Clan tartan
A black and grey Douglas tartan that the Scottish Register of Tartans dates to 1842 and attributes to the Sobieski Stewarts' Vestiarium Scoticum, a work that the register says added spurious documentation.
Douglas Grey is a black and grey Douglas tartan from the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842. The Scottish Register of Tartans lists it as Douglas, Grey (Vestiarium Scoticum), SRT 1127, designed by the Sobieski Stewarts, and gives the date 1842.
It is not evidence of an older Douglas record, and the register's own notes say why: the authors added mystery, romance and some spurious historical documentation to their work.
The register lists Douglas, Grey (Vestiarium Scoticum) (SRT 1127) as 1842, designed by the Sobieski Stewarts, and says the authors, who enjoyed a popular following among the Scottish gentry in the early Victorian era, added mystery, romance and some spurious historical documentation to the subject of tartan.
Only two colours are recorded, black and grey. The register's threadcount is not shown without a login, so this site has not read it and does not draw the sett. The two colours here are approximations.
The record gives no reason for these colours and no earlier cloth to match.
The Vestiarium Scoticum was produced by the brothers who called themselves the Sobieski Stuarts. The register says they were popular among the Scottish gentry in the early Victorian era. Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the book appeared in 1842 from William Tait of Edinburgh and claimed to copy a fifteenth-century manuscript, and that it was soon denounced as a forgery.
Nothing in the sources read produces that manuscript, and the register itself describes the documentation as spurious. So the design has an 1842 date and a named source, but no earlier trace.
The register lists Gordon of Esselmont (STA 215, Sobieski Stewarts, 1842) and notes the Vestiarium Scoticum prints it simply as Gordon.
The register notes the book gives minor variations on well-known tartans, yet it remains the only documented source for many tartans still in use. Douglas Grey is one of those. It sits next to the accepted Douglas from Wilsons of Bannockburn, which has a commercial record from 1819 and so is the better documented of the two.
The sources read do not show whether Douglas Grey was woven in quantity, or when weavers began to carry it.
The register classes it as Clan/Family, but the claim to the Douglas name comes from the Vestiarium alone. That is a thinner basis than the register gives the main Douglas tartan, and it does not show a Douglas chief using it.
Check before repeating
The Vestiarium's claim to a fifteenth-century source does not hold in the sources read. The register's wording about spurious documentation applies to this book's claims in general.
Not established
The sources read do not give the sett, do not say whether any cloth was woven from it in the nineteenth century, and do not show any Douglas family use. They also do not say why the Sobieski Stewarts chose black and grey.
The Vestiarium Scoticum was published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition. It presented itself as a reproduction, with colour plates, of a fifteenth-century manuscript of clan tartans. Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the author, John Sobieski Stuart, claimed the work copied a manuscript from the Scots College at Douay, dated 1571, and that the brothers had already presented an intermediate copy of 1721 (the Cromarty manuscript) to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder in the late 1820s.
The brothers' own identity was part of the claim. Their real names were John Carter Allen (1795 to 1872) and Charles Manning Allen (1802 to 1880). Around 1839 they began to say that their father, Thomas Allen, a naval lieutenant, was the son of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, which made them heirs to a royal line. The Douglas, Grey entry in the register is credited to "the Sobieski Stewarts", and the name used there is the name they gave themselves.
Doubt began early. Wikipedia reports that Sir Walter Scott answered Lauder's 1829 letter about the manuscript with scepticism, remarking on "false Latin" and writing that the idea of distinguishing clans by their tartans was "but a fashion of modern date". A long article in the Quarterly Review of June 1847, by Professor George Skene and the Rev. Dr Mackay, set out the case against the book and against the brothers, and is described as calling the work an absolute fabrication. In 1895 the chemist Stevenson Macadam tested the 1721 manuscript and concluded it showed signs of having been treated with chemical agents to look old.
These are reported secondary accounts, and the primary documents have not been read for this record. Taken together they show what kind of doubt exists: not a single refutation, but objections to the manuscript's age, language and materials spread over several decades. John Telfer Dunbar, a tartan historian, is quoted by Wikipedia as calling it probably the most controversial costume book ever written. The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper is quoted describing the brothers' works as shot through with fantasy and forgery.
The register does not hide this. Its note on Douglas, Grey says the authors added "mystery, romance and some spurious historical documentation" and that the book gives minor variations on well-known tartans while being the sole documented source for many tartans now in use. Both statements can be true: the manuscript can be a fiction while the patterns it printed went on to be woven and worn.
Several other register records show the same route into the modern record:
Douglas Grey is therefore one of a group of records whose only source is the Vestiarium or a pattern close to it. Wikipedia says more than seventy Vestiarium tartans are still worn by clans. That figure is secondary and was not checked, but the register's own wording supports the general point.
