Tartans and Clan Tartans

Madaleine Campbell-Jewett

March 1999

1. Introduction

I have used the above title in order to separate two distinct concepts.

Tartan, in one form or another, has existed for centuries; there is an example of chequered woollen material, (The Falkirk Tartan), in the Tartan Museum, Scotch House, Edinburgh dated to 325A.D.

There are many references to the existence of tartan and plaids throughout Scottish history - too many, in fact, to list here. However, Clan Tartans, as distinguished in exact setts signifying belonging to a particular Clan, is of more recent invention and owes a great deal to the ingenuity of textile manufacturers and romantic notions of Scotland’s past which are not supported by historical evidence.

The weight of evidence against the existence of specific clan tartans (as we know them today) in 1745 is immense. It has been a considerable problem to decide which references to include, and which to omit - lest this article should assume saga proportions.

In order to achieve ease of reference I have divided the evidence into five main sections:

2. Examination of surviving paintings and costume

The earliest surviving portrait of a Highland Chieftain, (as far as I know), is of Sir Duncan Campbell of Lochow, the founder of the Campbells of Glenorchy. It was painted by George Jameson and is dated 1635. He wears a loose cloak fastened with a brooch and belted at the waist. This loose cloak is not tartan. (This portrait is reproduced in "Tartan" by Hugh Cheape, Curator of Modern Scottish History at the National Museum of Scotland).

The next oldest portrait is the painting by Michael Wright, (dated between 1660 and 1700). This painting has been known as "Highland Chieftain" and "Lord Mungo Murray". It has also been claimed to represent, among others, Lord Breadalbane. J Telfer Dunbar believes the painting was of an actor by the name of Lacy. The pattern of this plaid has been examined closely by J. Telfer Dunbar and by Dr Haswell Miller, (one-time keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, artist and student of costume). It is highly complex. In his work, "The Costume of Scotland", Dunbar writes, "Unlike modern clan tartans, however, some of the early tartans did not have a repeat in the sett and I have specimens in my own collection showing this". (The collection in the Tartan Museum in Scotch House, Edinburgh, owes a great debt to Dunbar - and this is acknowledged in a little plaque at the entrance to the Museum - after all his collection is on display there.)

The Grants have conveniently left a number of portraits. The Lady of Grant (1658) shows a fashionable woman in ringlets and lace, dressed in the Lowland/English fashion. The Grant portraits by Richard Waitt in the early 18th century consists of members of the family and retainers. Referring to pictures of the family, Dunbar tells us, "The tartans all differ from each other and none of them are of the sett worn today as a "Clan Grant" tartan." However, an examination of the retainers proves interesting. Curiously the Hen-Wife (Nic Ciarain) the only portrait, as far as I know, of an ordinary Highland woman, doesn’t appear to wear any tartan at all. I.F.Grant says she is wearing ‘a dress of dark checked stuff’ but having examined a good print, in good lighting and with a magnifying glass, if there is a chequered material it’s dammed faint. The Piper and the Champion, however, wear tartans which do look alike. Apparently, in 1704, "the son of the chief ordered the whole of the tenantry to wear Grant tartan when they attended him." (I.F.Grant). Having checked I.F. Grant’s source on this (The Chiefs of Grant by William Fraser 1883) " Grant Tartan" is not actually specified. The source merely states ‘ made all the gentlemen and commons of his name wear whiskers, and make all their plaids and tartans of red and green...’ There is also some confusion as to the date, it could be 1707 or 1710 after a trip to London.

From the evidence of the portraits Hesketh writes, "One conclusion that could be drawn from this is the idea of a standardized tartan had so little appeal that the Grant Chiefs found it easier to impose on their own personal attendants than on the gentlemen of the clan." However, there is another issue to be considered here - the question of everyone on clan lands being a member of that clan and being related to the chief.

An examination of the history of ownership of Grant lands in Strathspey throws up some interesting information. I am indebted to I.F.Grant for her examination of the development of the clan system in her book, "The Social and Economic Development of Scotland before 1603." These lands had previously been owned by Huntly, Comyn and others. Grant has referred extensively to William Fraser’s "Chiefs of Grant" and from this has ascertained that, in 1516, Grant was feuding lands in Strathspey from Moray; by 1539 he was renting the greater part of Strathspey; in 1583-87 Grant bought the lands outright from other claimants.

Grant states, "Many families of the stock of the Laird or chief were thus established, but these did not amount to the bulk of the clan, and it must be remembered that the fertile Strath of the Spey was not empty when they came there." She goes on to state, "There is evidence that the custom of taking their landlord’s name, which was fairly common in the Highlands was adopted by the other inhabitants." Grant goes on to refer to documents concerning surnames and patronymics in the Parish of Duthil in 1537 and 1569. She comments on the discrepancy and consequent influx of Grant names thus, "...as he had a good deal of other property, to have established so many descendants in this one parish would premise a more than rodent-like fecundity."

