The Registers of Scottish Tartans

By Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw Bt.

This article is written in response to a question by Joseph H. Eby from Illinois, who asked a question about the registering of tartan. I do not profess to be an expert on the origin or design of tartans, but this article will attempt to outline the official position of tartan and the functions of the Court of the Lord Lyon in relation to registering tartan.

At its most simple, tartan is just a brightly coloured checkered cloth. Any checkered cloth is a tartan and the use of checkered cloth by the inhabitants of Scotland dates back at least to the Roman times. Undoubtedly Highland families wore tartan of one sort or another until the wearing of the tartan and Highland dress was prohibited after the 1745 Rebellion. Wearing of Highland dress was revived with the raising of the Highland Regiments after 1757 to fight in the American War of Independence. These Regiments were dressed in various government tartans, many of which have evolved over the years into "clan" tartan. You only have to look at the Gordon tartan and the MacKenzie tartan to see that these tartans are merely the government tartan (now called the "Black Watch Tartan") overlaid with yellow, and red and white lines respectively.

The visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822 arranged by Sir Walter Scott, and Queen Victoria's love of the Highlands boosted the popularity of tartan. All the major families began to adopt particular designs as their "clan" tartan'. This was encouraged by the manufacturers, as a means of boosting their trade in tartan cloth. The pattern book of Wil-sons of Bannockburn is filled with numbered patterns, which were later adopted by particular clans or families as "their tartan." Often the selected tartan would change from one generation to another, until a particular pattern became fixed as that clan's tartan.

Because tartan is the product of the Manufacturing Trade, there has been very little control over the design or the naming of any particular check. Over the years, custom has established that certain patterns are now recognized as the tartans of a particular clan. In other cases, it can be shown that the particular chief has designed and adopted a particular pattern as his clan's tartan.

There is nothing to prevent any person, business, country or state from designing a new tartan and giving it a particular name to associate it with that family, business, country or state. The Trade often designs such tartans, where they feel that there may be a sufficient demand to justify the production and advertising of the new cloth. The United State bicentenary was such as occasion which saw the establishment of the "United States Bicentennial Tartan." When the Scottish Football Team participated in the Football World Cup in Argentina in 1978 and the team was managed by Ally MacLeod, the manufacturers designed and sold a tartan called the "MacLeod of Argentina" which was to be the tartan taken by all football supporters to Argentina as a mark of their loyalty to the Scottish team. The marketing of both these tartans was quite successful. In addition to the lack of control over the designing and the naming of particular tartans, there is the difficulty that even where there is an established tartan, because different manufacturers are weaving it, minor variations appear in the tartan. Different manufacturers use different thread counts (the number of colored threads in each strip of the tartan) when producing the tartan and this can have a quite dramatic effect on the ultimate appearance on what is supposed to be a uniform pattern.

With the great revival of interest in Scottish affairs and in the wearing of the tartan which took place after World War II, many people, including the members of the Manufacturing Trade, began to feel that it was unacceptable that so much variation was appearing in the tartans. They also felt that there was no proper record of the many different tartans which had been attributed to particular names or clans. So, with the impetus given by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, the Lord Lyon in the 1960s, the "Monitoring Committee for Scottish Tartans" was established. Membership of this Committee included the Lord Lyon, a representative of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, a representative from the Manufacturing and Retailing Trades and the National Museum of Antiquities for Scotland. The objectives of the Committee were to complete a record of all designs or setts purporting to be designed as tartans and to classify those designs and setts in so far as was possible into clan or family tartans as designated by the chief, into district or specific tartans and trade designs, such as the "United States Bicentennial Tartan."

As part of this process, the Committee has encouraged the chiefs of Scottish clans and families to record their clan tartan in the Official Court Books of the Lord Lyon. The Lyon Court Books are officially maintained as a public record of the information contained in them. So where a chief records the design of his tartan in the Court Books, it means that it is thereafter on public record and may be consulted by anybody who is interested in determining what the chief has decreed will be the official pattern for the tartan of his clan. Registration in the Court Books of the Lord Lyon does not give the tartan any protection from a copyright point of view, so that the chief can control the manufacture of the tartan, but it does mean that there is an official statement of what the correct design for the tartan should be. Many clan chiefs, and some governments of the British Commonwealth countries or state have recorded their official tartans in the Lyon Court Books.

When a chief or government seeks to record its tartan in the Lyon Court Books it petitions the Lord Lyon to have them recorded and submits a piece of the cloth which it is proposed to record. The Monitoring Committee then checks the design and advises the chief as to whether or not they consider that there should be some minor variations made to his proposed design so as to make it a more appropriate tartan to record. Once agreement has been reached on what should be the final and proper design, then this is officially recorded in the Court Books.

Alternatively, where a chief or other person has designed a new tartan for his clan or business, it is possible to have this recorded in the Registers of Designs established by the Registered Designs Act 1949. Registration in this Register acts as the recording of a copyright and protects that design for the chief. The chief then has control over whom he may license to make this tartan. You are only allowed to record new designs and cannot record an old design which has been in use for many years. However, it is a useful way of protecting the tartan of a clan or family who has recently designed their tartan and who wish to make some money for their clan society by the sale and licensing of the manufacture of that particular tartan.

The Scottish Tartan Society at its Tartan Museum at Comrie has been collecting information about tartans and the names of different tartans. With the encouragement of the Lord Lyon, they have established a record of every known pattern of tartan and the name attributed to that pattern. It is understood that they have over 1000 named tartans listed in their records. Their Register is not an official register of tartans or their designs but is a useful record of what designs do exist for each clan and name.

Thus, it can be seen, that anybody may design a tartan and give it any particular name, but only clan chiefs and other selected persons may officially record their tartan in the Lyon Court Books so that there is a definitive design pattern for the tartan. Certain newer tartans may be protected in the Register of Designs which is a useful way of establishing a copyright over a new design. Unless you have a particular reason for registering a tartan or establishing what is the correct pattern, it is probably best to ask the Scottish Tartan Society for the information they hold on a particular tartan, because they are often able to give out the history of a particular pattern and when it first appeared on the market.