Campbell or Black Watch

[figheadair]

While speaking of the Gov't. Sett, can someone explain how the Sutherland 42nd tartan plays into this? I see the double line in each square of blue as opposed to how it is in the Black Watch, but what is the history of this?

There is/was no such thing as the Sutherland 42nd per se. The 93th Regt (Sutherland Highlanders) wore the Gov't tartan. In Wilsons' 1819 their entry says only that The clothing of the 93rd regiment is the very same in every particular as the 42nd Regiment. The Cockburn Collection (1810-15) contains four samples of Gov't tartan named:

No1 Sutherland
No2 Campbell Argyll
No3 Munro
No4 Grant of Grant

These were all Clan names, including Sutherland and demonstrates how families with military connections, either directly or by name, adopted the regimental/Gov't tartan as their own. There is no difference in any of the settings from the standard Gov't tartan.

The simplified Gov't sett, often referred to as the 2/2 arrangement by academics (as opposed to the 2/4 one) was not included in Wilsons' 1819 KPB despite claims on several websites. There is said to be a sample labelled [I]Sutherland[I] in the collection of the Royal Scottish Museum and the old Scottish Tartans Society records say that there are several Wilsons' examples named Smallest 42nd although I've never seen any in this 2/2 setting. There are however a number of extant Wilsons' samples of the standard 2/4 setting labelled Smallest 42nd. I therefore conclude that the dating of the 2/2 version to Wilsons was an error by some early researcher who misread an old sample, perhaps because it did not show the full sett.

Through Google, I see that it is a simplified version of the Gov't. Sett and a piece of it ca. 1770 was found near Stirling. It also shows up in Wilson's Key Pattern books in 1819. I would love to hear more about it!

The earliest confirmed date for the 2/2 setting I've been able to find is from the 1880 Clans Originaux.

Can you post the link for the alleged c1770 piece. If it's really that old it would be the oldest surviving example of any version of the Gov't tartan. I have my doubts.