Not everyone ordered to wear "Grant" tartan, therefore, was actually a Grant. If this should be doubted, one has only to remember that Grant’s Piper in the portrait was named William Cumming. His wearing of tartan was not a badge of clan identity, but a livery denoting political allegiance.

Dunbar has also examined the portrait of Kenneth, 3rd Lord Duffus (d.1734). He writes, "Once again, despite careful examination of the original painting, it is impossible to find a satisfactory repeat in the sett of the tartan which consists of black, red, yellow and white stripes arranged in the typical complicated pattern to be found in the early specimens of the pre-clan tartan era".

"The Macdonald Boys" (1749/50), is described by Dunbar as follows; "The four garments consisting of two jackets, a long waistcoat and a kilt are of four different red, black and green tartans".

Lady Hesketh’s book "Tartans" also notices this portrait and she writes, "This is a particularly interesting picture because none of the four tartans in it resemble any modern Macdonald set."

Lady Hesketh and Dunbar both note the striking similarity between the tartan worn in the portrait of the 5th Earl of Wemyss and that of Norman, 22nd Chief of MacLeod, both of whom were painted by Allan Ramsay. Both paintings belong to the Proscription period and the only difference is in the shoulder plaids.

Not all tartan was worn by Scotsmen. A tartan suit of jacket and trews was commissioned from an Edinburgh tailor by English Jacobite, Sir John Hynde Cotton of Madingley during his visit in 1744.

Hugh Cheape notes, "the sett of his tartan is complicated, differing considerably between warp and weft, and is unknown today."

It is often forgotten that Lowlanders also wore plaids. There are references to this in the writings of Sir William Brereton (1636) and Thomas Morer (1689). These references are easily accessible in P.Hume Brown’s "Early Travellers in Scotland." In this same volume, the writings of Thomas Tucker (1655) and Richard Franck (1656) mention plaiding/tartan being exported to the continent.

3. Examination of contemporary records and surviving literature

Dunbar inherited Alexander Carmichael’s (of Carmina Gadelica fame), collection of early pre-clan tartans. The collection came to him via William Skeoch Cumming. "To his vast collection of notes, drawings and pictures he added a great treasure - the manuscript business correspondence, literally hundreds of the firm’s letters), and records of the firm of William Wilson and Sons, Bannockburn. From the 1780’s until the early twentieth century they supplied the bulk of the civilian tartans made in Scotland and also most of the Highland dress worn by the Highland regiments from the 1790’s until the time of the Boer War." He continues, "The earliest document which I have discovered is dated 1763". (The Costume of Scotland).

Hugh Cheape also makes reference to the Wilsons. "In the weaving pattern books of Wilsons and in their orders of the late eighteenth century the tartans are described by numbers only. The setts and shades were assembled according to changing demand and not to a set of rules as they now are." Cheape continues as follows: "Wilsons of Bannockburn made, (19th century, presumably as 18th century tartans are described by numbers), for example, a tartan called "New Bruce" which subsequently became the Grant tartan. We do not know anything of the pedigree of this sett beyond this expedient of name change".

The surviving literature is somewhat vague and does not appear to prove anything. Cheape refers to the Grameid, the 1689 campaign of Viscount Dundee; "Glengarry’s men were in scarlet hose and plaids crossed with purple stripe; Lochiel was in a coat of three colours; the plaid worn by MacNeil of Barra, "rivalled the rainbow". All this proves is the Highland love of personal display.

Martin Martin’s Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland is often quoted as a proof that Clan Tartans existed. My facsimile copy of the second edition, (1716) reads as follows: "Every Isle differs from each other in their Fancy of making Plaids, as to the stripes in Breadth, and colours. This Humour is as different through the Main Land of the Highlands in-so-far that they who have seen those places, are able, at the first view of a Man’s Plaid, to guess the Place of his residence". Note the words "Fancy " and "Humour". On the previous page, the start of the above quotation runs as follows: " a great deal of ingenuity requir’d in sorting the colours, so as to be agreeable to the nicest fancy." and, "But Persons of Distinction wear the Garb in fashion in the South of Scotland."

Alastair Campbell of Airds, Unicorn Pusuivant and Chairman, Advisory Committee on Tartans to the Lord Lyon has written for the Collins Pocket Reference: Clans and Tartans. He comments on the above quotation concerning distinguishing a man’s residence by the pattern of his tartan. He writes, "His claim is not corroborated by other contemporary writers and may mean no more than that certain patterns had gained popularity in certain areas - which is entirely possible."

