THE CLANS

The basis of the clan is a family, a principal family together with its offshoots and branches.

In Scotland, a clan came to mean a group of families occupying a definite locality--a particular glen, for example, or an island. These families shared, or claimed to share, their descent from a common ancestor. The head of the group was the living "Representer" of this ancestor and as such he was chief of the clan. To him the clansmen owed loyalty and respect. They accepted his jurisdiction over their daily affairs and responded to his summons in time of battle. The chief, in turn, was the patriarch, the head and leader of the clan. In return for their personal devotion to him, he had an obligation to protect his followers and to give help to any of them who were in distress.

By the reign of King James VI in the early 1600s, the localities occupied by the various clans were fairly well defined, though Liable, of course, to be increased or diminished as circumstances altered. In each of these clan districts the local weavers produced a distinctive local tartan pattern or sett. Thus members of the same clan probably wore the particular tartan woven and dyed in their own neighborhood. The distinctive sett adopted by the chief and his relatives became traditionally the "Clan Tartan," and when the statutory ban on Highland dress was removed in 1782, the wearing of the clan tartan was a matter of pride.