Note 16 — HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE FIRST, OR ROYAL REGIMENT OF FOOT.

The regiment alluded to was raised by Donald Mackay, Lord Reay, in 1626, for the service of the King of Denmark; it was afterwards in the service of the King of Sweden, and was reduced in 1634 to one company. In 1637, Colonel Robert Monro, who had served in the regiment from the time it was raised, published an historical account of its services, under the title of Monro's Expedition; from which history much valuable information has been obtained relating to the Royal Regiment, and its first Colonel, Sir John Hepburn, who had lived in terms of intimacy and strict friendship with Colonel Monro from the time they were schoolfellows.