Let's here it for Lancashire

[Rhys]

Just trolling through kilt stuff, as you do, and came upon this snippet. The modern kilt was invented by an English Lancastrian.

"A letter published in the Scots Journal in March 1785 argued that the garment people would today recognize as a kilt was invented around the 1720s by Thomas Rawlinson, a Quaker from Lancashire. Rawlinson is claimed to have designed it for the Highlanders who worked in his new charcoal production facility in the woods of northern Scotland. After the Jacobite campaign of 1715 the government was "opening" the Highlands to outside exploitation and Rawlinson was one of the businessmen who took advantage of the situation. He thought that the traditional Highland kilt, the "belted plaid" which consisted of a large cloak, was inconvenient for tree cutters and introduced the new kilt. Rawlinson liked the new creation so much that he began to wear it as well and was soon imitated by his Scottish colleagues, the MacDonell's of Glengarry."

No wonder I had the urge to get one!!
Still awaiting delivery of an 8 yard Heritage of Wales Cilt.
It gets better, a Welshman wearing a Scottish style kilt invented by an Englishman!! Now we just need to figure how to include the Irish.

[Rhys]

Thought I ought to mention, I've lived in Lancs all my life, though I do get out occasionally.

[ccga3359]

No wonder I had the urge to get one!!
Still awaiting delivery of an 8 yard Heritage of Wales Cilt.
It gets better, a Welshman wearing a Scottish style kilt invented by an Englishman!! Now we just need to figure how to include the Irish.

Tip a Guinness whilst cilted. Being from Sussex this too is my connection, although great, great granddad was randy bloke...

[Rhys]

But it'll have to be a half, I'm bustin'!
Perhaps they soaked them in guiness to fix the dye??

[Phil]

Just trolling through kilt stuff, as you do, and came upon this snippet. The modern kilt was invented by an English Lancastrian.

"A letter published in the Scots Journal in March 1785 argued that the garment people would today recognize as a kilt was invented around the 1720s by Thomas Rawlinson, a Quaker from Lancashire. Rawlinson is claimed to have designed it for the Highlanders who worked in his new charcoal production facility in the woods of northern Scotland. After the Jacobite campaign of 1715 the government was "opening" the Highlands to outside exploitation and Rawlinson was one of the businessmen who took advantage of the situation. He thought that the traditional Highland kilt, the "belted plaid" which consisted of a large cloak, was inconvenient for tree cutters and introduced the new kilt. Rawlinson liked the new creation so much that he began to wear it as well and was soon imitated by his Scottish colleagues, the MacDonell's of Glengarry."

No wonder I had the urge to get one!!
Still awaiting delivery of an 8 yard Heritage of Wales Cilt.
It gets better, a Welshman wearing a Scottish style kilt invented by an Englishman!! Now we just need to figure how to include the Irish.

Next thing you'll be telling us he invented penicillin, television, rubber tyres, tarmac etc. etc. as well. Still sounds like as good a reason as any for you to join the kilt wearing brigade.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Just trolling through kilt stuff, as you do, and came upon this snippet. The modern kilt was invented by an English Lancastrian.

"A letter published in the Scots Journal in March 1785 argued that the garment people would today recognize as a kilt was invented around the 1720s by Thomas Rawlinson, a Quaker from Lancashire. Rawlinson is claimed to have designed it for the Highlanders who worked in his new charcoal production facility in the woods of northern Scotland. After the Jacobite campaign of 1715 the government was "opening" the Highlands to outside exploitation and Rawlinson was one of the businessmen who took advantage of the situation. He thought that the traditional Highland kilt, the "belted plaid" which consisted of a large cloak, was inconvenient for tree cutters and introduced the new kilt. Rawlinson liked the new creation so much that he began to wear it as well and was soon imitated by his Scottish colleagues, the MacDonell's of Glengarry."

It is inevitable that whenever one suggests that an Englishman invented the Scottish national garment, things get heated rather quickly! So I thought I'd share some more historical details.

The letter in question was first printed in the Edinburgh Magazine in March, 1785, but was actually written in 1768. The author is one Evan Baillie. The context of the letter is a debate about the antiquity of the little kilt, or fielidh-beag (phillabeg).

