“GEORGE R.—Whereas we have thought fit, that a regiment of foot be forthwith formed under your command, and to consist of ten companies, each to contain one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, three serjeants, three corporals, two drummers, and one hundred effective private men; which said regiment shall be partly formed out of six Independent Companies of Foot in the Highlands of North Britain, three of which are now commanded by captains, and three by captain-lieutenants. Our will and pleasure therefore is, that one serjeant, one corporal, and fifty private men, be forthwith taken out of the three companies commanded by captains, and ten private men from the three commanded by captain-lieutenants, making one hundred and eighty men, who are to be equally distributed into the four companies hereby to be raised; and the three serjeants and three corporals, draughted as aforesaid, to be placed to such of the four companies as you shall judge proper; and the remainder of the non-commissioned officers and private men, wanting to complete them to the above number, to be raised in the Highlands with all possible speed; the men to be natives of that country, and none other to be taken.
This regiment shall commence and take place according to the establishment thereof. And of these our orders and commands, you, and the said three captains, and the three captain-lieutenants commanding at present the six Independent Highland Companies, and all others concerned, are to take notice, and to yield obedience thereunto accordingly.
Given at our Court at St. James’s, this 25th day of October, 1739, and in the 13th year of our reign.
By His Majesty’s Command,
(Signed): Wm. Yonge.
To our Right Trusty and Right Well-
Beloved Cousin, John Earl of
Craufurd and Lindsay.”
PW Reynolds
1909.
The tallest men of the Regiment of that period were formed into a Grenadier Company and wore the Grenadier bearskin. The rest of the uniform as above and the substitution of the blue bonnet for the bearskin was the uniform for the rest of the Regiment.
May, 1740, these ten companies were mustered in a field between Taybridge and Aberfeldy and in the army list of that year were known as “Earl of Crawford’s Regiment of Foot in the Highlands.”[3] There have been several changes of the official name of the Regiment but the “Black Watch” was always the familiar one in the country where it has drawn its recruits and since 1881 has been the official name in the British Army List.[4]