Lineage

The Munro of Milntown of Milntown family descend from John Munro, 1st of Milntown, the second son of Hugh Munro, 9th Baron of Foulis

Hugh Munro, 9th Baron of Foulis

Hugh Munro, 9th Baron of Foulis was a 14th - 15th century Scottish soldier and said to be 12th chief of the Clan Munro in the Scottish Highlands. Hugh was seated at Foulis Castle in Ross-shire, Scotland...

 (d. 1425). Three generations after John Munro, 1st of Miltown is George Munro 4th of Milntown who became one of the most prominent ministers in the Reformed Church in the north of Scotland. His third son of his was also called George, 1st of Pitlunde and followed in his footsteps. This George's second eldest son was Alexander Munro, 1st of Bearcrofts.

Career

Alexander took up the army as his profession and served for some time as a Major in an infantry regiment in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. He was knighted for his distinguished services in the army and was appointed Commissioner of Stirling

Stirling

Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...

. Alexander fought for King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 at the Battle of Worcester

Battle of Worcester

The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...

 (September 3, 1651). He survived the battle and was not captured, afterward he took to the study of the law.

In 1657 he bought a small Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...

 property called Bearcrofts, which lies on the flat southern shore of the Firth of Forth near Grangemouth. In 1660 he was appointed Commissary of Stirlingshire, that is to say, judge of the local court, representing the old ecclesiastical court, with jurisdiction in questions of marriage, divorce, affiliation and testaments. Two years later he passed advocate of the Scottish bar, and in 1669 he was nominated one of the six clerks in the Court of Session, the supreme court in Scotland. In June 1676, when the staff of clerks was reduced to three, he lost his place, and attributing this result to the machinations of the Duke of Lauderdale he joined the malcontent Presbyterian party.

In the spring of 1683 he and several sympathizers went to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, ostensibly to arrange for a Scots colony to the Carolinas, but really to help the Earl of Shaftesbury

Earl of Shaftesbury

Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II...

 in a great Whig plot to overthrow the King and Government and to exclude the Catholic Duke of York

Duke of York

The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...

 from succession to the throne.

An inner circle of conspirators, including nine of the Scotsmen except Robert Ferguson, had a scheme to waylay and murder the King and the Duke of York at the Rye House while on their way from Newmarket to London. In June 1683 the Government discovered both plots, and Commissary Munro, among many others, was arrested. After a Preliminary examination by the Privy Council he and a dozen other Scotsmen were sent to Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 for trial and ware imprisoned in the Tolbooth in solitary confinement for ten months. The authorities raised prosecutions against twenty- three conspirators, all but three being fugitives, and in order to get evidence they decided to apply torture to some of the prisoners. Munro was threatened with the "boots," and gave evidence which was used at several of the trials. He was weakened so much that discompose and confound him, to discover others, that he desperately offered money to the keeper of the Tolbuith's man to run him throw with his sword.

He was then pardoned and liberated, but remained in obscurity till the Revolution of 1688. In 1690 he entered the Scots Parliament as Commissioner for Stirlingshire and at first joined the "Club", the organized opposition to the Court party. He afterwards supported the Government and in 1695 he was knighted and was granted a pension of £150 per annum as a recompense for his sufferings. He died on January 4, 1704, leaving two sons and three daughters.

Family

Alexander's wife was Lillias, daughter of John Eastoun of Couston in Linlithgowshire. Their sons were:

1. George Munro, 1st of Auchinbowie, a successful Scottish soldier.
2. John Munro, 2nd of Bearcrofts
   John Munro (surgeon)
   John Munro , the third son of Sir Alexander Munro of Bearcrofts, was an important member of Edinburgh University.After serving as an army surgeon, he settled in Edinburgh, and conceived the design of establishing a medical faculty at the University, along with George Drummond, Lord Provost...
   
   , a surgeon and professor of Edinburgh University.

(They also had three daughters).