Donald Gregory

In 1831, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland published Gregory’s Historical Notices of the Clan Gregor, at the outset of which he noted thatThe total want of private papers and title-deeds connected with the different branches of this family … and the defective state of the earlier records of Scotland, in relation more especially to the Highlands, have made this investigation no easy task.Gregory’s attachment to contemporary documentary evidence was remarkable for his time.

The Edinburgh Literary Journal described his work as “the first instance on record of a trustworthy history of a Highland clan resting upon contemporary evidence”.

In this way, the measures employed at first for their coercion, and afterwards for their advancement in civilization, came naturally to be separate from those directed to the subjugation (if I may use the phrase) and improvement of the Eastern tribes.

[7] He was called as an authority on historical manuscripts and a hand-writing expert by the pursuers who successfully alleged forgery in the Stirling Peerage Case.

[9] He is buried in the family plot with his siblings and next to his parents in the south-west corner of Canongate Churchyard, immediately next to the grave of Adam Smith.