The Royal Company of Archers

[OC Richard]

I have sent it off the the Archers to see if they are interested in reviving the original sett.

This implies that there was "an original sett" which seems not to be the case, based on the evidence.

In Old Irish & Highland Dress HF McClintock writes

"I now intend to leave the subject of military tartans... and pass on to a uniform tartan about which little has been said- that of the Royal Company of Archers, now the King's Bodyguard for Scotland.

After considering an "Overture" regarding "proper habite and uniform garb" a pattern of tartan submitted by a merchant called Alexander Murray was accepted and in 1714 the Company paraded in their new uniforms. The History of the Royal Company of Archers (1875) states that this tartan was the Stuart sett whereas there is no mention of "Stuart" or any other sett in the Minutes of the period.

This tartan would appear to have been worn until 1788 when it was discontinued and a green tartan taken into wear.

Preserved in the Archers Hall, Edinburgh, is an original coat and breeches belonging to Oliphant of Gask, who joined the Company in July 1741, and they show that the tartan is not the same as any known Stuart tartan but is indeed a most interesting example of two genuine early hard tartans, the tartan of the two garments being different.

The sett of the coat is fully two feet wide and consists of a great many lines of buff, red, yelow, blue, and and white. Warp and weft vary in arrangement. The tartan of the breeches is of the above colours but the arrangement of these colours is entirely different.