Wanted: Ancient Morrison Green

[Steve Ashton]

This description from The Scottish Register of Tartan may be of interest to you.

"There are two 'stories' surrounding the Morrison clan tartans 1. The official Morrison clan tartan was recorded by Lord Lyon on 3rd January 1968, from a piece of tartan found in an old Morrison family bible. The bible contained a hand written reference to the tartan and was dated 1747, one year after the proscription of Highland dress. The discovery was made during the demolition of a Black House on Lewis in 1935. Lord Lyon was convinced that it represented the most authentic pattern of what the Morrisons wore in those days and he based the new tartan on the relic. The sample in the Scottish Tartans Authority Dalgety Collection was woven by Lochcarron and is labelled (16th March 1972) 'Enclosed pattern of the NEW Clan Morrison tartan woven from the sett provided by the Clan Secretary about the end of 1968 and made for the Morrison Clan. The Green one is now officially known as the Society Morrison.' There is no 'green Morrison' as such unless that refers to the Morrison Hunting (#1083, original Scottish Tartans Authority reference). 2. #993 (original Scottish Tartans Authority reference) is the original Morrison clan tartan but the reason that #998 (original Scottish Tartans Authority reference) is now regarded as such is said to be as follows: Colonel Morrison, wishing to re-establish his tartan - his old pre-1939 kilt had been destroyed in a London air-raid - made an error by centring ONE green line instead of TWO on the red band. When this was later brought to the attention of Sir Thomas of Learney (Lord Lyon) by Stuart Davidson in 1967 he refused to alter what had been registered in Lyon Court Books and remarked that the Morrisons would just have to accept it."