Flags for Farquharson of Monaltrie's Regiment

"There were diverse other [ensigns] made for the barons."

Spalding on Huntly's 1644 order of flags

Below are the flags I used for Farqharson of Monaltrie's Regiment. They were made in photoshop and can be printed for use in your own armies. They can be used as is, but I re-paint over the printed design as I prefer the hand-painted look. The end-product can be seen in the photos at the bottom of this post.

The white sheet above is a Colonel's colour with the Farquharson coat of arms in the centre. There is no surviving description of either Monaltrie's or Inverey's colours, so this design is purely speculative. The Farquharson arms are quartered with the 1st and 4th quarters containing a yellow field with a red rampant lion, and the 2nd and 3rd quarters containing a white field with a fir tree on a small mound. In each white field, in the top left corner above the tree is a red hand holding a dagger. 

The fir tree tree on a mound is for Farquar Shaw, from whom the Farquarsons claim descent, and it is thought to represent the forest of Rothimurcus, ancestral home of the MacKintosh Shaws. The lion rampant represents the Farquharson lineage through the chiefs of MacKintosh, back to the Earls of MacDuff. These heraldic elements are common in the families of Upper Deeside and even though we don't know the colours of this regiment, this crest looks great and feels right.

The yellow sheet is a speculative company colour based on a description of a set of colours ordered by Huntly in early 1644. The text and device is described by Spalding but the field colour is speculative (yellow seems likely for a rampant lion).

"Upon Monday the 15th of April he [Huntley] returned about six hours at even to Aberdeen he caused make some ensigns where upon ilk side was drawn a red rampant lion having a crown of gold above his head a 'CR' for Charles Rex having the motto 'For God the king and against all traitors' and beneath 'God save the king'. There were diverse others made for the barons. The marquis and his followers wore a black taffeta about their craig whilk was a sign to fight to the death but it proved otherwise"

An excerpt from "THE HISTORY OF THE TROUBLES AND MEMORABLE TRANSACTIONS IN SCOTLAND DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES I" By JOHN SPALDING, COMMISSARY CLERK ABERDEEN

There is one curious line in this quote; "There were diverse other made for the barons". Spalding could be saying here that a range of different flags were made for "the barons" (which I assume refers to all the nobles that fought under Huntly) . However I have interpreted this to mean that a number of similar sheets were provided to all Gordon regiments of 1644. This would include the Strathbogie Regt and Monaltrie's Regt, which later split into Inverey's Regt and Monymore's Regt in early 1645.

Apologies for once again repeating the info on the yellow sheet that is posted in several places on this blog, but I wanted to include all the relevant flag information in this post too.

Finally here are a couple of photos of the flags fully painted and on the models. More photos and information about this unit can be found by following this link.