Gillies Tartan

Clan Gillies

Gillies is a devotional name, not a territorial one. Gille Ìosa means servant of Jesus, so Mac Gille Ìosa is son of the servant of Jesus; McLeish and MacLeish come from the same Gaelic, and the Irish Mac Giolla Íosa gives McAleese, with Lees and Leece on the Isle of Man. Black’s Surnames of Scotland records that Gillies displaced the older name Malise. Because the name was a common personal name before it was a surname, it arose independently in several places — in Lothian, in Badenoch, in the West Highlands and Isles, and in Ulster — and there is no single Gillies descent.

The early records, as quoted from Black, run: Gillise witnessing David I’s charter to Holyrood Abbey about 1128; Vhtred son of Gilise holding lands in Lothian about 1160; M. filius Gilise witnessing Malcolm IV’s confirmation charter to Scone in 1164; Gylis son of Angus the shoemaker doing homage at Dull in 1264; Nigel filius Gelyse, a tenant at Dalfubill, in 1376; and John Gyllis renting Newtoun Fermeland in 1521. Two cautions matter here. These men carry Gille Ìosa as a personal name, not as an inherited surname, and the earliest of them are Lothian men, not Highlanders. Black records the name as once numerous in Badenoch and common today in the Hebrides. The clan genealogy that makes Gillies Macpherson of Invereshie one of the three sons of Ewan Ban Macpherson, and the line called Sliochd Gille-Iosa, is tradition rather than record.

There is no chief of Gillies recognised by the Lord Lyon, and Gillies is not listed among the armigerous clans. Two clan societies each claim the name, which is the honest position to state. Clan Macpherson lists Gillies, Gillis, MacGillies, Gillespie and MacLeish among its associated families, with the approval of the chief of Clan Macpherson — the chief’s approval, not a ruling of the Lord Lyon. Clan Donald lists Gillies, Gillis and MacGillies as of the West Highlands and Islands, particularly Morar, divided between Glengarry, Clanranald and Clan Donald South. Septs are not a matter for the Lord Lyon: there is no official list, and what septs a clan has is decided by the clan itself. Retailers additionally name Campbell and Mackintosh; we found no society or primary authority for either, and one retailer, while listing Macpherson, records that many of the name maintain they are not a sept of anyone.

The Gillies tartan

The Scottish Register of Tartans lists six Gillies entries, and the register names no designer for any of them. Gillies #1 and Gillies #2 are both dated 1940 in the register and are genuinely distinct designs — a fourteen-stripe pattern and an eight-stripe pattern respectively; the first is the sett retailed as Gillies by Lochcarron, the second the House of Edgar version, whose threadcount comes from the MacGregor Hastie Collection. Tartandictionary dates the second to 2002 where the register says 1940; the two disagree. Three dress setts follow: Gillies Red Dress, dated 1986, and Gillies Dress Blue and Gillies Dress Green, both dated 2002, with a further dance variant of the blue. We read the reference numbers from the register’s own A to Z listing, but its individual detail pages do not load, so we have not confirmed any number first-hand and print none here.

A note on honesty: the Gillies Modern, Ancient and Dress Ancient cloths sold in shops are colourways, not separate tartans — there are two distinct clan setts and three dress designs behind all of them. No Gillies sett predates the commercial era, and nothing is recorded before 1940: we found no link between any Gillies tartan and Wilsons of Bannockburn, and the name appears nowhere in the Vestiarium Scoticum of the Sobieski Stuarts. The first sett is grouped with MacLellan as the same stripe pattern, though we have not been able to verify that the two are identical.

Clan facts

References

1. Tartans beginning with G — The Scottish Register of Tartans
2. Associated Families — Clan Macpherson Association
3. Are You A MacDonald? — Clan Donald USA
4. Gillies — Tartan Dictionary