MacMillan and Buchanan

[ThinBlueLine]

Hey all,

I was looking through the MacMillan tartans and noticed that the Ancient MacMillan (#2025) was noted with the following:

"James Logan, co-author of 'The Clans of the Scottish Highlands' (1847), states that this version is identical with Buchanan."

They do look nearly identical. I see a white line through the red and a black bar through the green on the Buchanan which are not on the MacMillan. For those of you in the clans in question have you noticed any differences in person between the Ancient MacMillan and the Buchanan?

Ancient MacMillan (#2025):


Buchanan (#2027)

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The Buchanan sett seems to be a more complicated version of what is commonly called Ancient MacMillan. Now there may be any number of reasons for this ranging from pure coincidence to the addition of the white stripe (and the darker over cheque) being indicative of Buchanan being, or becoming, a sept of Clan MacMillan in the very late 17th or early 18th century.

In 1667 the Dunmore branch of the Macmillans (the chiefly line) first became related to the Buchanan's of Leanny through marriage. In 1682 the last chief of the Buchanan's died, and a few years later Duncan Macmillan of Dunmore married Katherine Buchanan of Leanny (his cousin and the representative of the senior branch of the Buchanans) thus uniting the two houses. In 1742 another Duncan Macmillan of Dunmore registered arms with the Lord Lyon, which, in heraldic terms, may be described as a composed coat coat of arms.

Without going into great detail, when two armigerous families are united in matrimony the children of that marriage quarter the arms of both the father and the mother, with the arms of the father being placed in the first and fourth quarters, and the arms of the mother's father being placed in the second and third quarters. However, as sometimes happens an entirely new coat is devised based on elements found in both coats of arms. This is especially true when the family of the mother becomes extinct in the male line.

The heraldry works like this:

Duncan (1) marries Katherine Buchanan of Leanny and uses the MacMillan arms.

Alexander, their son, quarters Buchanan of Leanny with MacMillan.

Duncan (2, son of Alexander) sues out arms in 1742 asserting his status as the inheritor of clan Buchanan in right of his grandmother, Katherine Buchanan of Leanny, as there are no remaining members of the chiefly line of Buchanan.

In composing this "new" coat of arms for Duncan Macmillan of Dunmore the Lord Lyon changes the colour of the field from white to yellow (the colour of the Buchanan arms) and alters the position of the lion from passant to rampant (again, as depicted on the Buchanan arms). The three blue stars of MacMillan are retained in chief, and this new coat of arms is confirmed by the Lord Lyon. In so doing the Lyon clearly shows that the chiefly line of the Buchanans is now merged with that of the MacMillans and that Macmillan of Dunmore is chief of the Buchanans in the same way he is also chief of the Baxters, Blues, Bells, and Browns, and all other septs of the clan.

While it is probably impossible to say with any degree of certainty whether or not the Buchanan tartan is based upon that of the MacMillans, and if it is when it was first adopted, the genealogical and heraldic facts stated above would tend to support the theory that Buchanan, having quite possibly become a sept of MacMillan sometime between 1682 and 1742 at some point adopted and modified the Ancient Macmillan tartan as their own.

I am sure someone out there will choose to disagree with this thesis.

[figheadair]

Hey all,

I was looking through the MacMillan tartans and noticed that the Ancient MacMillan (#2025) was noted with the following:

"James Logan, co-author of 'The Clans of the Scottish Highlands' (1847), states that this version is identical with Buchanan."

They do look nearly identical. I see a white line through the red and a black bar through the green on the Buchanan which are not on the MacMillan. For those of you in the clans in question have you noticed any differences in person between the Ancient MacMillan and the Buchanan?

There is little to support the idea that there were two separate tartans in Logan's day and he seems to suggest that both clans wore the same sett.

The problem with Logan's counts (later used by McIntyre-North and Innes of Learny) are that a great many of them are faulty because he did not understand tartan. He got most (all?) of his samples from Wilsons of Bannockburn but took his count from the selvedge to where he thought the pattern repeated with the results that he gave variously short counts, long counts and wrong pivots. We know that Wilsons' Buchanan c1800-20 was symmetrical. In that case Logan's count was correct but McIan's colourist made it appear asymmetric and thus arose what we commonly see as Buchanan. McIan gave an illustration of the MacMillan which was interpreted as a threadcount at a later date.

[ThinBlueLine]

MacMillan of Rathdown,

That all makes perfect sense to me.


figheadair,

It amazes me that there are so many tartans that have been invented or altered just because of poorly organized books.

