A wee bit about my research. Back in 2004 my great-uncle Graham Munro visited me at my parent's house in Worcestershire and gave me a small family tree that only led back to my 2nd-great grandad Alexander Munro and although it stated that he married in 1885 to Agnes Kerr it did not give his date of birth or death, or any of his siblings' names. In the space of about 48 hours I used the ScotlandsPeople website to confirm his date of birth, trace a further two generations back to my 4th great-grandparents Alexander Munro and Barbara Mackay and subsequently added all the siblings for my 2nd great-grandad and 3rd great grandad Mackay (John) Munro (b. 1812). My mother, Patricia Alana Munro, always wanting to help out went online and found a discussion on the Ancestry message boards with a man named William Bell, in Australia, who is descended from my 3rd great-grandad's brother Donald Munro (b.1802). William had a line from a book that he thought was Burke's Colonial Gentry (1891) and that said that my 4th great-grandad Alexander Munro, of the Munro of Foulis family, removed from his native county of Ross-shire and settled in the county of Sutherland upon receiving an appointment from the Earl of Caithness in 1784. In 2007 I moved to London and in about 2008 I decided to go to the British Library and take a look at Burke's Colonial Gentry for myself. Although it did mention my 4th great-grandad Alexander Munro as being from Ross-shire and settling in Sutherland, it did not have the line about him receiving the appointment from the Earl of Caithness. I took photo copies nevertheless. I got back in contact with William Bell who said that someone else had passed him the information. I also got in contact with another Australian relative, Glenda James, who thankfully said that she knew someone with the book which mentioned Alexander Munro and the Earl of Caithness. I subsequently received a letter through the post from another Australian descendant of Donald Munro (1802), James Purdon, who did not have access to the internet but went to the trouble of writing to me from Australia and sending a photo copy of the page from the book which did mention both Alexander Munro and the Earl of Caithness. However, James Purdon did not know which book it had come from either and said that someone else had passed it onto him. The page was clearly from an article about James Munro, 15th Premier of Victoria, son of Donald Munro (1802). I did a bit of digging around online and found the Australian website Gould Genealogy and they were selling what they claimed to be the complete works of a book called Australian Representative Men, volumes 1 and 2. They also had a preview of the book in PDF format and I could see that the distinctive text or font used in it clearly matched the page I had. I then purchased from them on CD-Rom the complete Australian Representative Men, volumes 1 and 2, but to my disappointment it did not include the page mentioning my ancestor Alexander Munro and his appointment from the Earl of Caithness. Next, I contacted the National Library of Australia whose website had a contact form with the means to include an attachment. I filled out the form and attached the page which I had scanned, asking them if they knew which book it had come from. They came back to me very quickly and said that it was indeed Australian Representative Men, but that it was the 2nd edition which was not the same as volume 2 which I had on the CD-Rom. So the book from which the page about Alexander Munro receiving an appointment from the Earl of Caithness had finally been identified. By this point in time I had taken part in the Clan Munro Y-DNA project which had confirmed that my direct male line (Munros) were not descended from the Munros of Foulis, contrary to what is said in both Burke's Colonial Gentry and Australian Representative Men, 2nd edition. Still, it also seemed strange that my 4th great-grandad Alexander Munro who was just a common carpenter had received an appointment from the Earl of Caithness who was the king's lieutenant in the north. In around 2014 it occurred to me to find out what the Earl of Caithness was doing in 1784. There were several 19th century books that can be found online which all concurred that he had been a commanding officer in the 76th Regiment of foot of the British Army which had coincidentally been disbanded in 1784 - the same year that Alexander Munro had received his appointment from him. I thought that just maybe Alexander Munro had been a soldier in the same regiment and had received the appointment for military service. I went to the National Archives in Kew, Richmond, Greater London and read through the muster rolls for the regiment. Not only were there three Alexander Munros in the regiment but one of them had been a Sergeant in the same company of the regiment that was commanded by the Earl of Caithness. Could it be the same Alexander Munro who was my ancestor ? I began searching around online for information about the 76th Regiment of foot which turned out to have been a very obscure and short-lived regiment. Despite this there was a Facebook group for a re-enactment group in the US who specialized in re-enacting the British 76th foot (some of their members are descendants of the soldiers of the regiment who had settled in the US after the American War of Independence had ended). The leader of the re-enactment group, James Taylor, explained that because there was so little information about this obscure regiment that they had spent a lot of time researching it in the archives. He sent me an MS Word document with their research into the regiment. So from here I found the document of 1780 in the National Archives which I cannot go into too much detail about here. Sergeant Alexander Munro of the 76th foot was a bad man indeed, but I should make clear that I have not totally confirmed if he was actually the same Alexander Munro who was my ancestor. He committed a terrible crime in the year 1780 that he really should have been executed for but he had friends in high places and escaped with his life. The dilemma I have is that if they had executed him then none of my subsequent Munro ancestors, family or I would have ever existed. He was given a second chance in life and this would seem to match with my ancestor receiving his appointment from the Earl of Caithness in 1784 to remove from his native county of Ross-shire and settle in the county of Sutherland. Especially as the wife of my ancestor Alexander Munro, Barbara Mackay, seems to have been the daughter of Janet Sinclair who was a confirmed 2nd cousin of the same John Sinclair, 11th Earl of Caithness. Christians believe that every new life born is innocent and especially if you are baptised; every generation in the direct line since my 4th great grandad has been baptised. Even if you are not a religious person most people would agree that you are not a bad person just because your distant ancestor committed a crime 240 years ago. My maternal grandfather who I lived with for seven years in Forest Hill, London once warned me to be careful of doing genealogical research because I might find something I don't like, and he was clearly right. On the plus side, if the genealogy is correct then it would mean not only that I am descended from the Earls of Caithness but that I am also descended from the man who founded the famous Rosslyn Chapel. Over the years I have made visits to the National Records of Scotland, National Library of Scotland, Highland Archive Centre, British Library and National Archives (UK). Highlights for me would be when I found both of the petitions from my 4th great grandmother Barbara Mackay from 1835 and 1837 in the NLS which have both provided key information. Apart from the document of 1780 which came my way thanks to the re-enactment group, all of the information on this website about the 76th and 42nd regiments, muster rolls and inspection returns etc, is my own research. In fact most of this website is my own research except for maybe a few bits on the page about Donald Munro (1802) which came from the helpful Australian relatives and some of the information about my more recent Munro ancestors which came from my great-uncle Graham Munro and served as a starting point.
Most of my research for the Munros of Armadale has now been done but my July 2024 visits to the National Library of Scotland have opened up a new line of enquiry in regards to George Munro who was born in 1799 in Armadale, so a few more visits will be needed. It has now been about 20 years since I started researching the Munros of Armadale which might seem like a long time but I have had other things to do, most notably work. I have not actually included all of my research into the Munros of Armadale in this website because as William Bell advised all those years ago I should keep some back for myself just in case anyone tries to claim my research. God rest his soul. Having had many visits to the various archives in Scotland for research purposes I hope to make visits to the Highlands in the future to enjoy the scenery and the historic sites.
Michael John George Munro.