4. The research of eminent historians, curators and collectors of folklore and tartan

I am indebted to a number of eminent figures for their research into clan tartans, folklore and the history of Scotland in general and the Highlands in particular.

Dunbar quotes J.F.Campbell of Islay who collected Gaelic texts and preserved much Highland folklore.

Much of this material was published in "Popular Tales of the West Highlands." In October 1882, he wrote to Lord Archibald Campbell as follows: "I am nearly certain that there is no mention of any tartan at all in any story orally collected by me or for me." Dunbar continues with, " Having examined Campbell’s vast collection of original material, I can find no mention of clan tartans, and, if such a system existed, find it difficult to understand why none of the many poets and story-tellers describe it."

Dunbar also refers to Alexander Carmichael’s collection of Gaelic poetry. "But I consider it significant that neither there, or in his unpublished collection is there any reference to such a system. One must also wonder why the great poets of the Jacobite era such as Duncan Ban McIntyre, John MacCodrum and Alexander Macdonald (Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair) make no mention of the Highlanders being dressed in clan tartans."

Dunbar also refers to the writing of Dr A.E. Haswell Miller, Keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, who had " unique opportunities to study the pictorial evidence regarding Highland dress..."

In an authoritative publication by the Historical Association in 1956, entitled Common Errors in Scottish History, he wrote: "... the ‘Scottish Clan Tartans’ as we know them from numerous books, post-cards and other productions were never systematized before the appearance of such publications in the nineteenth century. Authentic documentation of the tartan previous to the nineteenth century is limited to a comparatively small number of contemporary portraits, and is negative so far as it provides any suggestion of heraldic significance or ‘clan badge’ intention..."

Dunbar makes reference to Major I.H.Mackay Scobie who spent a lifetime collecting information on Highland dress. "His family lived in the clan country for close on two centuries and he was a Gaelic scholar: his opinion, therefore, is authoritative." In Chamber’s Journal, June 1942, he wrote, "The antiquity of Highland Breacan (tartan, of course, was not unknown in other countries), is beyond dispute. On the other hand, "clan" tartans - as defined and known at the present day - cannot be shown to have existed as such prior to the 1745 period, and, indeed, are even later."

Dunbar himself collected tartans for almost fifty years. He states, "I do not have a single example of a clan tartan dating before the very late eighteenth century. Of the specimens dating before that time, a great many show a difference between the pattern of warp and weft. Such an arrangement could not possibly produce the modern clan tartan, the sett of which depends on the exact duplication of colour and pattern between warp and weft. I have collected several hundred documentary references to Highland dress between 1600 and 1800 but they contain no mention of clan tartans before the late eighteenth century." He continues with, "The recording of modern clan tartans is not difficult but the setts of the old pre-clan tartans are more demanding. Apart from the fact that the warp and the weft frequently differ, very often the sett does not repeat or pivot as it does in the modern clan tartan".

Hugh Cheape writes that tartan was not originally an expression of identity and that other emblems such as plants were used by the Highlanders to serve this purpose. He also comments on the Sobieski Stuarts’ Vestiarum Scoticum published in 1842 and The Costume of the Clans in 1845. "These books established and consolidated the clan associations of tartan and ascribed specific clan identity to nearly all setts or designs. The authors.... rested their case on sixteenth century manuscripts which they claimed to have discovered. These documents have since been discredited."

Professor Emeritus Gordon Donaldson, CBE, HM Historiographer in Scotland, in his foreword to Kathleen B. Cory’s book, "Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry" comments as follows: "Experience shows that the only qualification for the acquisition of a "clan tartan" (nearly always a nineteenth century invention) is the same qualification as for the acquisition of any other piece of cloth, namely ability to pay for it... the whole tartan cult is a commercial enterprise - it is business, big business, for the tartan makers,..."

5. Dyes

Mrs. Annette Kok’s Appendix to Dunbar’s " History of Highland Dress" is entitled " Early Scottish Highland Dyes." Her essay is based on extensive practical research and "underlines the difficulties in neatly tabulating plant and mineral dyes involving the nature of the fibre to be dyed, the "hand", or individual temperament of the dyer and even the material of the dye vessel. The variety of shades which emerge, and the impossibility of producing large quantities of wool dyed to the same shade, make nonsense of the idea that there was strict uniformity of colours in the eighteenth century."

To this I would add that much depends on the quantity, quality and type of plants available due to the vagaries of the weather. Also, we must consider the effects of mordants - iron and especially urine.

