JOHNSTON (ANCIENT) - Tartans beginning with 'E' Notes relating to the portrait

Notes relating to the portrait of Murdoch MacNeil painted by Macleay in 1868 refer to 'the newly designed MacNeill of Colonsay tartan

black and green plaid which was woven by over sixty weavers in Strathspey

added mystery

the Sobieski Stuart brothers

bearing the Seal of Arms of Sir John MacGregor Murray of MacGregor

JOHNSTON (ANCIENT) - Tartans beginning with 'E' Notes relating to the portraitAlso Johnstone. Scottish Tartans Society notes: A powerful Border Clan who pursued a deadly feud with the Maxwells. Their stronghold was Lochwood Tower, near Beattock, which was burned down by the Maxwells in 1593. The tartan was first published in the Vestiarium Scoticum in 1842. Before that time Border tartans were generally unnamed. More likely the tartan came from the Aberdeenshire Johnstons, whose family seat is at Caskieben, Blackburn.