Continuing from our last post, we had an email asking about the Sobieski brothers and the role they played in Clan and Family tartans. Although we have covered this before in another blog, we have revisited it with updated information. However, forgeries and false claims are a thing of human nature it seems, and tartan did not escape the unscrupulous, which sadly even occurs even to this day.
The Sobieski Stuarts
The Quarterly Review 1847
But, back to our story which begins in 1820. Two English brothers, by the names of Charles Manning Allen (alias Charles Edward Stuart) and John Hay Allen (alias John Sobieski Stuart), the former being the younger, were from a generation whose influence came from the writings of Sir Walter Scott to include the famous Waverley novels. These were a series of historical publications, which romanticised adventure and national identity and included many which dealt with a different era in Scottish history. As such and through his writings, Scott as a highly respected author, gained the reputation as being the father of the historical novel.
However, returning to our two brothers. Reports suggest they were handsome, affable men and easily liked. So, when they first appeared in Edinburgh dressed as highlanders in their belted plaid and their claims of being the legitimate heirs to the Scottish throne under the names of the Sobieski-Stuarts, they were seen as fascinators, whose popularity increased as their fictitious story unfolded. Having moved to Scotland and converted to Catholicism, their claim was that their father, Thomas Allen was indeed the only illegitimate son of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie/the Young Pretender) and his wife Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern. They further progressively claimed to have in their possession three manuscripts:
- An MS allegedly held by the John Lesly, Bishop of Ross, once held in the library of the Scots College of Douay, in France dating back to at least 1571. (Douay MS)
- A transcript of an MS which belonged to James Dunbar dating to 1680 and held in the library of the Convent of St Augustine.
- A copy of an MS dated 1721 from an old Highlander called John Ross (Cromarty MS).
None of which were ever heard of nor seen prior to the Sobieski Stuarts claims.
The Vestiarium Scoticum and Sir Walter Scott
National Museums of Scotland
Sir Walter Scott, who died in 1832, played a major role in George IV visiting Scotland and holding his Grand Ball in Edinburgh in 1822. It was an invitation to attend the ball in ‘their’ tartans, which was a major source in the initiation of clan/family tartans. Before then regional tartans would have been worn in the Highlands, but not really anywhere else on the norm. But this panic brought on by the wish to attend the ball appropriately dressed, saw weavers such as Wilsons of Bannockburn receiving requests for specific tartans, not previously done so, to be assigned to a name.
Sir Walter Scott (born August 15, 1771, Edinburgh, Scotland was a Scottish author, poet, historian, and biographer was highly educated and very well respected in his chosen fields, but he was also one of the major critics of the Sobieski brothers and their claims. These claims were based on initially a Manuscript (MS) held by the ‘Sobieski Stuarts’ dated 1721, known as the Cromarty MS and listing tartans assigned to Highland, Lowland and Border surnames.
Although not alone in his thoughts, in his exchanges with Sir Thomas Lauder in 1829 who was a supporter of the brothers, Scott strongly discounted any idea of pre-existing clan tartans. He stated quite clearly that the idea of any clan using a specific tartan as a form of personal visual identity, especially amongst borderers and lowlanders, was purely a modern invention (due to previous events)
He went on to suggest in correspondence that the MS be sent to antiquity experts for a proper evaluation. As such, a part transcript of the claimed Cromarty MS was sent to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. This was presented to Scott and others for evaluation. Scott’s mind, and those of others was not to be changed. Being a historian and researcher in his own right, Scott totally discounted the language used and the claims being made by the ‘Sobieski Stuarts’, and ‘indignantly declared his conviction that the MS (Cromarty manuscript 1721) itself must be an absolute fabrication’. During these exchanges, Lauder introduced the claim that other manuscripts existed to include an original from which the Cromarty MS was taken. This, it was claimed, went back to at least 1571.
The brothers did try to publish a copy of their now infamous book the ‘Vestiarium Scoticum’ (the title claimed by experts as false Latin) in 1829, but it was Scott who stepped in and stopped the initial publication. He did this in the full knowledge that individual clan/family tartans had never existed and most certainly not in the Lowlands nor Borders. Being however, a good-natured man, he gave the brothers a way of reducing the effect of the forgery itself, by stating that the book ‘was an exaggeration of their imagination (Sobieski Stuarts), which possibly deceives themselves‘.
Was this whole idea stimulated having seen the clamour for clan tartans by the attendees of the Edinburgh Grand Ball? Because of this, did the brothers try to capitalise and chose to claim to have in their possession, three manuscripts that contained patterns of clan tartans going back initially to 1721, then through to the 1500’s?
As only a transcript of one of these manuscripts was ever shown rather than the originals, it allowed critics to more easily disclaim their authenticity. Further it was also noted how unlikely it was that one family possessed all three manuscripts, offering descriptions of these varied clan tartans, never before heard of by historians.
