John MacGregor (24 January 1825

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Roche ...

– 16 July 1892

Boscombe Boscombe () is a suburb in Bournemouth England. Historically in Hampshire, but today in Dorset, it is located to the east of Bournemouth town centre and west of Southbourne. Originally a sparsely inhabited area of heathland, from around 1865 ...

, Bournemouth), nicknamed ''Rob Roy'' after a renowned relative, was an English explorer,

travel writer The genre of travel literature or travelogue encompasses outdoor literature, guide books, nature writing, and travel memoirs. History Early examples of travel literature include the '' Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (generally considered ...

and philanthropist. He is generally credited with the development of the first sailing canoes and with popularising

canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

as a sport in Europe and the United States. He founded the British

Royal Canoe Club The Royal Canoe Club (RCC), founded in 1866, is the oldest canoe club in the world and received royal patronage in the 19th century. The club promotes canoeing and kayaking, focusing on flatwater, sprint and marathon disciplines. Members of the cl ...

(RCC) in 1866 becoming its first Captain and also founded

American Canoe Association The American Canoe Association (ACA) is the oldest and largest paddle sports organization in the United States, promoting canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Euro ...

in 1880. MacGregor worked as a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

in London, and was an accomplished artist who drew all the illustrations in his travel books. Captured on the Jordan by Arabs of Hooleh

Early life

MacGregor was born in

to Major Duncan MacGregor, a Scottish soldier, and Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir William Dick, Baronet of

Prestonfield Prestonfield may refer to the one of following: * Prestonfield, Edinburgh, an area of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland *Prestonfield, Linlithgow, a football stadium in Linlithgow, Scotland, home of Linlithgow Rose F.C. See also *Prestonfield House ...

. When he was four weeks old, he was amongst the survivors of the sinking of the ''

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

''. His schooling followed his father's postings, and he attended The King's School in Canterbury and Trinity College in Dublin. He graduated from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, having shown a talent for mathematics. He was known by his peers for his strong Christian faith and although he had aspired to be a missionary and also considered civil engineering, his scientific interests led him to London to study for the Bar, specialising in patent law. During his time in the capital, he became heavily involved with philanthropy and was instrumental in launching the

Ragged School Ragged schools were charitable organisations dedicated to the free education of destitute children in 19th-century Great Britain, Britain. The schools were developed in working-class districts and intended for society's most impoverished youngste ...

movement's Shoeblack brigade. He also became involved wit
open air missions
and was also able to follow his passion for travel. In 1849 he spent nine months exploring southern Europe,

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. He was introduced to canoeing during a trip to the United States and Canada in 1858.

Boat designer

MacGregor was a champion

marksman A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision shooting. In modern military usage this typically refers to the use of projectile weapons such as an accurized telescopic sight, scoped long gun such as designated marksman rifle (or a sniper ri ...

but turned to boating when a railway accident left him unable to hold a rifle steady. The boat he designed was a 'double-ended' kind of canoe inspired by the

Northern America Northern America is the northernmost subregion of North America, as well as the northernmost region in the Americas. The boundaries may be drawn significantly differently depending on the source of the definition. In one definition, it lies dir ...

kayaks ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

, but built in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

lapstrake Clinker-built, also known as lapstrake-built, is a method of boat building in which the edges of longitudinal (lengthwise-running) hull planks overlap each other. The technique originated in Northern Europe, with the first known examples using m ...

oak planking, decked in cedar covered with rubberised canvas with an open cockpit in the center. It measured 15 feet long, 28 inches wide, nine inches deep and weighed 80 pounds (36 kg) and was designed to be used with a double-bladed paddle. He named the boat ''Rob Roy'' after the celebrated Scottish outlaw of the same name, to whom he was related. During the 1860s, he had at least seven similar boats built and he sailed and paddled them in Europe, the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

and the Middle East. One of those canoes is now based at the

National Maritime Museum Cornwall The National Maritime Museum, Cornwall (NMMC) is located in a harbourside building at Falmouth in Cornwall, England. The building was designed by architect M. J. Long, following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competition ...

. The version he used for his expedition to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1868/69 was slightly smaller but was designed so that he could sleep in it. He was accompanied by a

dragoman A dragoman was an Interpreter (communication), interpreter, translator, and official guide between Turkish language, Turkish-, Arabic language, Arabic-, and Persian language, Persian-speaking countries and polity, polities of the Middle East and ...

, Hany, and two retainers who maintained the various base camps on the journey. He visited the

Nile Delta The Nile Delta (, or simply , ) is the River delta, delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's larger deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the eas ...

