Brown Tartan

Clan Broun and the name Brown

Two different things are being described whenever a Brown tartan is sold, and they are not the same. Clan Broun is a specific Lowland family seated at Colstoun House near Haddington in East Lothian, claiming descent from the Norman le Brun. Sir David le Brun witnessed the foundation of Holyrood Abbey in 1128, which is the earliest date we can source for the family, though a witness attestation is not proof that the later chiefly line descends from him. The chief’s own account puts the family at Colstoun from 1125, which does not quite square with 1128 for the same man; both are best read as early twelfth century. The claimed descent from the French royal house, asserted through the three gold lilies in the arms, is heraldic tradition rather than record. The firmest date in the Broun record is 16 February 1686, when Patrick Broun of Colstoun was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia.

Brown, meanwhile, is one of the commonest surnames in Britain, and it arose independently many times over as a plain description of hair or complexion. Most people named Brown have no connection to Broun of Colstoun. The chiefly family takes the inclusive view — that Brown is the anglicised form of Broun — and COSCA lists Brown among the names related to Broun; the two positions sit oddly together and we state both. Brown also appears on the sept lists of Clan MacMillan and Clan Lamont, but those lists are twentieth-century compilations: MacMillan’s own page says Browns in Argyll “are said to be” MacMillans descended from a brown-haired son of a laird of Carradale, and the Lamont list traces back to a clan history of 1935. A Brown may reasonably wear Lamont or MacMillan if the family has a documented Argyll or Cowal connection; the lists do not by themselves prove descent.

The Brown tartan

There is no tartan registered as Broun. We searched the Scottish Register of Tartans for both Broun and Colstoun, and neither returns an exact match on any page of results; COSCA’s Broun page shows an empty tartan placeholder. Clan Broun, despite having a chief recognised by the Lord Lyon, appears to have no registered clan tartan of its own. What is sold as “Clan Broun tartan” is in practice the general Brown name tartan.

A search for Brown returns thirty-four entries, most of which are not Brown family tartans at all. Some are other clans’ setts in a brown colourway — MacKenzie Hunting (Brown), Douglas (Brown), Menzies Brown and White. Some use brown only as a colour word, such as Bannockbane Brown and Cavalier, Brown. Several are double-barrelled personal tartans belonging to named families. One, Browne (Personal), was designed by the American fashion designer Thom Browne and has nothing to do with Scotland. The one general surname entry is Brown (ref 391), recorded with designer “Unknown” and no date.

A note on honesty: the Brown Watch group — Brown Watch, Brown Watch Dress and Brown Watch (single tramlines) — is built on the Government or Black Watch sett and named for the colour brown, not for the family. The register files all three as fashion tartans, and selling them as the Brown clan tartan is simply wrong. “Brown Ancient”, “Brown Weathered” and “Brown Muted” are dye colourways of ref 391 rather than separate tartans. No Brown or Broun sett appears in the Vestiarium Scoticum and none is attributed to Wilsons of Bannockburn; every named source across the Brown entries is a commercial weaver. We cannot document a date for the Brown sett at all, no Brown sett predates the commercial era, and we will not assign one a century it cannot support.

Clan facts

References

1. Brown tartans — The Scottish Register of Tartans
2. Broun search, returning no exact match — The Scottish Register of Tartans
3. Broun — Council of Scottish Clans and Associations
4. Septs and associated names — Clan MacMillan