The 1842 Publication
Vestiarium Scoticum courtesy Alchetron
After Scott’s death, the brothers once again and 20 years after King George IV’s 1822 Grand Ball in Edinburgh, published a more lavish version of the book in full colour by limited edition in 1842. But only several dozen copies of this private publication were actually made. The contents of the book it is claimed, was based on the three manuscripts previously mentioned above, dating as far back as the 1500’s (Douay MS) and carried prints of the claimed tartans. The script was, it is stated by analysts, listed in the lowland rather than the highland language and spelling of the day.
Interestingly, this publication occurred just prior to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s visit to Scotland later in that year. The Queen bought a copy, which again reignited the flames of Scottishness originally began with George IV’s Ball and further culminated in the purchase of the Balmoral estate by Prince Albert himself, which has remained a Royal residence since then.
However, it wasn’t very long after the publication of the Vestiarium Scoticum hit the streets, that highly respected antiquaries and historians were openly claiming its contents as fake.
The flame that had made Scottishness more in vogue, was far more difficult to dispel however and the birth of Scottish clan and family tartans, initiated one could argue through both the Sobieski forgery and the visits by the British Monarchy, has left us a proud and not so ancient, legacy.
The London Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a periodic journal covering literary and political works. In 1847-48 a conversation was held in this magazine regarding the authenticity of the Vestiarium Scoticum, in which the 1721 MS was offered by ‘John Sobieski Stuart’ for inspection. There was no mention of the earlier 1500 original MS however. It is further recorded that at the time no one had ever seen the original Cromarty MS nor the claimed Douay MS, other than the brothers themselves.
The comment in the Quarterly Review regarding evaluation of the Vestiarium Scoticum states:
On examining the “Vestiarium Scoticum, otherwise clippit The Garderope of Scotlonde,” with this view, we find it to be written in the Lowland dialect, and to contain, first, a short disquisition on the nature of tartans generally, and the manner of preserving the setts or patterns. Then follow descriptions of the tartans of twenty-three clans, which are classed as “Ye chieff Hielande clannes.” Then those of eleven, which are called “ Ye lesser famylies or housis the quhilk be cum free ye chieft houses and oryginale clannes.” Then follow the tartans of “Ye low countrie pairtes and bordour clanns,” thirty-nine in number. Then a paragraph “Of wemenis quhite pladis;” and another “of hosen and treusen ;” then a list of the badges of families ; and lastly, a metrical address to the readers, by the author, ‘Schyr Richard Urquharde, knycht.” Such is the “ Vestiarium Scoticum,” so far as regards its plan and contents ; but to any one at all familiar with the state of feeling between the Highlanders and their Lowland neighbours, during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries—and who remembers how constantly the former are stigmatised by the writers of those times as barbarians, if not as absolute savages—a treatise on clan-tartans and the Highland dress, alleged to have been written by a Lowland knight, in the middle of the sixteenth century, and preserved by a courtly and diplomatic Bishop, wears a somewhat dubious aspect. Nor, as respects Lesly, Bishop of Ross, in particular, do the admittedly authentic writings of that prelate afford any passage calculated to remove his lordship out of the category of suspicion.
The Bishop’s great work, De origine, moribus, et gestis Scotorum, is dated in 1578, seven years only after the date of his alleged possession of the “ Vestiarium.” It contains a description of the Highland dress, which has been often quoted; yet not only is there in that description no allusion to the elaborate treatise of Sir Richard Urquhart possessed by him, nor to the existence of clan patterns at all; but he even uses an expression which we find it puzzling to reconcile with his alleged possession of the Vestiarvum. His words are, “Chlamydes enim gestabant unius forme et nobiles et plebeii, nisi quod nobiles variegatis sibi magis placebant;’’ and as there can be little doubt that these variegated mantles were tartan, it would seem that he considered its use as a peculiar fancy of the chiefs, which he could hardly have done had he possessed so distinct an exposition of an universal system as that now before us in the splendid pages edited by Mr. John Sobieski Stuart.
As such, and for a multitude of reasons listed the Vestiarium Scoticum’s legitimacy was brought into serious question.
Glasgow Herald
In 1895, the Glasgow Herald published a series of articles entitled “The Vestiarium Scoticum, is it a forgery?”. These were authored by Andrew Ross.
Ross, it is said was able to locate the 1721 copy of the MS, but not any earlier manuscripts. He gave a detailed description of it, and accepting forensic investigation then, was not as it is today, Ross had it subjected to chemical testing by Stevenson Macadam, a chemist. Macadam himself reported that the “document evidence of having been treated with chemical agents in order to give the writing a more aged appearance than it is entitled to”. He concluded that “the manuscript cannot be depended upon as an ancient document“.
