William Wilson & Son
Wilsons of Bannockburn.
The records of the Bannockburn weavers, William Wilson & Son,
are unique in the field of tartan and of inestimable value to the
student. The firm was well established by 1792 and continued to
weave tartan for 114 years until 1906 when it was reconstituted as
a private limited company manufacturing carpets. It finally went
out of business 18 years later in 1924.
An estimated ten thousand letters, many legal documents, books of
written patterns and samples of cloth have survuved and are in the
hands of various authorities such as the National Library of
Scotland, the Royal Museum of Scotland and the Scottish Tartans
Society. "The Wilson weaving firm was known during the above period
(1765 - 1924) to have searched the Highlands for old patterns, then
re-introduced them under names of their choosing if the original
clan or district could not be determined." See article by Marion
Wilson.
In 1727 William Wilson was born at Craigforth in the parish of
St Ninians, Stirlingshire. He became a weaver and incorporated
Chapman and started the firm of William Wilson and Son in which he
was followed by four generations of his descendants.
The firm was remarkable in that it was weaving tartan during the
period of the proscription of the Highland Garb Act 1746-1782 and
that it had a large civilian trade which eventually sent tartan to
North and South America, the West Indies, Europe and the Indian
continent and it supplied tartans to many of the Highland regiments
from the last quarter of the 18th century until the end of the
19th. This two-pronged trade may be the reason why William Wilson
and Son has been credited with or blamed for the 'invention' of
clan tartans.
"The Wilson weaving firm was known during the period of 1765 -
1924 to have searched the Highlands for old patterns, then
re-introduced them under names of their choosing if the original
clan or district could not be determined."
The records of William Wilson & Son, are unique in the field
of tartan and of inestimable value to the student An estimated ten
thousand letters, many legal documents, books of written patterns
and samples of cloth have survived and are in the hands of various
authorities such as the National Library of Scotland, the Royal
Museum of Scotland and the Scottish Tartans Society.
William Wilson is first mentioned in Bannockburn in 1750
when he bought a lair in St Ninians churchyard, doubtless for the
burial of his father in 1751. By now Bannockburn had become a
weaving community. Many of the weaver's families, including the
Wilsons, the Christie's and the Patterson's were members of the
First Seceders church in the Back Row, Stirling, now known as the
Erskine Mary Kirk. In 1755 William Wilson and his spouse Janet
Patterson took sasine of a house in in Nether Bannockburn. We think
they married about 1753 but a gap in the marriage register of Saint
Ninians prevents us from being sure. They had nine children, of
whom three sons grow up to become members of
the family firm. They were John (born 1754), James (born 1766)
and Alexander, the youngest, (born 1771-also the year of Sir Walter
Scott's birth). William Wilson, the founder, died in 1789 (the year
of the storming of the Bastille and the start of the French
Revolution). His older sons had predeceased him and he was
succeeded by the youngest, Alexander Wilson.
The firm was well established by 1792 and continued to weave
tartan for 114 years until 1906 when it was reconstituted as a
private limited company manufacturing carpets. It finally went out
of business 18 years later in 1924.