Baillie reports that, to the best of his knowledge, about 50 years prior, an Englishman named Thomas Rawlinson had an iron works in Glengarie and Lochaber. Baillie claims to have known Rawlinson personally from 40 years ago, and said that he took to wearing the Highland dress of the men in his employ. Rawlinson is described as "a man of genius and quick parts" who "thought it no great stretch of invention to abridge the dress, and make it handy and convienient for his workmen." The feilidh-beag that he is credited with inventing supposedly proved so popular that its use quickly spread throughout the Highlands and the northern Lowlands.

The major problem with the above letter is that we don't know who it was written to, and we don't know in whose possession it was in 1785 when it first appeared in the press. So it's a bit of a mystery.

There exists a somewhat different account in Gen. David Stewart of Garth's book, Sketches of the Character of the Highlanders of Scotland, published in 1822. In his version, the feilidh-beag was invented by a man named Parkinson, who was an army tailor who supposedly designed the kilt for Mr. Rawlinson. Garth, by the way, put no credit at all in the story, and mentioned it only to debunk it.

The fullest account of this story is to be found in Costume of the Clans, which was written by the infamous Sobieski-Stuart brothers in 1845. The Sobieski-Stuarts are better known for their work Vestiarium Scoticum, which was later proven to be a hoax and a forgery. For this reason, their Costume of the Clans has been much ignored, but there is some interesting information to be found there, including many details about the Rawlinson story.

According to their version, Rawlinson had his iron-foundry, lived between two garrisons at Maryborough and Inverness, and so was frequently visited by officers and men passing between the two locations. At one point, a regimental tailor named Parkinson, who had only recently come to the Highlands, came to visit. While there, he observed a Highlander come indoors, his belted plaid soaking wet, and asked why he did not remove his "cloak." He was told that it was not his cloak but his clothing, and moreover learned how it was pleated and belted on.

Parkinson, being a tailor, suggested that it might be easier if the folds were sewn into place, and that the upper part be separated from the lower, so that it might be more easily cast aside. Rawlinson liked the idea so much that he commissioned Parkinson to to make one for him. Two days later he was wearing it!

This garment supposedly attracted the attention of Ian MacAlasdair Mhic Raonuill of Glengarry (cheiftain of Glangarry), who asked for a second feilidh-beag to be made for himself. It's popularity quickly spread throughout the region.

The full account of this story, as related by the Sobieski-Stuarts, is repeated in H. F. McClintock's Old Irish and Highland Dress, pp. 157-160, if anyone should care to read it for themselves.

So, depending on which version you read, the feilidh-beag was either invented by Rawlinson or by Parkinson. Regardless, both of them are Englishmen, and I think that's the real reason why people object to the story today. At the time this debate was raging (in the early 19th century), the reason people objected to this story was because it suggested a much later origin for the kilt than people were at that time assuming.

Of course this story is not 100% accepted by historians. There are those who suggest that the feilidh-beag was around before Rawlinson ever came to the Highlands. As evidence for this, portraits are cited that supposedly depict men wearing the feilidh-beag from before this time. The problem is that the interpretation of these portaits is somewhat subjective. Depending on who you ask, they will either show a Highlander in teh feilidh-mor or in the feilidh-beag with separate shoulder plaid. These portraits are dealt with in McClintock, and also in Bob Martin's All About The Kilt, if anyone is interested in further reading on the subject.

There does seem to be enough evidence to suggest that there is at least some truth to the story, even if people can't agree on the details. My own pet theory is that perhaps Parkinson or Rawlinson were familiar with the feilidh-beag from seeing it worn by Highland soldiers in their camps, and helped spread the fashion by introducing it to Glengary.

In any case, one can hardly credit them with the invention of the kilt, unless you define the kilt as the feilidh-beag. The earliest form of the kilt is the feilidh-mor, which developed in the Highlands in the late sixteenth century. The modern form of the kilt, the tailored kilt with the pleats sewn down,* is a later development dating from the late eighteenth century.

