Clan Macpherson

Clan Macpherson, in Gaelic Mac a’ Phearsain, son of the parson, takes its name from Muireach Cattanach, a priest of the Celtic church at Kingussie in Badenoch who under Celtic Christian practice could lawfully marry. The clan is a principal constituent of the Clan Chattan confederation, and two confederation episodes involve it: the Battle of Invernahavon in 1370, where a dispute with the Davidsons over precedence caused the Macphersons to withdraw before re-entering the fight, and the judicial combat on the North Inch at Perth in 1396. The clan is nicknamed the Clan of the Three Brothers after the three sons of Ewan Ban Macpherson, whose lines are Cluny, Pitmain and Invereshie. Accounts placing Gille Chattan Mòr as chief of Clan Chattan by 843, or crediting Robert the Bruce with offering Badenoch lands in 1309, are clan tradition.

The chiefly line is Cluny. Duncan Macpherson, 10th chief, lost his claim to the leadership of Clan Chattan to Mackintosh in 1672. Ewen Macpherson of Cluny brought the clan out for the Jacobites in 1745, fought at Clifton Moor, and after Culloden evaded capture in Badenoch for some nine years despite a £1,000 reward, escaping to France in 1755; Cumberland’s forces destroyed the old Cluny Castle. The chiefship has never been dormant. The present chief is James Brodie Macpherson of Cluny, 28th hereditary chief, who succeeded his father Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie in February 2021.

The Macpherson tartan

Macpherson has one of the largest families of genuinely distinct setts of any clan — the Register holds a numbered series alongside Hunting, Dress and cadet patterns. Two are attributed to Wilsons of Bannockburn: Macpherson #5 and Macpherson of Cluny. One, Macpherson Dress (1842), is attributed to the Sobieski Stewarts and therefore comes from the Vestiarium Scoticum, a book denounced as a forgery after Sir Walter Scott doubted the brothers publicly and chemical analysis in 1895 showed the supposed 1721 manuscript had been artificially aged. A group of Dress and dance setts are twentieth-century designs by Hugh MacPherson, an Edinburgh outfitter.

A note on honesty, and a practical warning: three different setts are sold under the name Macpherson Dress, and the Register holds them as separate records. Worth asking which one you are getting. Macpherson Modern, Ancient, Weathered and Muted, by contrast, are dye shades of a single threadcount, not separate tartans.

Clan facts

References

1. Macpherson tartans — The Scottish Register of Tartans
2. The Clan Chief — Clan Macpherson Museum
3. About the Museum — Clan Macpherson Museum