Famous heroine Flora MacDonald was born in Scotland in 1722. Since little is known about MacDonald’s early life, much of it has become something of a folktale. While still in Scotland, 
MacDonald became involved in a plot to help usher Prince Charles Edward Stuart to safety after the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. She traveled with the prince who was disguised as her servant. For her part in the escape, she was imprisoned for about a year. By the time of her release MacDonald had become a celebrity both at home in Scotland and abroad, though she maintained throughout her life that she helped the fugitive as she would help any person in need. Immigrating to North Carolina in 1774, she and her husband made their home near Pekin, in what is now Montgomery County. True to the allegiance to the crown that the couple demonstrated in Scotland, Allen MacDonald took up arms with other Highlanders bound for the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge as the Revolutionary War began to heat up. Allen, a son and a son-in-law were all captured and imprisoned in Philadelphia. MacDonald endured hardship and illness, and her North Carolina property was confiscated. She eventually returned home to Scotland where she died in 1790. Read more about the Highland Scots in North Carolina on NCpedia.