[figheadair]

MacMillan of Rathdown,

That all makes perfect sense to me.


figheadair,

It amazes me that there are so many tartans that have been invented or altered just because of poorly organized books.

Oh how so very true. The problem is that most books on tartan were/are written by people who don't actually understand it.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Jamie Scarlett once remarked to me, "There has never been a book on tartan written that was not full of mistakes -- including my own!"

(Jamie was a giant among tartan researchers and authored many books on the subject, including The Tartan Spotter's Guide, Tartan: The Highland Textile, and The Origins and Development of Military Tartans. See here for more info on this fine man.)

[OC Richard]

From The Setts of the Scottish Tartans by Donald C Stewart:

"The scheme of the red and yellow MacMillan is the same as that of the Wemyss and similiar to that of the Hunting MacLean..."
(All three are Hay-Allan creations, part of the bogus Vestiarium Scoticum.)

"There is a tartan sometimes called the MacMillan Ancient. This resembles the Buchanan, and derives from one of McIan's drawings, but as in the McIan-Logan work the MacMillan tartan is stated to be identical with the Buchanan, the making of a distinction between the two is pointless."

If I were a MacMillan, then, I would wear the Buchanan tartan, following Logan's 1831 symmetrical design:



rather than either the artificial modern modification of the erroneous 1843 McIan assymmetrical Buchanan, or the Hay-Allan "MacMillan" creation.

[macwilkin]

From The Setts of the Scottish Tartans by Donald C Stewart:

"The scheme of the red and yellow MacMillan is the same as that of the Wemyss and similiar to that of the Hunting MacLean..."
(All three are Hay-Allan creations, part of the bogus Vestiarium Scoticum.)

"There is a tartan sometimes called the MacMillan Ancient. This resembles the Buchanan, and derives from one of McIan's drawings, but as in the McIan-Logan work the MacMillan tartan is stated to be identical with the Buchanan, the making of a distinction between the two is pointless."

If I were a MacMillan, then, I would wear the Buchanan tartan, following Logan's 1831 symmetrical design:



rather than either the artificial modern modification of the erroneous 1843 McIan assymmetrical Buchanan, or the Hay-Allan "MacMillan" creation.

If I were a MacMillan, I would see which taran was approved by chief, George Gordon MacMillan of MacMillan & Knap. That really is the bottom line.

T.

[davidlpope]

From The Setts of the Scottish Tartans by Donald C Stewart:

"The scheme of the red and yellow MacMillan is the same as that of the Wemyss and similiar to that of the Hunting MacLean..."
(All three are Hay-Allan creations, part of the bogus Vestiarium Scoticum.)

"There is a tartan sometimes called the MacMillan Ancient. This resembles the Buchanan, and derives from one of McIan's drawings, but as in the McIan-Logan work the MacMillan tartan is stated to be identical with the Buchanan, the making of a distinction between the two is pointless."

If I were a MacMillan, then, I would wear the Buchanan tartan, following Logan's 1831 symmetrical design:



rather than either the artificial modern modification of the erroneous 1843 McIan assymmetrical Buchanan, or the Hay-Allan "MacMillan" creation.

Richard,

A few points:

1. Although D.C. Stewart made the assertion that the red-yellow MacMillan tartan (now commonly called Dress MacMillan) was created by the Hay-Allans, he was wrong. This tartan (nor any other MacMillan tartan) does not show up in the VS at all, as a quick perusing of Matt's new online resource will show. The earliest known reference to it that I can find is its inclusion in Clans Originaux, c. 1880, where it is referred to as simply "MacMillan". The swatchbook also contains what is labelled as "Ancient MacMillan" (the green, yellow, and maroon one).

2. I believe you are correct in saying that the tartan now called "Ancient MacMillan" or "Old MacMillan was "created" by MacIan's print. I can find no provenance for it prior to the publication of Logan's book.

3. If you were a MacMillan you would, of course, have the same freedom that you currently enjoy to wear, or not wear, any tartan you could aquire and strap around your waist. That being said, if you were a MacMillan I would hope that you would choose to wear a tartan that is 1) approved by the Clan Chief (Old, Hunting, or Dress) and 2) easily recognizable as a MacMillan tartan (Old, Hunting, or Dress).

While I understand the argument that you're making, I think you would get quite tired of having to explain to everyone (including your chief, if you encountered him) who asks, why you, a MacMillan, were wearing a Buchanan tartan...

Since you are not a MacMillan, though, I guess it is entirely a moot point.

David