What the record supports is narrow. A black and grey sett was published under the Douglas name in 1842. It was credited to the Sobieski Stewarts, was entered in the register as Clan/Family, and is listed in a search of twenty-four Douglas results beside the accepted Douglas of 1819.
It does not support any of the following, and the sources read give no evidence for them: that the sett was worn by a Douglas lord or by the Earls of Angus or Douglas, or that the Douglas chief has ever used it. The register's threadcount is not shown without a login, and this site has not read it.
The Vestiarium's Douglas is also separate from the later Douglas, Black (1920), which the register says is unconnected with the historical Black Douglas. Between them the Douglas name in the register covers a weaver's pattern of 1819, a forged manuscript's design of 1842 and a museum sample matched to a different pattern entirely.
For someone deciding which Douglas tartan to wear or buy, the evidence ranks the entries in this way.
Nothing here forbids Douglas Grey. The register says no law governs what tartan a person may wear. The honest description is a nineteenth-century design, and a seller who calls it an ancient Douglas cloth is repeating a claim the register does not support.
#101010Approximate#808080ApproximateApproximate hex values estimate the thread colour; they are not specified by a registry.
The dates this record holds, and the opening sentence of each historical note that names a single year. A year is the one the source gives; it has not been checked independently here.
Earliest known date held in this record.
Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the Vestiarium Scoticum was published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh and described as a copy of a fifteenth-century manuscript, and that it was soon denounced as a forgery.
Evidence level D. Sources: [2]
The register lists Gordon of Esselmont (STA 215, Sobieski Stewarts, 1842) and notes the Vestiarium Scoticum prints it simply as Gordon.
Evidence level A. Sources: [4]
The register lists Douglas, Grey (Vestiarium Scoticum) (SRT 1127) as 1842, designed by the Sobieski Stewarts, and says the authors, who enjoyed a popular following among the Scottish gentry in the early Victorian era, added mystery, romance and some spurious historical documentation to the subject of tartan.
Evidence level A. Sources: [1]
The register adds that the book gives minor variations on well-known tartans and is the sole documented source for many tartans now in use.
Evidence level A. Sources: [1]
Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the Vestiarium Scoticum was published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh and described as a copy of a fifteenth-century manuscript, and that it was soon denounced as a forgery. This is secondary, and it rests on works the page cites.
Evidence level D. Sources: [2]
Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the brothers' real names were John Carter Allen (1795 to 1872) and Charles Manning Allen (1802 to 1880), that around 1839 they began claiming descent from Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and that a Quarterly Review article of 1847 attributed to George Skene called the Vestiarium an absolute fabrication.
Evidence level D. Sources: [3]
Wikipedia, as a pointer, says the Vestiarium was claimed to copy a fifteenth-century manuscript from the Scots College at Douay dated 1571, that Sir Walter Scott answered Lauder in 1829 noting "false Latin", and that in 1895 the chemist Stevenson Macadam concluded the 1721 manuscript had been treated with chemical agents to appear aged.
Evidence level D. Sources: [2]
The register lists Gordon of Esselmont (STA 215, Sobieski Stewarts, 1842) and notes the Vestiarium Scoticum prints it simply as Gordon.
Evidence level A. Sources: [4]
Wearing
No restriction recorded
No restriction is recorded for this tartan. It is not recorded as a universal tartan.
No law restricts it. The register says there are no laws about which tartan a person may wear. It is a nineteenth-century design from the Vestiarium Scoticum, not a documented older Douglas cloth.
No law restricts Douglas Grey. The Scottish Register of Tartans states there are no laws about which tartan a person may wear, only traditions. Anyone choosing it should know it is a nineteenth-century design with no demonstrated older use.
The main Douglas tartan is the pattern the register treats as accepted. The Black Douglas tartan is a separate twentieth-century entry. The two should not be confused with each other or with this one.
| Tartan | Type | Colours | Associated clan | Earliest known date | Universal status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas, Grey | Clan tartan | black, grey | Douglas | 1842 | Not universal |
| Douglas | Clan tartan | black, light blue, green, dark blue, white | Douglas | 1819 | Not universal |
Lanarkshire · Douglasdale · Borders
Dùbhghlas
A Lowland family named for Douglasdale in Lanarkshire, which produced the Black Douglas Earls of Douglas, ended in 1455, and the Red Douglas Earls of Angus, who outlasted them. Secondary sources say the name has no chief recognised by the Lord Lyon, so the register's accepted Douglas tartan, a Wilsons of Bannockburn sett of 1819, rests on custom rather than on a chief's approval.
Photo: Billy McCrorie, CC BY-SA 2.0
An association between a tartan and a clan is a claim with its own sources. It does not mean every bearer of the clan name has a right to the tartan, or the reverse.
In the library
Records that name this tartan as related, or that share a clan with it. The link says the records belong together, not that the setts are the same.
