Has anyone here (other than Matt, who no doubt has ) referred to James Scarlett's "Tartan, the Highland Textile", published in 1990? In particular, to his chapter on Military Tartans? In this he removes myth from the equation and documents the known evolution of the so-called government or independent companies' tartan to the mid-18C and subsequent adoption of the name "Black Watch" to describe it. He then says: "The new tartan became the basis of the majority of the tartans worn by Highland regiments, those of some of the Fencible regiments, of which the Breadalbane Fencibles and the Inverness Fencibles tartans are examples, and of countless 'clan' and family setts."

His is (perhaps?) the last scholarly word on the theories of origin for the Black Watch tartan: "It is (a) an old Campbell tartan chosen for the Regiment because the majority of the Independent Companies...were commanded by Campbells, or because the Earl of Crawford, the Regiment's first Colonel, had Campbell connections, or (b) it was specially designed...because the Earl, being a Lowlander, had no tartan of his own to give it. Some of those who support the second theory have suggested that the new design was arrived at by combining the tartans of the six companies and removing distinguishing overchecks but this idea rests upon the assertion by General David Stewart of Garth that before embodiment each Independent Company wore the tartan of its commander which we now know to be untrue...."

Other statements Jamie made in this learned treatise (and others) discount all other origins and leaves us only with option (a).