During the course of setting up the Society with a view to locating and finding a chief, discussions took place in the background with the Lyon Court, heraldic experts, genealogists, tartan historians, other clan chiefs and the seniors of our Chiefly line. This process inevitabley ended up with Carruthers having a Chief confirmed by the Lord Lyon in 2019 and inaugurated in 2024 in our ancestral home lands in Annandale.
It also led us to have a Carruthers tartan, the first ever to the Carruthers name, commissioned, designed, registered with the Scottish Register of Tartans and the copyright presented for adoption to our Chief, on behalf of Carruthers worldwide.
During research for other material, we came across this follow up letter to both the senior lines of Dormont and Holmains dated April 2018, which covers a little bit of history of the work we did since 2007 onwards.
Addresses have been removed for obvious reasons, but the correspondence is accurate. This of course, in part went a long way in stimulating the petition to the Lord Lyon, leading as we all know, to the confirmation the following year of our first Chief in over two centuries.
The correspondence is complete and over three pages long and outlines the progress to that period i.e. April 2018 and further mentions the ongoing attempts at disruption from a rogue group in the USA called the LLC, which obviously failed.
See below:-
To date, and accepting the letter above covered one point in the process, everything we set out to achieve since then has been successful and as such this letter is a reminder that what was on occasions an aggravation, is actually no longer even an irritation nor of any real importance to our standing as a clan and family.
The ancient border family of Carruthers has, through a lot of hard work, officially taken its rightful place in Scottish Clan and Family Society worldwide. This was accomplished by crossing all the t’s and dotting the i’s and although not an easy road to walk due to its many hurdles to climb, we never wavered and finally got there.
However, and on reflection, the LLC, under the leadership of Patti et al and their continued and concerted efforts to try to undermine us, do actually need to be thanked.
I know that may come as a surprise to many as they have been a real irritation over the years. However, their postings and misinformation helped drive us forward when we felt weary and their bizarre actions ensured that we never actually lost sight of our need to build on solid research, based on robust evidence.
The LLC, now called Clan Carruthers ‘International’ Society, in an attempt to fly on our coat tails and claiming the Bruce tartan as their own, regularly prompted us through their ridiculous claims, to remember our own goals. It was therefore imperative albeit time consuming, to continue to follow the legal and official routes to attain full recognition of our name rather than let it be sullied by others.
Our tenacity and single mindedness to achieve has brought with it the respect and recognition both at home and abroad, as an ancient Annandale family from the old West March in the Scottish Borders.
As such, we thank all who through physical support, effort, deliberation or in the case of the LLC, by obvious malicious intent, gave us the strength to keep going. We can now look back and relish in the fact of where we are today: – a Chief; a tartan; a hereditary seat on the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs; membership of CASSOC, COSCA and SAHC through the auspices of a truly international Society with representation in over 6 regions, with all that that entails.
Thank you all, we couldn’t have done it without any of you!!!
Promptus et Fidelis
Hallel u YAH! Ready and Faithful.