Wilsons of Bannockburn
Marion Wilson FSTS married a
descendant of William Wilson and wrote this article sometime in the
1970/80s. It offers a fascinating insight into the firm's more
personal details.
Some weavers formed Craft Guilds in the 17th century, but
otherwise there is little tangible evidence of the work of tartan
weavers before the 18th century. In 1727, William Wilson was born
at Craigforth in the parish of St Ninians, Stirlingshire. He became
a weaver and an incorporated chapman, and started the firm of
William Wilson & Sons in which he was followed by four
generations of his descendants. I married a descendant of William
Wilson; and although my husband was never connected with the firm,
this has given me an interest in compiling a family tree and
researching the firm.
William Wilson and Sons was remarkable in that it was weaving
tartan during the period of the Proscription of .the Highland Garb
Act, 1746 - 1782. 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 l8th 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! A a vast quantity of their records
survived when the firm was liquidated in the 1920's and is
preserved in the National Library of Scotland and in various other
museums.
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 weavers' families including the Wilsons, the
Christies (William Wilson's mother's families) and the Patersons
(his wife's family) were members of the First Seceders Church in
the Back Row, Stirling now known as the Erskine Marykirk.
In 1755 William Wilson and his spouse Janet Paterson bought a
house in Nether Bannockburn. We think they married in about 1753
but a gap in the marriage register of St Ninian's prevents us being
sure. They had nine children, of whom three sons grew 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.
I have found no record of William Wilson having served a weaving
apprenticeship but he probably did so, considering the exclusive
power of the trade guilds In the l8th Century. In 1759 he was
admitted to the Incorporation of Chapmen of Stirlingshire and
Clackmannan. Their minute book is in the National Library of
Scotland. It is necessary to understand that the Merchants bought
and sold within the towns and cities and could trade overseas; and
having paid a fee for these privileges, the Stirling Merchant Guild
guarded them jealously. The chapmen, on the other hand, might buy
in the towns and cities, but they sold only in the countryside on
horseback, sometimes with their goods on separate packhorses. There
is no mention of William Wilson's own journeys; but the fact that
he became a chapman is sufficient evidence that he must have
started to build up his business in this way; and there is evidence
that the weavers of Bannockburn co-operated by providing cloth, and
also seeking new business.
In 1769, William's eldest son, John was incorporated as a
chapman and his first order book (a small notebook) is in the
National Library of Scotland; and starts in 1772 when John was 18
years old. All the dates I have been quoting were within the period
of the proscription. The Act of 1746 forbade the wearing of tartan
etc. "in that part of Scotland"; but a later revision forbade the
wearing of tartan "west and north of the Highland Line" - a
mythical line, which is almost impossible to define. It would seem
to us a most unsuitable time to start a tartan firm.
I made a card index of all places where the Wilson's had
customers and plotted them on two maps, one before and one after
the Repeal. The information came from the Wilson ledger for
1770-1787 now in the National Library of Scotland. Before the
Repeal, customers were almost entirely from the eastern coastal
lowlands of Scotland and the goods were sent by sea from Leith.
After the Repeal of the Act in 1782, custom began to spread
westwards.
The 1770's and 80's were busy times for William Wilson and Sons
and in 1775 and 1778 there is mention of being "Engaged with a
large Bargion (?) in Clothing some Regiments". In 1780, William
Wilson bought a double plot and buildings on "the east side of the
King's highway running through Nether Bannockburn". It was here
that he built a large tenement to house the weavers he employed,
with sheds behind the tenement to hold the looms. The tenement was
built by James Malies, wright in St Ninians, and there are plans
and estimates for it in the National Library of Scotland. In 1787,
William Wilson and his eldest son John bought at Public Roup
(auction) the buildings belonging to George Arthur, who was John's
brother-in-law. The purchase included dye houses and the mill from
which the initialled keystone - once in the Scottish Tartans
Society museum - was saved when these buildings were demolished in
about 1960. (Editor's note: this was in the STS Museum but its
whereabouts are not known at this time [Nov. 2003]).
