A couple of facts.

The earliest surviving box pleated kilt for which we have documentation is a Gordon Highlander's kilt, c. 1796. I believe this is the one you mentioned. It is made of hard tartan, with the yellow stripe woven in silk. The pleats are sewn down on the inside and outside (there is no lining). It is 25" in length, being made selvedge to selvedge. It contains exactly 3 yards and 2 inches of cloth. There is no taper from waist to hips. Self fringe on both aprons. It has 21 box pleats, which is a large number, but it is pleated to the yellow line, and the tartan has a rather small sett repeat. (In it's 25" length there are six half-repeats -- remember this is the Gordon tartan, based on the black watch, so there are two occurances of the yellow stripe every full repeat).

There are photographs of this kilt in All About Your Kilt by Bob Martin, which I reccomend to you as a resource.

Among the other kilts documented in this reference, there is a Seaforth kilt (78th Highlanders) c. 1796-1800. It's an officer's kilt. Again, the white stripe is woven in silk. No taper. The length is 25" and it's made selvedge to selvedge. This one has 3 yards, 29 inches, and is made into 16 box pleats (to the white stripe).

The first military regiment to switch over to knife pleats for their kilts were the Gordons, in 1854.