The biggest con-artist in history: Gregor MacGregor

Gregor MacGregor was born in the county of Stirlingshire, Scotland on Christmas eve in 1786. He grew up to a Roman Catholic family with a dad that worked in the East India Company as captain. Gregor had been influenced by his whole family about the sea, military and colonization. His uncle Roy has participated in the Scottish colonization of Panama. His grandfather had also joined the British army.

After Gregor’s father’s death in 1794, his mother and other relatives took care of the 8 year old Gregor and his 2 sisters. It is speculated that his family spoke an old version of Scottish Gaelic and learned English in elementary school. MacGregor had studied in the University of Edinburgh for two years and although he did not earn a degree, he was relatively educated as for the early 1800’s.

MacGregor joined the British army as soon as he could, at the age of 16. Gregor’s involvement in the military was during the Napoleonic wars. He was mostly stationed in southern England to defend from a predicted French invasion that never came. After less than a year of work, Macgregor was promoted to lieutenant without purchase. He spent some time on the island of Guernsey and some time in the Iberian double peninsula of Gibraltar. The peninsula was occupied by the British and broke off of Spain.

Gregor married Maria Bowater partially due to the fact that she was related to two generals and was the daughter of a Royal Navy captain. After the marriage at Saint Margaret's church in 1805, MacGregor and his wife settled in London. MacGregor decided he was to be more involved in the peninsular war, and bought the rank of captain for 900 pounds instead of waiting seven years. He remained in Gibraltar for 4 years. He started developing an obsession for military ranks and dress uniforms. People started seeing MacGregor as crazy as he refused to leave his home with anything less than a full dress uniform.

In 1809 MacGregor was called back into war. He served as major in the Portuguese army for a year but  left early after fighting with a superior officer about going home before finishing his obligation to fight. Gregor won this argument. He and his wife decided to move into a rented home with MacGregor's mother, Ann, in Edinburgh.

Gregor and his wife soon became tired of the fame in Edinburgh so they moved again to London. In 1811, Maria died. MacGregor’s now had no more help from the rich Bowater family. He married so quickly to another rich woman, that the Bowaters began to public protest. He moved back to the farms of Scotland to avoid the awkwardness. He had no experience in any job but the military but his return was not a choice. Going back to the British military would mean being treated like a rat due to his military discharge. It would be awkward, just what MacGregor hated.

Gregor first heard about the Venezuelan revolt against Spain when many Venezuelans came to London. There he met some of them and learned about Latin America and Europeans' interest in it. MacGregor sold his Scottish farm land passed down from his grandfather, divorced his new wife, and sailed to the Americas. He stopped in the coast of Jamaica to try to sustain a life of trading and planting, but he was a white Brit that spoke none of their language, just like the Spanish. They paid no attention to him and did not let him settle in their society. After trying again in Kingston, with no success, he sailed to Venezuela and hit the coast in 1812.

MacGregor arrived 2 weeks after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela. The revolutionary government started to crash after losing much support. MacGregor stopped referring to himself as European because he didn’t want to ruin his chances here. Gregor married Dona Josefa Antonia Andrea Aristeguieta y Lovera. She was the cousin of a revolutionary soldier named Simon Bolivar. The same Bolivar that Bolivia was named after. MacGregor served in the revolutionary military and earned the rank of Brigadier-General but the Republic was falling. The Spanish took more land from Bolivar. Josefa and Gregor fled to the Dutch occupied island Curacao, on a British boat, where Bolivar joined them later that year.

Bolivar began to lead the Revolution. The Spanish took over Venezuela and Bolivar prepared to go back to the mainland. Gregor ligitametally got bored from no war and offered his army services to Antonio Narino in New Grenada against the Spanish in revolution. He bought his wife a house in Jamaica and went back to war. Since Gregor was married to Josefa he started his war with a good rank. Her relation with Bolivar also earned MacGregor respect from the other soldiers. MacGregor was the superior of many soldiers and many were jealous of him or just disliked him because of his good self esteem or that he was just not nice to them.

In 1813, Bolivar took back the capital of Venezuela after using European tactics and tricks. Bolivar tried to create a secondary republic but it was easily crushed by the Spanish in 1814. MacGregor and 5,000 other troops and natives defended against the Spanish in 1815. Gregor became popular in Venezuela and Latin America and people saw him as an honourable man.

Gregor went to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where Bolivar was creating another military. MacGregor fought for a while there but soon went back to the Venezuelan army. The British respected Gregor for his help against the Spanish. Gregor moved back and forth between Venezuela and all over South America. He fought way longer and many more battles for independence were fought.

Gregor ended up in the gulf of Honduras in 1820. He landed in an area owned by the Mosquito people. They were African descendents that had a hatred for the Spanish. They and the British worked together to control Honduras but the British tried to take full control many times. These were unsuccessful. Gregor had respect here as well. He even signed an agreement with a British General that granted Gregor 8,000,000 acres of land. This area was huge. In return MacGregor gave the man rum and jewelry. Gregor named this area Poyais (Poyay) after the Mosquito name that was there called the Paya (Payer.)

MacGregor returned to London in 1821 and referred to himself as the “Cazique of Poyais.” It meant leader in a Spanish creole native to the Americas. He claimed that he was crowned by the mosquito people and they gave him their land. He told the people about his country.

Josefa lived in Ireland with Gregor’s sister when she gave birth. Meanwhile, Gregor had a plan. He met the King of Great Britain and asked for immigrants and money for his civilised democracy that wanted to destroy the Spanish. He then went around telling people his story and how they could become rich. He told them that waters literally flowed of gold.

Gregor began designing his country. He printed currency, invented companies, and designed specific military uniforms and described how each regiment had different clothes. He also bought advertisements from big London companies. Biographers wrote about Gregor’s journeys and the British became more interested in Poyais and Gregor MacGregor. MacGregor took interviews that ended up in the newspaper. People even sang about Poyais in the streets of London. He had a publicist draw a picture of Poyais.

Gregor started selling land. His sales got to the point where he was earning 4 shillings per acre. When marketing MacGregor usually targeted Scots. They trusted him as a fellow Scotsman. A boat of 70 people went to Poyais one day on a vessel. They called the colony the Honduras Packet. Most people who went died on the way. The survivors spent the rest of their miserable lives in the sand with mosquito people. The leader of the Honduras Packet went back to London without telling the others. They were already so disappointed and angry that they fell for something so dumb.

Gregor knew he would get in trouble at some point so he fled to France. He told everyone that asked that he was taking Josefa to Italy because of a medical condition she needed to be treated. This was false, he was going to the capital of France, Paris. For the next few months there was word all over Britain about the scandal. If you think Gregor was done though, he wasn’t.

He managed to get a big French trading company to invest in immigrants for Poyais. He told the French people all about Poyais as well. In 1825 Gregor was arrested. He and his family were hopping around France and the Netherlands but were eventually found and imprisoned. After being let out of prison, MacGregor waited before returning to London after the Poyais incident had died down. He was arrested in Britain immediately.

Josefa died in the outskirts of Edinburgh. After finishing his years in prison, Gregor MacGregor sailed back to now independent Venezuela and applied for citizenship in 1838. He also applied for his former rank in the Venezuelan military. He died on December 4th, 1845.