and then
most drifted off home because that was the end of the Texas tomato
rebellion. Oh, apart from the fact that President Santa
Anna was really pissed off and sent an army north to deal with these rebels.
He had declared them pirates. There would be no quarter.
When Mexican forces came back to The Alamo the tables were turned.
Mexicans on the outside, and on the inside a set of defenders far more
determined than Mexican conscripts.
The story of the Alamo siege has been covered in many places and it s not really one for
this channel. It s enough to know
that in the small group of 200 men that stood against
2-5000; Richard Ballantine, Isaac Robinson,
David Wilson, and Alamo John" McGregor were native born Scots.
Officially John MacGregor was second sergeant in the
artillery company but that s not why he s called
Almo John MacGregor. It s because the boy who learned the pipes
at Drumcharry was now a man.
It s said that MacGregor played the pipes and Davy Crocket
played the fiddle to entertain the men of the Alamo
but it must have been more than that. In addition to the four native born Scots,
many more of the group would have been descended from Scots, or Irish,
and as they made a desperate impossible stand a piper
would be more than entertainment. His very breath through noble reed and drone
made a man stand taller, stronger,
more fearsome than he could on his own. From the time he took up the pipes as a boy
in Dull, John Macgregor must have known there was a
good chance he would wield them, and through them may well breath his last
in battle. The only question was
under which flag. No quarter was given
and on 6th March 1836 the deaths of John MacGregor and every other
defender inspired many more to take their place
and a month later when Santa Ana fell at the Battle of San Jacinto
The cry was Remember The Alamo.
In 2010 A plaque of Caithness stone was erected
at that memorial, museum and shrine in San Antonio.
Is reads From the people of Scotland,
in memory of the four native Scots, and the many other defenders of Scots ancestry,
who gave their lives at the Alamo on March 6,
1836. They tell me
that Scots are the only nation remembered there in that way,
and John MacGregor, from Highland Perthshire,
who s very name was banned, who s family reclaimed that title monarchs
tried to obliterate, ensured the name MacGregor would live forever
at least in Texas. If you want to know what led to the proscription
of the MacGregor name in the first place there s a video coming up on screen now. You
should watch it. In the meantime
