Why Might A Clan NOT Have A Tartan?

[Guinness>water]

Most folks, when they think of Scotland, automatically think tartan, kilts and blue bonnets. I did this also before I learned that there is a big differance between the Highlands of Scotland and the Lowlands, two very differant cultures, dress, and language.

[PiperChick]

This is really helpful. Thanks to all of you. Like Guinness water, I had some big misconceptions about how this whole clan thing "works". My maternal grandmother was the one that had the Scots-Irish lineage, and I remember very little from in way of cultural education. I never saw a Creighton/ Crichton crest as a kid, or much evidence of anything much around that was Scottish at all, except for some occasional shortbread. I know her family settled in Pennsylvania, but know no surnames past hers, or that that family was even from the lowlands (though this might explain my favorites in Scotch!) I only remember how excited she was when I began to learn to play pipes as a teenager.

Is it the "norm" for a woman who marries into another clan (in this case, Douglas) to still wear her "maiden" tartan? Or perhaps a clan crest kilt pin on a Douglas tartan?

[fluter]

I could be wrong, but isn't Sangster a Norman French name?

As is Bruce, right? My mum was a Wallace, which means "Welshman" if i mistake not.

[ctbuchanan]

@piperchick - I pulled this from the Surname Database which is maintained by name origin researchers based in Ireland I believe. This may explain why your Scottish name Crichton is affiliated with the Edinburgh District Tartan:

This is an interesting name of Scottish and English origin and is locational from a place so called near Utloxeter in Staffordshire and Crichton near Edinburgh in Scotland. The derivation of Creighton (in Staffordshire) is from the Olde Welsh pre 7th Century "creic", a rock, and "tun", a farm or settlement, thus a place built on a ridge, and it was first recorded in the Red Book of the Exchequor of 1166 as "Crectone", and in the Assize Rolls of 1222 it appears as "Creiton". However the place name in Scotland is derived from the Gaelic "crioch", a border or boundary and the Olde English pre 7th Century "tun", thus a farm on a boundary. The earliest recorded spelling is "Crechtune" circa 1145 and "Creigchton" in 1367. One Richard Creighton married Margaret Bridd on 26th June 1568 at Trentham Staffordshire, and records in the same county show the christening of one Hannah Creighton daughter of James and Emma Creighton on 2nd March 1755 at Newchapel. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Turstan de Crectune, witness of King David's Charter. which was dated circa 1128, Edinburgh, Scotland, during the reign of King David 1, of Scotland, 1124 - 1153.

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/crichton#ixzz2bCtvgt5T

[Hopper250]

There is also the possibility of not having a Chief. The MacQueens don't have their own chief and use a tartan from the Vestiarium Scoticum as they have no other clan tartan option. A chief would have been able to declare an official tartan but one has been lacking since the 1700s

[creagdhubh]

Crichton is a lowland family from the borders and would not have dressed in the "Highland" way - kilts, tartan etc.. In fact, until fairly recent times such attire would have been regarded as somewhat alien. Nowadays virtually every Scottish name has spawned a "clan", mostly at the instigation of your North American compatriots and, of course, a tartan has also been created - http://www.clan-crichton.com/ - this being an example of the type. There is absolutely nothing wrong in such modern romanticism but it has no historical basis in fact.

Well said, Phil.

[creagdhubh]

Most folks, when they think of Scotland, automatically think tartan, kilts and blue bonnets. I did this also before I learned that there is a big differance between the Highlands of Scotland and the Lowlands, two very differant cultures, dress, and language.

Precisely.

[Grizzly]

This is an interesting name of Scottish and English origin and is locational from a place so called near Utloxeter in Staffordshire.

Read more: http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/crichton#ixzz2bCtvgt5T

I don't wish to be pedantic but for the sake of accuracy for research purposes the place name is Uttoxeter.

[Guinness>water]

Is it the "norm" for a woman who marries into another clan (in this case, Douglas) to still wear her "maiden" tartan? Or perhaps a clan crest kilt pin on a Douglas tartan?

I believe it is the proper Highland tradition for a woman who marries into another clan, to then wear her husbands tartan and clan badge.

[BBNC]

My Grandmother is a Morehead, which is said to go back to Muirhead of Lanarkshire. According the Clan Muirhead Society, (www.clanmuirhead.com/‎), there was no tartan associated with the name, which now seems typical of Lowland families. A complete formal kilt outfit came to the US in 1854 with a family named Muirhead, which was owned by a family member. During research, the kilt was examined and determined to be of a unique tartan by the Tartan Authority. Subsequently, the TA was petitioned, and accepted that tartan as Muirhead. The outfit is loaned to, and is on display at the Scottish tartan Museum in Franklin, NC where you can see it, and read the story online. www.scottishtartans.org/