Wilson (Janet)
This is one variant — a specific cloth: this exact thread count and colourway, with its own provenance below. It is one weaving of the sett (the scale-free proportion — the same cloth at any scale or shade), whose colour order is pattern BWBGBGBGRGRGRGRGRGBRWRWRBGRGRGRGRGRGBGBGBW.
Sourced from register-of-tartans. It is a 42 stripe tartan.
Original link https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tartanDetails.aspx?ref=4634
Provenance
Earliest known date: 1780 Named after Janet Wilson, wife of the Bannockburn weaver, William Wilson who manufactured tartans from 1765. It is suggested in the extensive archives of the company that the tartan was prepared for the wedding in 1780 between the William Wilson, the son of the founder, and Janet Paterson. The sett was later introduced as the Wilson family tartan. Variations show blue instead of purple in the broad band and blue instead of azure (light blue) in the narrow stripes.
4 attestations — the source records this cloth was collapsed from (oldest owns this page)
- 01/01/1780 — Wilson (Janet) (register-of-tartans, record)
Generally now called simply 'Wilson' by modern weavers. Named after Janet Wilson, wife of the Bannockburn weaver, William Wilson who manufactured tartans from 1765. It is suggested in the extensive archives of the company that the tartan was prepared for the wedding in 1780 between the William Wilson, the son of the founder, and Janet Paterson. The sett was later introduced as the Wilson family tartan. Variations show blue instead of purple in the broad band and blue instead of azure (light blue) in the narrow stripes. - 1780 — Wilson (Clan) (tartans-authority, record)
Called simply 'Wilson' by modern weavers. This is a simplified 'trade' version of Wilsons' 'Janet Wilson' in which blue iis used to replace the purple and light blue of Wilsons' original. Tom Sinclair scrapbook: "This belongs to the Wilsons of Lilleyfield. Designed by William Wilson for his marriage in 1775. Called Janet Wilson sett." - 1780 — Wilson Clan Tartan (house-of-tartan, record)
- undated — Wilson (weddslist, record)
Dataset — provenance for this record, inherited from the source manifest
- source
- Scottish Register of Tartans
- data captured from
- https://github.com/thetartan/tartan-database/blob/master/data/register-of-tartans/data.csv
- data date
- 1780 (this record)
- licence
- Crown copyright
Capture chain — the hands this data passed through, oldest first; each capture carries its own licence
- Scottish Register of Tartans · Crown copyright
the living register — still published by National Records of Scotland - thetartan/tartan-database 2016-2017 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Levko Kravets's frozen compilation — the capture we vendored, and where its CC licence text came from - this dictionary captured 2026-06-10 · commit 5bf86c7566
each re-capture is a git commit to data/sources
Register references
External register numbers recorded for this tartan.
- Scottish Register of Tartans: 4634
- Scottish Tartans Authority (ITI): 626
- Scottish Tartans World Register: 626
Thread count
DB/45 W4 DB6 G6 DB6 G6 DB6 G37 R6 G6 R6 G6 R6 G6 R6 G39 R27 G6 DB6 R12 W4 R30 W4 R12 DB6 G6 R27 G39 R6 G6 R6 G6 R6 G6 R6 G37 DB6 G6 DB6 G6 DB6 W/4
One full sett is 929 threads.
Palette
| Colour | Shade | OKLCh |
|---|---|---|
| DB | #082077 #082077 | oklch(30.0% 0.149 265.1) |
| DG | #053819 #053819 | oklch(30.0% 0.075 151.3) |
| G | #008B2A #008B2A | oklch(55.4% 0.170 145.9) |
| R | #D60020 #D60020 | oklch(55.2% 0.224 25.5) |
| W | #F7F7F7 #F7F7F7 | oklch(97.6% 0.000 89.9) |
Sample pattern
Nearest tartan variants
The nearest existing variants by ΔTartan distance, with this cloth at the top so the swatches line up against it.
Neighbour map
Every grey dot is one of 13621 variants placed by the first two principal components of the ΔTartan feature space (42% of its variance). Red is this tartan; blue dots are its nearest — click one to open its page.
ID: /variants/s22/db45w4db6g6db6g6db6g37r6g6r6g6r6g6r6g39r27g6db6r12w4r30/