This chapter discusses MacCormick’s childhood, growing up in a very political family in Glasgow. It examines the complex relationships between MacCormick and his father as well as his mother. It situates his father’s nationalist politics in the historiography of Scottish politics generally, from the 1920s to the 1950s. It describes the three main events in which MacCormick, as a boy, was exposed to his father’s particular kind of nationalism: the Convention (est. 1942) and Covenant (1949–51); the taking of the Stone of Destiny (1950); and the MacCormick v Lord Advocate case (1953). In focusing on MacCormick’s early family life, the chapter begins the process of seeking to explore his character – here, primarily by reference to his relationships with his parents.