MUNRO, Munroe, Monro: Gaelic Rothach 'a man of Ro,' or 'man from Ro.' "According to a tradition which may be substantially correct the ancestors of the Munros came from Ireland, from the foot of the river Roe in Derry, whence the name Bun-rotha, giving Mun-rotha by eclipsis of b after the preposition in" (Watson I, p. 116). In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the name appears several times in record as 'de Monro,' showing that it was local or territorial in origin. The family at first were vassals of the earls of Ross. Robert de Monro had a charter from Robert I of Counetis in Strathspey and of the lands of Cupermakcultis (RMS., I, App. II, 60). George de Monro of Foulis witnessed a grant of lands in Badenoch, 1338 (SCM., IV, p. 126), and Robert de Monro is the first assured chief by charter evidence, 1341-72 (Skene, Highlanders, p. 417). Joh. de Munro, dominus de Foulis, witnessed a charter of the lands of Usuy in the earldom of Ross, 1463 (RMS., II, 801). Hugh Macdonald, the Skye seanachaidh, tells us that the Monros came into Scotland in the train of Margaret, daughter of Guy O'Kane who was manic to Angus Og (HP., I, p. 20), but Dr. Macbain points out that "a clan in the east of Ross, before ever Macdonalds were earls of Ross could hardly have come as attendants on the bride of the lord of Kintyre in west Argyle" (Skene, Highlanders, p. 416-17). James Monroe, fifth president of the United States, promoter of the Monroe doctrine (1823), was fifth in descent from Andrew Moeroe (d. 1668), one of the Scots prisoners taken at battle of Preston, 1648, and shipped to the colonies. Manro 1538 Monroo 1498, Munroy 1590.