The Final Straw
Even with so much questioning regarding the contents published by the ‘Sobieski Brothers’ and the tartans within, ‘perceived tradition’ can be a hard thing to break. When the book itself was mentioned in John Dunbar’s highly influential publication on Highland dress in 1964, as ‘probably the most controversial costume book ever written’ ‘tradition’ is maintained it didnt dent the claims to clan or family tartans brought on by the works of the Sobieski brothers.
However, in order to put the subject to bed and clear up any controversy, in 1980, Donald Calder Stewart and J Charles Thompson published a book titled ‘Scotland’s Forged Tartans, an Analytical Study of the “Vestiarium Scoticum”, published by the Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland.
This research it is said, conclusively proved the claims by the ‘Sobieski’ brothers were, as respected researchers had always believed, false. Despite this, the named tartans mentioned in the Vestiarium Scoticum and adopted as the individual tartans of clans and families, remained jealously guarded. These names, who wore and still wear them as thier own, do so with great pride. This pride, augmented by an upsurge in commercial enterprise has truly become a Scottish tradition, which is shared and enjoyed by Scots and their diaspora throughout the world to this day.
Tartans listed in the Vestiarium Scoticum.
Here is a list of the tartans published under the name of the ‘Sobieski Brothers’ in the Vestiarium Scoticum and in many cases, if not all, adopted by the named clans and families (some being Borderers).
It is stated in correspondence with Sir Walter Scott, that at least MacPherson and MacLeod were overjoyed at finally having their ‘true and authentic’ tartans, which the took from the Sobieski book and wear to this day.
Listed are those of the clans of the Highlands and Islands, the Lowland Houses and the Border ‘Clans’ under their headings in the Vestiarium Scoticum (this excludes the Gordons as they are most definily a Highland family).
Highland Clans
(In bold were by the brothers classed as the ‘chief’ Highland Clans, the rest were lesser houses or clans):
Buchanan, Cameron, Campbell, Chyssal or Chisholm, Clan Anrias or Ross, Clan Donacha or Robertson, Clan Dougall of Lorn, Clan Fhionnlaidh or Farquharson, Clan Gillean or MacLean, Clan Morgan or MacKay, Clan Ranald, Farquharson or Clan Fhionnlaidh, Fryzzelis or Frasers, Grant, Gun, Lamont, MacArthur, MacDonald of the Isles, MacDoueall, MacDuff, MacFarlane, MacGregor, MacIntosh, MacIntyre, MacKay, or Clan Morgan, MacKenzie, MacKinnon, MacLauchlan, Mae Lean, MaeLeod, MacNab, MacNeill, MacPherson, MacQueen, Menzies, Monro, Robertson or Clan Donacha, Ross, Rothesay, The Prince of, The Royal, Stuart/Stewart, Sutherland.
Lowland Houses and Border Clans
Armstrong, Barclay, Brodie, Bruce, Colquhoun, Comyn, Cunningham, Ctanstoun, Crawford, Douglas, Drummond, Dunbar, Dundas, Erskine, Forbes, Gordon, Graham, Hamilton, Hat, Home, Johnston. Kerr, Lauder, Leslie, Lindsey, Maxwell, Montgomery, Murray, Ogilvie, Oliphant, Ramsay, Rose, Ruthven, Scott, Seton, Sinclair, Urquhart, Wallace, Wemyss.
Of these Scott, Johnston, Home, Cranston, Armstrong, Kerr and Maxwell, along with Gordon were listed as border Clans. The latter however, being of Highland origin.
Tradition is as Tradition was
It is interesting to note that a great many of these tartans are still in use today and still claimed by the clans/families listed in the Vestiarium Scoticum, and of course why not? The fact that these so called ‘historical patterns’ have been proven fraudulent on publication, does not mean that they should not be utilised by the names assigned to them. Their adoption ensured that the work of designing one, many of which were picked up by commercial weavers, had already been done. An easy win for many.
This plethora of named tartans, 75 in total, has enhanced the Scottish clan/family experience enjoyed by many. And the tartans, a great visual signature of a name itself, announces who and what an individual is and where that family hails from. Of course, there has been a great many more tartans commissioned and registered against a clan/family over time and to date. If a tartan is accepted by the Register and on the advice of the Lord Lyon and with the acceptance of a Chief, if one exists, it is listed against that name as an official ‘Clan/Family’ tartan i.e. Carruthers STR 11700 (the official tartan of Carruthers), if not it is not. Other listings on the register include such as Name (Personal), Corporate, Fashion, District, Commemorative and Military, some of which would require personal weaves and if they carry restrictions, permission to use.
So out of an outrageous fraud and fallacy, with time comes tradition. But, as long as it is based on an understanding of the facts, rather than perpetrating the fallacy itself, that tradition will always remain on solid ground.
Promptus et Fidelis
