Harris Tweed court case (1961-1964)

• Reference:GB 3002 GD014/4
• Dates of Creation:1898-1963

• Scope and Content

  Material gathered for the court case that took place at the Court of Session in Edinburgh between 1961 and 1964. See description of the case below. The first, and by far the largest, series involves records produced during the court case, whether as evidence (eg. copies of invoices or letters), during the actual process (eg. transcripts of witness examinations), or as a byproduct (eg. lawyers' notes). Most series have subseries, but if they only contain a few unconnected items

  Argyllshire Weavers Ltd. and Others v. A. Macaulay (Tweeds) Ltd., & Others

  This court case was active in Scotland between 1961 and 1964. It began in the Court of Session, and was brought by four mainland producers (of the Independent Harris Tweed Producers Ltd. - IHTP) against various island Harris Tweed producers ('Orb producers'), a Stornoway mill, and the HTA. It was heard by Lord Hunter. The mainland producers wanted the court to make a judgement that IHTP were entitled to call their product 'Harris Tweed', and to stop the Orb producers and the HTA saying that IHTP-produced tweed was not Harris Tweed. The IHTP (Argyllshire Weavers Ltd. and Others), are known as the 'pursuers' in the court documents, while the Orb producers etc. (A. Macaulay (Tweeds) Ltd., & Others) are known as the 'defenders'. The legal representatives involved include: J. Miller Thomson & Co. (for Pursuers), W&J Burness (for Defenders), McKenna & Co. (not directly involved, but acted for the HTA in the parallel English court case, 1960-1965).

  The vast majority of these records had been catalogued and stored at Highland Archives in Inverness up until October 2017, when they were transferred to Tasglann nan Eilean. As such, the reference number given to each record or group of records while they were at Highland Archives can be found in the 'Alt_Ref_No' field. Most of the catalogue text for this subfonds has been taken directly from the cataloguing done at Highland Archives.