People’s eating and drinking habits before giving a "sample, and perhaps their state of health might influence the shades obtained.

It should also be understood that "The brown colour of the Soay sheep would have considerable bearing on the clothing made from undyed wool and would also affect the shades obtained from the use of organic dyes. But up to the eighteenth century sheep throughout the Highlands and Islands had fleeces of a variety of colours. This must be borne in mind when we examine early textiles..."

6. The Court of the Lord Lyon

At this point it will be necessary to explain the nature of the Lyon Court. I refer to Charles MacKinnon of Dunedin in "The Observer’s Book of Heraldry". "In Scotland the control of heraldry is fully legal, as the court of the Lord Lyon is part of Scotland’s judicature..." "The Lord Lyon King of Arms is the chief Officer of Arm in Scotland, and in fact holds the oldest heraldic office in Great Britain..." "The Lord Lyon is a Great Officer of State and of the Crown, a judge of the realm, and it is high treason to strike or deforce him. His office is pre-heraldic and it combines the very ancient office of Royal Sennachie or Bard..." "His office is unique and he has powers, such as those of imprisonment and fine, which no English officer has and which, even now, he does not hesitate to use."

In 1995 Harper Collins published its pocket reference, "Clans & Tartans". The section entitled "Tartan and the Highland Dress" is written by Alastair Campbell of Airds - also known as "Unicorn Pusuivant" and Chairman, Advisory Committee on Tartans to the Lord Lyon. He writes as follows; "...hardly any setts or patterns, among those in use today can be traced to early times, and there is no indication that they then had any sort of clan identity attached to them. Indeed, the evidence is very much the other way, as instanced by the patterns of such old plaids and scraps of tartan that have come down to us from before the closing years of the eighteenth century; these are very different from today’s clan patterns, as are the tartans shown in those portraits of chiefs and Lairds which have survived from the late 17th and 18th centuries. Indeed, few were painted in tartan, as their best clothes were seldom of this material, but of those that show the tartan it is evident that a number of different setts was often worn at the same time by the picture’s subject and that none of them equate to the respective clan patterns of today."

"It has also been claimed that, rather than clan tartans, those setts classed as district tartans represent an ancient general system of identification. The theory rests heavily on the statement by Martin Martin in 1703 that it was possible to tell a man’s residence by the pattern of his tartan." (This item has been discussed earlier in this article). He continues as follows: " A recent work on the subject lists just under a hundred tartans with a geographical name. 22 are to be found on record prior to 1820 - Of these 22, the vast majority appear to be ‘trade names’, found in Wilson’s Pattern Book alongside such fanciful titles as ‘Robin Hood’, ‘Rob Roy’... A mere handful show any sign of having possibly been used as true district tartans and the evidence for any general system as such remains unimpressive -"

In conclusion there would seem to be no evidence for clan tartans as we know them today prior to the ‘45. The nearest we get to this is a livery tartan for the chief’s retainers, but even chiefs found this difficult to enforce, and was more a badge of political allegiance than actual clan identity. Under these circumstances, it may not be popular to state that clan tartans, as we know them today, did not exist at the time of the ‘45; people get very emotional about it and will often disagree violently. However, re-enactors should be in the business of debunking myths and presenting history as accurately as possible.

Given the weight of evidence against there being any general system of clan tartans it is up to the pro-clan tartan theorists to present a body of evidence to the Scottish Tartans Society at Pitlochry and to the Lyon Court’s Advisory Committee on Tartans.

I can understand and sympathize with those who believe in the antiquity of the clan tartan system. Even after all my research I still find it odd that Lord Campbell of Ardmaddie (Lord Campbell of the Bank -1749) and Charles Campbell of Lochlane (1760) should have been painted in a red tartan; a prestigious colour at the time, but not one I would have associated with my own clan.

Sources

The Art of Jewellery in Scotland - Ed. by R.K.Marshall and George R.Dalgleish

HMSO Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Tartans - C.Hesketh. (Octopus Books)

The Costume of Scotland - J.Telfer Dunbar.

The Observer’s Book of Heraldry - Charles McKinnon of Dunedin

Tartan - Hugh Cheape - National Museums of Scotland

Early Travellers in Scotland - Hume Brown

A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland - Martin Martin - Facsimile of the 2nd Ed. 1716

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry - Kathleen B.Corey

Clans and Tartans - Collins Pocket Reference

Social and Economic Development of Scotland before 1603 - I.F.Grant.

Scottish Art 1460 -1990 - Duncan MacMillan

Costume in Scottish Portraits 1560 -1830 - Scottish National Portrait Gallery - Rosalind K. Marshall.

Highland Folk Ways. I.F.Grant