From the "Court of the Lord Lyon, H.M. New Register House, Edinburgh, EH1 3YT, Scotland".
"The Chief's coat of arms fulfills within the clan or family the same purposes as the Royal Arms do in a Kingdom. There is no such thing as a "family crest" or "family coat of arms" which anyone can assume, or a whole family can use."
"Armorial Bearings, of which the Crest is a subsidiary part, are
a form of individual heritable property, devolving on one person at a time
by succession from the grantee or confirmee, and thus descend like a Peerage.
They indicate the Chief of the Family or Clan, or the Head of each subsidiary
line or household descending from members who have themselves established
in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland a right to
a subsidiary version of the arms and crest, containing a mark or difference
indicating their position in the Family or Clan. This is not a "new coat
of arms; it is the ancient ancestral arms with a mark of cadency, usefully
showing the cadet's place within the family.
"It is not only illegal, but a social crime and error of the most grave character, to assume and purport to use your Chief's arms without a due and congruent difference. Anyone who does so merely publishes their own ignorance, and lapse into bad manners, and use of such on seal or notepaper will close the doors of all the best families against the presumptuous upstart."
"There is no such thing as a "Clan coat of arms". The arms are those of the Chief and the clansmen have only the privilege of wearing the strap and buckle crested badge to show they are the Chief's clansmen."
"You cannot have a crest without first having a shield of arms, because the crest was a later addition. Misuse of crests arises from misunderstanding of the badge rule under which junior members of the family may wear in specified manner their Chief's crest as badge."
"The Crest of the Chief is worn by all members of the Clan and
of approved Septs and followers of the Clan, within a Strap and Buckle
surrounding the Chief's motto. This is for personal wear only, to
indicate that the wearer is a member of the Clan whose Chief's crest-badge
is being worn. The badge or crest is not depicted on personal or business
stationery, signet rings or plate, because such use would legally import
that the tea-pot etc., was the Chief's property."
"Wearing of Tartan
1. A lady of Scottish family, married to someone not entitled to a Clan, Family, or District Tartan, shall continue to wear her own tartan in skirt etc., but wears her sash over the right shoulder and tied in a bow over the left hip.
Unless her child or children, or one of the children takes their mother's name, these children have no right to wear their mother's tartan at all. They are not members of their mother's clan.
2. Those not entitled to wear a Clan or Family Tartan have no right to wear any Royal Tartan, and particularly not the so called "Royal Stuart Tartan", which is the tartan of the Royal House, and accorded the pipers of the Sovereign's Royal Regiments.
Those of Scottish descent with no Clan, Family or District Tartan
wear one of the following:-
(b) Caledonian Tartan;
(c) Jacobite Tartan - for those with ancestors of Jacobite proclivities;
(d) Black Watch or "Government" Tartan in its exact regimental form, or one of the modified forms for those of Hanoverian or Whig proclivities.