There was a marked increase in population and prosperity in
Scotland during the second half of the l8th Century due to improved
farming methods and generally better food, although there were
still some famine years. This improvement and the raising of
several Highland regiments both for the British Army and for the
Fencibles for home defence, meant good trade for the weavers. One
of the difficulties experienced in the business was the supply of
yarn: there are details of litigation on two occasions: Between
William Wilson and his spouse Janet Paterson on the one hand, and a
wool twister (hand spinner) on the other. William Wilson had
supplied a given amount of wool and expected an equivalent amount
of yarn to be returned. The granddaughter of the twister told the
court how much yarn she had carried back, and this proved that it
was not enough.
There was aslo litigation between the country weavers and the
Stirling weavers, who wished to restrict the times when the country
weavers could buy yarn in the Stirling market. The country weavers
employed a Writer to the Signet (solicitor) from Edinburgh and the
bill was divided according to the number of looms each one owned -
William Wilson owned 12 looms, John Paterson 4, and all the others
one or two each. This was a long dispute running into the 1790's,
but the note of proportional division of the account serves to show
that William Wilson could now be called a manufacturer. We are now
in that period when it could be said the Industrial Revolution had
started in Scotland.
Alexander Wilson the youngest and only remaining son of the
founder had been doing the journeys for the firm, but when he
became head, these were taken over by James, the grandson. Letters
sent back to Bannockburn by Alexander all follow the same format:
they give details of the orders taken from civilian customers, they
tell how far the writer had reached on his journey, how much money
had been paid into the bank, and any other news, such as the state
of trade, prices of competitors, the weather or how the horse was
travelling. For shorter journeys a gig was brought into use and
grandson James was pleased with it until he was thrown to the
ground when the mare stumbled on the road near Auchtermuchty. The
founder's eldest grandson, John had inherited the building which
his father and grandfather had bought from George Arthur: and his
younger brother William took the opportunity when they came of age
to start a separate firm, (John and William Wilson). In 1806, both
firms applied successfully to the "Board of Trustees for the
Encouragement of Manufacturers and Fisheries in Scotland" for help
to finance the installation of spinning machinery. I have no
similar record of when they installed weaving machinery, but this
may have come first.
By the 19th century William Wilson and Son had become
wholesalers as well as manufacturers, supplying the Highland
regiments with hose, tartan, bonnets and gartering, and supplying
materials such as serge and camblet to civilians. As such they can
no longer be called "early weavers". The peak of their fortunes was
reached about 1865 when great-grandson Alexander inherited the
firm. He became known as the Colonel, lived a rich and comfortable
life in Bannockburn House and amalgamated the two Wilson firms
under himself. After his death however, it emerged that William
Wilson and Son was no longer financially sound. A smaller firm
manufacturing only carpets was then formed, but even that was
closed in 1926. (It has no relevance to the firm but it may
interest you to know that the last male representative of the
founder's main line was another Alexander Wilson - better known as
'Sandy' Wilson, the composer of that entertaining musical, "The
Boyfriend').
The Story of Tartan, particularly the Clan Tartans, has been
dogged by so-called experts who have generalised, and not always
with a care for accuracy or authenticity. The Day Book used by
William Wilson and Son from 1771 to 1780 is in the National Library
of Scotland, gives daily entries of goods dispatched to civilian
customers. I have been making a card index of the tartan names used
in it; and I hope to continue this to the other Wilson records. The
names used in the Day Book are not those clan names used today. But
it seems to me that, at a very early date in the Wilson firm's
history, it became convenient and then necessary, to differentiate
between patterned materials by giving each pattern some sort of a
name. Starting with this theory and the knowledge that the number
of tartan patterns was increasing, I believe that .the Wilsons
would associate a pattern usually with a person or sometimes a
place. At the same time Highland regiments were being raised by
leading citizens; and D C Stewart in the Scottish Tartans Society
proceedings of 1975 describes how the regiments became known by the
names of their commanding officers. Individuals who raised
regiments and the commanding officers would add light lines to the
Black Watch or government tartan, so that their own men would be
distinctive, and these regimental patterns have continued.
By 1815-16, the Highland chiefs were depositing In the
Highland Society of London archives, pieces of
their authentic clan tartans. Then, as now, there was much
confusion and I wonder whether the clan chiefs did not want to be
outdone by the commanding officers. In 1819 Wilsons developed their
Pattern Book. By the time King George IV came to Edinburgh In 1822,
everyone was wanting a clan tartan. One merchant wrote: "Please
send me a piece of Rose tartan, and if there isn't one, please send
me a different pattern and call it Rose." In other words the clan
tartan system just developed.