Family Name and Clan

[sharpdressedscot]

..
If clans DID exist then you wouldnt be in one because you are not scottish, you just have a scottish last name.

So, what you're saying is, even if you have descent and heritage you can't be in a clan unless you're a real Scot?

Dude...

[actualrealproperscot]

If I'm correct and if my ancestry possesses the family name that matches a sept or a clan, I submit I'm empowered to wear the tartan of that clan. I understand this to be true from the Clan Chief's web site and believe I can safetly say that several if not many others on this site agree.

Is there some flaw in my assumption?

The clan system is dead, the clan system has ceased to exist for many, many years. Clan societies etc. nowdays are nothing more than a club for people with similar sounding last names. In scotland people pick out tartans by what colours and patterns they like. ANYONE can wear any clan tartan wether they are chinese, english or scottish.

[Phil]

The clan system is dead, the clan system has ceased to exist for many, many years. Clan societies etc. nowdays are nothing more than a club for people with similar sounding last names. In scotland people pick out tartans by what colours and patterns they like. ANYONE can wear any clan tartan wether they are chinese, english or scottish.

At last someone speaking sense. I know there is a strong desire among some to feel that they somehow belong to a clan but the sad truth is that they don't exist in any meaningful form and haven't since the Highland Clearances when the then clan chieftans decided that raising sheep was a more lucrative occupation and kicked all their clan members off the land. This is hardly a good reason for anyone to feel allegiance to the descendants of those who perpetrated such disgraceful acts of betrayal against their own kinsmen but time and distance have obviously proven great healers. Clan tartans are little more than a useful way of categorising the different patterns, many devised by wealthy families grown rich on the hardship of others to wear at aristocratic balls, and a particular surname can be as useful a way of deciding which one to choose as any other.

[Jock Scot]

At last someone speaking sense. I know there is a strong desire among some to feel that they somehow belong to a clan but the sad truth is that they don't exist in any meaningful form and haven't since the Highland Clearances when the then clan chieftans decided that raising sheep was a more lucrative occupation and kicked all their clan members off the land. This is hardly a good reason for anyone to feel allegiance to the descendants of those who perpetrated such disgraceful acts of betrayal against their own kinsmen but time and distance have obviously proven great healers. Clan tartans are little more than a useful way of categorising the different patterns, many devised by wealthy families grown rich on the hardship of others to wear at aristocratic balls, and a particular surname can be as useful a way of deciding which one to choose as any other.

What both Phil and A R P S have said is the truth, rather brutally put, but, in the main, nonetheless correct. I think it would help all those with Scots Highland roots to remember these facts. For me, I wear my clan tartan and only my clan tartan because I choose to, not because I have to.

[flairball]

With little exception, there is no "right" or "entitlement" to any tartan. If wearing a tartan you feel a connection to makes wearing a kilt easier than by all means make that your tartan rule, as others have done. There's nothing wrong deciding what symbolism your tartan represents either. No one is telling you that your wanting to connect with your heritage/clan is wrong, and no one should be telling the "I like the way it looks" crowd that they're wrong either.

Tartan was fashion before it was given any clan symbolism. The tartans, for the most part are owned by the mills, who are in the business of weaving, not clan indexing. A mill sells a lot more of each tartan by selling to anyone wanting the tartan, not just clan members. Yeah, economics plays a part in this debate too. This is why there are no "rights" or "entitlements" to tartan. Why would a mill limit who it could sell one of it's products to?

[Detroitpete]

It appears as though opinions are as plentiful as tartans--and as 'universal' ;-)

[The Celtic Gypsy]

This is an interesting thread. I am not Scot in any stretch of the imagination. And therefore have no clan association. What Tartan to wear? In talking with various "experts" on this, I found a variant of my surname affiliated with the Farquharson clan. Altho I still don't know a lot about Scottish history and how the Farquharson clan was a part of it all, I feel this is my clan and i feel it is okay to wear the tartan, should i decide to. I can appreciate traditions and customs of Scotland, so I may wear a bit of tartan rather then the whole regalia. I will respect it too if someone tells me i really have no right to wear any kind of tartan.

[Monkey@Arms]

An t-Ileach,

My compliments for an extraordinarily interesting and well written posting.

Best regards,

Jake

[An t-Ileach]

An t-Ileach,

My compliments for an extraordinarily interesting and well written posting.

Best regards,

Jake

(blushes) Thanks, Jake. David

[BobsYourUncle]

What a great thread. JerseyLawyer and An t-Ileach have it right. It may be a slight excess of zeal that keeps people from wearing a tartan they cannot prove was worn by their family. The Clan tartan system is a recent fabrication, and specific tartans were not historically assigned to specific clans. The way clansmen identified each other in battle, if not by face recognition, was by plant badge or other insignia worn in the cap or headgear, not the particular tartan they wore.

Historically tartans were not assigned to families until the 19th Century, as part of Victorian fashion. Matt Newsome discusses this on his website, as he and others have pointed out, prior to the 19th Century it is impossible to establish that particular clan chiefs for whom a portrait records exists wore a specific tartan--where a portrait record exists, they show up wearing different tartans over the years. J. Charles Thompson has a concise discussion in his book So You're Going to Wear the Kilt, p. 18-26. Barb Tewksbury has a nice summary at pgs. 11-15 of her The Art of Kiltmaking.

As Tewksbury relates, many tartans were assigned to clans by the commercial weaver that produced them, giving tartans the name of the last person who ordered it. My own family tartan, MacPherson, was assigned in that fashion, when in the 19th Century the Clan Chief requested the clan tartan from the weaving house, they sent him a tartan previously named Kidd, because the last person who ordered it was a West Indies plantation owner named MacPherson. The Art of Kiltmaking, p. 14.

Perhaps one source of the feeling that one should not wear a tartan not "belonging" to ones family is that after the Act of Proscription following the '45 Jacobite uprising, wearing the kilt was outlawed except for those serving in the Highland Regiments, which sometimes differentiated themselves by adopting distinct tartans, frequently variations of the Government sett, or Black Watch tartan. I suppose one might not want to wear the tartan of a unit in which they did not serve [except Black Watch tartan, a universal] at the risk of being accused of Walting about. [However, I think that any regimental tartan should be fair game, and should be considered a Government sett, belonging to all the people].

The Lord Lyon is the governmental authority for registering the heraldry of the Scots nobility, the Lord Lyon registered the arms and insignia of the Scottish aristocracy, which heraldry did not at first include assignment of specific tartans to specific clans. Eventually, a Scottish chieftan who wished to bear arms would apply to the Lord Lyon and seek to meet the requirements thereof. The Scottish Tartans Authority is likewise a recent invention.

Family association is a good reason for wearing a particular tartan, but it is not historically accurate to take the whole clan tartan system too seriously, or to let it's existence keep you from wearing a tartan you admire.

Cheers!