Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/MacGregor, James
MACGREGOR, JAMES (d. 1551), dean of Lismore, was the son of Dougall Johnson (the son of John) MacGregor by his wife, a daughter of Donald McClawe, alias Grant. This branch of the MacGregors lived at Tullichnullin, a house at Fortingall, Perthshire, and owned in perpetuity the vicarage of Fortingall with a lease of the church lands. The father was a notary public, and died after 1529. James was in all probability only in minor orders. He was a notary public in 1511, was dean of Lismore in 1514, and succeeded his father in the vicarage of Fortingall. He died in 1561, and was buried in the church at Inchordin. He was married, and had a son Gregor MacGregor. Two natural sons, Gregor and Dougall, were naturalised in 1557, Dougall being at that time chancellor of Lismore.
James MacGregor collected Gaelic poetry, and with the help of his brother Duncan transcribed what he gathered into a commonplace book, which forms a quarto of about 311 pages, written in a Roman hand. This volume, most of which was transcribed as early as 1512, came during the eighteenth century into the possession of the Highland Society of London, from which it passed to the Highland Society of Scotland, and is now in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh. A volume of selections from it was edited, with introduction, notes, and translation, by Thomas McClauchlan and William F. Skene (Edinburgh, 1862, 8vo). It is of great philological value, and illustrates the relations between Western Scotland and Ireland from an early date.
[Edition of the Dean of Lismore's book by McClauchlan and Skene; Proc. Soc. Antiq. of Scotland, 11. i. 35; Dublin Univ. Mag. lxiii. 95 sq.]