What is the origin of the Scottish Tartan?

Question

What is the origin of the Scottish Tartan?

Answer 1

Victorian romance, as much as anything, at least as far as the standardised, strict clan-name application of tartan is concerned.

Although an ancient style, not till 1745 do we have the first real record of it being used in association with a particular clan as an identifier.

Answer 2

What is a tartan? Tartan is a woven material, generally of wool, having stripes of different colours and varying in breadth. The arrangement of colours is alike in warp and weft -- that is, in length and width -- and when woven, has the appearance of being a number of squares intersected by stripes which cross each other, this is called a 'sett. By changing the colours; varying the width; depth; number of stripes, differencing is evolved. Tartan patterns are called "setts" and by this is meant the complete pattern, and a length of tartan is made by repeating the pattern or sett, over and over again.

Some writers give the origin of term 'tartan' as the French tiretane although this may simply refer to a type of material of French origin, rather than any pattern on the cloth.

The history of tartan, while interesting, is also controversial, and from time to time discussion has arisen regarding the antiquity of Clan tartans.   References to tartan in early literature supply ample proof that tartan was worn many centuries ago. What may be the earlies written reference to tartan is contained in the accounts of the treasurer to King James III, in the year 1471 where mention is made of tartan purchased for the use of the King and Queen of Scotland.

It is improbable that the early tartans were as gaily coloured or as tastefully arranged as were the tartans of later years. The skill of the weaver and the availability of plants likely to supply vegetable dyes were the chief factors in determining the colours of a tartan. Colours used would be restricted to the plant dyes found within the various districts. The early tartans would have been similar to a checked, muted material of wool. As chemical dyes became more common, the weavers enlarged their range of colours and introduced more colourful variations to the old patterns. When limited to vegetable dyes, the people of each district were forced by circumstances to use the same colours in their tartans and it is probable that the people of the various districts were recognised by the colours in their tartans.

District tartans, as these early patterns are called, might also have served as the Clan tartan, because the people inhabiting Clan districts were, as a rule, members of the same Clan. However their are many instances whereby many different Clans lived and functioned as as member of the district. By adding a stripe of different colour or by varying the arrangement of colours it is thought that branches of the Clan evolved their own tartans, yet by the similarity of pattern, they displayed their kinship with the main Clan.

What may be the earliest recorded reference to a Clan tartan appears in a Crown Charter of 1587 to Hector MacLean of Duart, wherein the feu duty payable on the lands of Narraboll, Islay, is stated to be "sixty ells of cloth, of white, black and green colours." These colours correspond to the colours in the tartan we now call MacLean hunting, but it is doubtful if their exact arrangement was the same as that in use at the present time.

Written evidence regarding the use of Clan tartans prior to the Battle of Culloden are not available. It is generally supposed that each Clan had a special pattern of its own which was worn by the clansmen of the Clan as a means of identifications and as a symbol of the Clan kinship.

From this absence of written proof, critics maintain that Clan tartans as we know them today are modern inventions, probably dating from the Battle of Culloden, or around the time of the Jacobite Civil Wars. These critics also aver that while tartan cloth is undoubtedly ancient, it has no Clan meaning and that the clansmen wore the tartan of their fancy and that inside of each Clan the people wore a medley of tartans......not so! The evidence of the oil paintings of the seventeenth and eithteenth centuries is sometimes accepted as proof to support the critics' claims. Many genuine oil paintings show figures in Highland dress, but the dress displays different tartans in vests, coats and plaids. It should therefore, be pointed out that the figures depicted are usually gentlemen of importance (many Lowlanders), and it is well known these gentlemen dressed differently from the ordinary clansmen. One such famous painting 'does' show ordinary clansmen. This painting was executed at the command of the Duke of Cumberland and was painted by the French artist Morier. The scene depicts an encounter between regular troops of the British Army and some Highland clansmen. Jacobite prisoners were taken from the Tower of London, and the 'Tollboth', to pose for this picture. Here again the Highlanders are shown wearing a variety of tartans in coats, vests and kilts, not one pattern being recognisable and all unlike any tartan known today. Too much importance should not be placed on this painting. The brutal treatment of the Jacobite prisoners of war, who were often stripped of their clothing, makes it highly improbable that the men were wearing their own clothing. It is unlikely that the captors would have taken the trouble to supply the men with their own Clan tartans. While this painting is interesting as illustrative of Highland dress of the period, and the artist had the reputation of being accurate in copying details, it should not be accepted as refutable proof that there were no Clan tartans..

