The commercialisation of ‘Scottishness’ in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to include the inclusion of septs wrongly linked with lowland and border families, were used to bolster the sales of Scottish goods, all of which related to the larger clans and families. Of course all those clans had sitting chiefs at the time. This of in itself led to the enhanced advertising of our traditions, however some of it was so far off historical fact that it actually caused irritation in some quarters, and still does..
However, it was not all bad, as the Grand Ball of George IV and the works of Sir Walter Scott and others and their romantic take on our heritage and culture have bolstered our tourism and enhanced our special place in world culture.
One simple process was the use of 42 Clan postcards to include their tartan, with the main publisher from 1908-1912 being Tuck and Sons, who ran 7 series with the following clans listed, see below from the postcardhistory site.
Tartan itself has an ancient history. The earliest tartan in Scotland is thought to have been created in the fourth century. In other parts of the world, tartan cloth may be dated to circa 2000 BC. Every place cloth was made on looms, weavers created tartan designs, but nowhere other than in Scotland have tartans acquired such significance.
It all started in August 1746. After the April 1746 Battle of Culloden, an English victory that sent Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Price Charles) packing for the highlands, the British government, in the Act of Proscription (also known as the Dress Act), forbade the wearing of tartan in the Highlands. It attempted to suppress the rebellious Scottish culture.
The Dress Act was repealed in 1782 and by the end of the eighteenth-century large scale commercial weavers were in full production of tartan. The most notable was William Wilson & Sons of Bannockburn. In the 1819 Wilson’s Pattern Book over 250 tartans are included, but only a hundred (+/-) were given names. The 250 were not only Wilson’s designs, but patterns that Wilson had collected from all over Scotland.
By mid-century, the legend became a reality that the Wilson names borne by the tartans represented actual connections to those clans. Interest grew and legend blossomed through to the late 1890s when it was assumed that tartans had always been named and these were the names blessed by the clan chiefs.
Tartan and all things Scottish became in vogue, with portraits of nobility to include the monarchy, appearing. As such the postcards represented a symbol of celebration of happy times spent in Scotland to be sharee with others, not so fortunate. Although postcards may not be as popular today in the same vein as they were before, other tartan items most certainly are. However, the use of clans depicted with their tartans on postcards, still are representative of our heritage and history, and examples can be found tucked away, in many homes throughout the world. The use of tartans and their associated clans on postcards has allowed locals and tourists alike to share a piece of Scottish heritage around the world, ensuring that the legends of Scottish clans lives on.
For a number of reasons Carruthers was never included:
- we were not a highland clan, which was very much in vogue.
- we had wrongly been classed as a sept of Bruce, a lowland family.
- we had no sitting chief, as the chiefship had remained dormant 1809-2019.
- we had no official registered tartan of our own, which was resolved in 2017.
In order to rectify this lack of a ‘Carruthers’ postcard, and for our own pleasure the piece below has been put together, I hope you enjoy it.
We have written about clan related postcards in the past but only in the respect that they had been plagiarised and falsified to try to fit an agenda. Examples can be seen below. The first shows the photoshopped version put together in only the last few years which inaccurately shows Carruthers listed as no 10 along with the tartan of the family Bruce, not Carruthers:
The original, printed in the 1900’s below clearly shows Home (Hume) and their tartan on no 10. Why therefore is their a need to make a fake change. I guess we will never know?
It is always ok to try to promote our name and stimulate an interest but false information and plagiarism simply muddies the waters, accuracy is king.
Good research is good research and should always be commended, nonsense should be seen for exactly for what it is.
Enjoy your weekend.
Promptus et fidelis
