|
 The Meg Merrilees tartan
was first produced by William Wilson of Bannockburn in 1829 to celebrate
the fictional gypsy character in Sir Walter Scott's novel "Guy Mannering"
published in 1815. It was advertised by Inverness draper, D. MacDougall,
in 1831 as 'Meg Merrilees Winter Shawls' and the Scottish Tartans Society
records the tartan being sold by Forsyths in Glasgow in 1840. It continued
to be produced until the 1920s and inevitably became associated with the
Scottish surname of Merrilees. It is now recognised as an official tartan
of the Merrilees Clan and the Merrilees Family Association periodically
arranges special weavings for its worldwide membership through its website
www.merrileesclan.org.nz.
Thanks to
Gary Merrylees for providing
information on the tartan.
From Byways of the Scottish Borders
- Here in Kirk-Yetholm, sometime towards the end of the 17th century, was
born Jean Gordon, wife of the Gypsy chief Patrick Faa, who survives for
the reading world in the person of Meg Merrilees in Guy Mannering. Her
fate and the fate of her family afford an example of the treatment too
often suffered as well as deserved. For burning the house of Greenhead,
her husband, Patrick Faa, was whipped through Jedburgh, stood for
half-an-hour at the cross with his ear nailed to a post, had both ears cut
off, and was finally transported to the American plantations. In 1714
her son, Alexander Faa, was murdered by another Gypsy. The murderer
escaped from prison, but was dogged from Scotland to Holland, and from
Holland to Ireland, by the murdered man’s mother; and finally, at her
instance, was brought to justice on Jedburgh Gallowhill. Jean’s other
sons, after many depredations, were hanged at Jedburgh all on one
day—their fate, it is said, being decided by the casting vote of a juryman
who had slept throughout the discussion of the case, but who suddenly
waked up with the words, "Hang them a’!" Jean was present at the trial,
and upon hearing the verdict is said to have exclaimed "The Lord help the
innocent on a day like this!" She herself was finally ducked to death for
her Jacobite leanings by the cowardly rabble of Carlisle, continuing so
long as she could get her head above water to cry out "Charlie yet!
Charlie yet." |