The feilidh-beag in an intermediate stage, essentially the same as the feilidh-mor in being an untailored length of cloth, but one worn only from the waist to the knee. So perhaps it can, at best, be said that these two Englishmen helped advance Highland fashion and the development of the kilt. But one can hardly claim that they "invented" it.

*the accound of Parkinson sewing in the pleats of the feilidh-beag as given by John Sobieski-Stuart is interesting. The earliest tailored kilt we know of dates to 1794, some 70 years after this story is supposedly set. Remember that Sobieski was writing in the mid-1800s, and is getting his information from secondary sources. So he may simply be mistaken in this detail. Or, it could be that he is describing a feilidh-beag with the pleats sewn in across the waist only, rather than being sewn down from waist to hip, as in a modern tailored kilt. There is some evidence to suggest that the feilidh-mor was sometimes worn this way towards the end of its use, and so it would not be a huge surprise to also find the more abridged feilidh-beag worn in a similar fashion.

[Kid Cossack]

I always get a real kick out of reading Matt Newsome's articles about kilt history. Aside from being a fan of box pleated, short yardage kilts in general, and Mr. Newsome's kilts in particular, I have no particular dog in this fight. I do find the whole subject fascinating, however, both in terms of kilts, and as a reminder of the fallibility of man in general.

There are so many things that we simply take for granted. We assume that we can discover "the truth" about something. And yet . . . and yet . . . even when we look at a time as comparatively recent as the 18th century, and as something as (culturally) important as "Scots national dress" we cannae come to any kind of true certainty.

File under "fallibility" and "limits, man's knowledge"!

[Phil]

Thanks for your informative piece, Matt. I have heard this Rawlinson story before and wonder why it keeps reappearing as it is little more than hearsay as I think you point out and anything linked to the Sobieski-Stuarts must be regarded with some suspicion although you feel this part may have some truth in it. And thank you for pointing out so clearly that the kilt is indisputedly Scottish despite these claims to the contrary. I always think there is more than a hint of mischief in these claims made by people jealous of the fact that they themselves lack this proud and very distinctive heritage. I have read elsewhere that the feilidh-beag was originally constructed with a drawstring-type of fastening at the waist around the time Sir Walter Scott was encouraging all things tartan so there is undoubtedly more than one theory about its origins in any case.

[Phil]

Thanks for your informative piece, Matt. I have heard this Rawlinson story before and wonder why it keeps reappearing as it is little more than hearsay as I think you point out and anything linked to the Sobieski-Stuarts must be regarded with some suspicion although you feel this part may have some truth in it. And thank you for pointing out so clearly that the kilt is indisputedly Scottish despite these claims to the contrary. I always think there is more than a hint of mischief in these claims made by people jealous of the fact that they themselves lack this proud and very distinctive heritage. I have read elsewhere that the feilidh-beag was originally constructed with a drawstring-type of fastening at the waist around the time Sir Walter Scott was encouraging all things tartan so there is undoubtedly more than one theory about its origins in any case.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The feilidh-beag may have sometimes been worn with a drawstring, as was the feilidh-mor, it would seem. See:
http://albanach.org/drawstring.htm

However, there is just no way one could historically claim that the feilidh-beag wasn't invented until Walter Scott's time. Scott lived from 1771 until 1832, and as far as tartan is concerned is usually associated with King George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822. There is ample evidence to suggest that the feilidh-beag was around long before that time. In fact, it had been around so long it had gone out of fashion!

We have surving tailored kilts from the 1790s and early 1800s, which easily pre-date George IV's visit. By that time the tailored kilt was the norm. As for the untailored feilidh-beag the debate is centered around whether it was in use before the Rawlinson story is supposed to have taken place (1715-1720). Like I said in my previous post, interpretation of the evidence prior to that time is somewhat subjective.

After that time, however, there really is no debate. We know the feilidh-beag was in use, both because it is being written about by contemporary authors, and also because we have portraits of men (such as Alistair MacDonell of Glengarry, c. 1746) wearing without a doubt the feilidh-beag.

So if anyone tries to tell you Sir Walter Scott invented the kilt, don't you believe it!

Aye,
Matt