After the Jacobite defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 the Government determined to purge the Highlands of all unlawful elements and to destroy the Clan system. Accordingly an Act of Parliament was passed which not only aimed at the complete disarming of the Highland Clans but made the wearing of tartans a penal offense. This section of the act was strictly enforced. In 1782, the ban on tartans was removed, but by this time the Highlander had become accustomed to the dress worn in other parts of the country and showed no great enthusiasm to rush into tartan clothing. Tartan had, in fact, become only a memory. Many of the old weavers had died out and with their passing old patterns were forgotten.

    "ACT OF PARLIMENT (ENGLISH), passed in 1746 prohibiting the wearing of the Highland Dress.

    HIGHLANDERS OATH AGAINST TARTAN ('The Oath' every Highlander was forced to repeat (take), and swear on the threat of DEATH), 1746.

    I, _________, do swear, as I shall answer to God at the great day of Judgement, I have not, nor shall have in my possession any gun, sword, pistol or arm whatsoever, and never to use tartan plaid, or any part of the Highland Garb; and if I do so may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and property, -- may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without burial in a strange land, far from the graves of my forefathers and kindred; may all this come across me if I break my oath."

This was an especially cruel oath by Highlanders, because most were still Catholic and to 'lie without burial, and blessing, etc'., was a devastating punishment.  Many died because of the 'wearing of the tartan', and 'not giving up their weapons', just as many died in Ireland for the 'wearing of the green'.

In 1822 King George IV visited Edinburgh and the Highland chiefs were persuaded to attend the levies and other functions, all attired in their Clan tartans (a majority did not go). Almost overnight tartan became popular and families, who probably had never before worn tartan, (and hated the Highlanders), became the proud possessors of family tartans.  We saw a dash to get the Tartan after Queen Victoria declared that only persons desssed in their Tartans, were allowed to be invited to her dinners and parties.

Tailors and manufacturers alike were seldom at a loss to "find" a clan or family tartan, but the bitter truth is that these so-called ancient tartans 'were invented for the occasion' (and they are being invented again for the occasion). Two gentlemen, known as the Sobieski-Stuart brothers, and who claimed to be grandsons of Prince Charlie, supplied details of tartans to many Clan chiefs and heads of families, claiming to have obtained their information from some sixteenth century manuscripts in their possession. Their failure to produce the manuscripts for examination cast doubts upon their information and when in 1842 they published a book on tartans called the Vestiarium Scoticum it was dubbed a forgery.

Many of the tartans in use today have no great authority other than the fact that, their acceptance during the past 100 years -- has given them an 'antiquity' of their own, just for being around so long."

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Traditionally, to help the cloth take the chosen colour, `mordants' were used, eg, alum, iron, copper, urine, fir-club moss or oak-galls. Actual dyes were obtained from several species of mosses, plus plants like bilberry, devil's bit scabious, elderberry (blue), yellow iris (blue-grey), ladies bedstraw, blackthorn (red), crowberry, bramble, elder, sundew, St John's Wort (purple), bog-myrtle, bird's foot trefoil, heather, birch (yellow) and water-lily (black).

Basic algebra is woven into tartan cloth. It is possible for the weaver to work out the total number of shades (including solid colours) which will result from using a given number of colours of thread by using the formula (X + I) X/2 where X is the number of colours available.

http://prestigetours.com/index.asp?id=27

Answer 3

There is alot of tartan  so there was alot  when iit wa sfirst invented