, the rivers of

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, as well as parts of the

River Jordan The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic basin, endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and d ...

and

Kishon River The Kishon River (, ; , – ''the intermittent river''; alternative Arabic, ) is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Haifa. Course The Kishon River is a perennial stream in Israel. Its furthest source is t ...

. Whilst exploring the water courses above

Lake Hula The Hula Valley () is a valley and fertile agriculture, agricultural region in northern Israel with abundant fresh water that used to be Lake Hula before it was drained. It is a major stopover for birds migrating along the Great Rift Valley be ...

he was taken prisoner by villagers from Al-Salihiyya who lifted both him and the Rob Roy canoe out of the river whilst he kept them at bay with his paddle. He was responsible for the first scientific survey of the area.

Writings

In 1866, he published ''A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe'', which popularised the design and, more importantly, the concept: ''"in walking you are bounded by every sea and river, and in a common sailing-boat you are bounded by every shallow and shore; whereas, ...a canoe anbe paddled or sailed, or hauled, or carried over land or water"''. The book was internationally successful; with subsequent books and public appearances, it earned MacGregor more than ten thousand pounds. Scottish author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

's 1876 voyage by canoe through the canals and rivers of France and Belgium, published in 1878 as ''

An Inland Voyage ''An Inland Voyage'' (1878) is a travelogue by Robert Louis Stevenson about a canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. It is Stevenson's earliest book and a pioneering work of outdoor literature. As a young man, Stevenson desired ...

'', used "Rob Roy" canoes. Rob Roy Map V p

Death

Died 16 July 1892 in

Bournemouth Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest ...

Published works

*''Three Days in the East, or the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, and the Dessert'' - Illustrating more than 100 Scripture Texts; with Woodcuts (1850). The book was later republished in America under the title ''The Eastern Traveler or Descriptions of Places and Customs, Mentioned in the Bible'', published by Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia, 1900. *''The Language of Specifications of Letters Patent for Inventions'' (1856) - A Treatise on that Department of Patent Law which relates to the framing of Specifications, and to the Decisions concerning their Language, with the important Cases, down to June 1856. *''The Law of Reformatories'' (1856) - A Handbook of the Reformatories of Great Britain and Ireland, with the regulations of the Privy Council, Poor Laws, &c., and the Statutes relating to the subject. *''Ragged Schools: their Rise, Progress, and Results'' *''Popery in A.D. 1900'' *''The Ascent of Mont Blanc'' - With four views printed in oil colours, illustrating the ascent of the mountain by Messrs. MacGregor and Shuldham, when Mr. Albert Smith revisited the Grand Mulets, together with Lord Killeen, Col. De Bathe, Mr. W. Russell (of the Times), and Messrs. Burrowes and Fanshawe. *''Eastern Music'' - About 20 airs, from Greece, Turkey, Palestine and Egypt, with accompaniments, description, and anastatic sketches. *''Go Out Quickly into the Streets and Lanes of the City'' - A tract on open air preaching. *''Our Brothers and Cousins: A Summer Tour in Canada and the States'' (1859) *''A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe'' (1866) *''The Voyage Alone In The Yawl 'Rob Roy (1867) *''The Rob Roy on the Baltic'' (1867) *''The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, &c'' (1869) *''Toil and Travel, A True Story of Roving and Ranging When On a Voyage Homeward Bound Round the World'', published by T. Fisher Unwin (1892)

References

External links

* *
''Our Brothers and Cousins: A Summer Tour in Canada and the States''
London, Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1859. First edition, illustrated. From

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

.
''A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe''
London: S. Low and Marston, 1866. First edition, illustrated. From

.
''A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe''
text.

from ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'', 1867.
''The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, &c''
London: John Murray, Albemarle Street 1874. Fourth edition, illustrated. From

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

.
''The Voyage Alone In The Yawl 'Rob Roy
London: S. Low and Marston, 1880. Fourth edition, illustrated. From

. * * Hodder, Edwin (1894)
''John MacGregor''
a biography. London Hodder Bros. From

.
''John MacGregor: A Victorian-era Paddler''
Sea Kayaker Magazine 1999 by Brian Kologe
National Maritime Museum Cornwall

The Open-Air Mission

''John MacGregor ("Rob Roy"): Explorer, Philanthropist and Sportsman (1825-1892)''
From www.simonwenham.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macgregor, John 1825 births 1892 deaths English barristers Scottish male canoeists Scottish sportswriters Scottish environmentalists 19th-century Scottish inventors Scottish travel writers Scottish lawyers Scottish naturalists Scottish explorers Scottish philanthropists Scottish male sport shooters Members of the London School Board Palestinologists Holy Land travellers Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 19th-century English lawyers 19th-century English philanthropists British male sport shooters