Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1960 (SND Vol. V).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

INDEPENDENT COMPANIES, n.phr. Companies of Highland troops recruited first in the reign of Charles II and reorganised in 1725–30 by General Wade, to keep order in the Highlands, to disarm Jacobites and to suppress brigandage. They were formed in 1739 into the 42nd Highland Regiment (the Black Watch). See Forty-twa s.v. Forty, 4. (1). Hist.Sc. 1731 Caled. Mercury (16 Aug. 1771):
Yesterday the Six Highland Independent Companies were Reviewed by General Wade.Sc. 1822 D. Stewart Sketches I. 243:
The independent companies being stationed in different parts of the country, had no general headquarters, and, although the service was open to all Highlanders, as soldiers, the commandants and officers were taken from what were called the loyal, or Whig clans, the Campbells, Grants, Munros, &c., &c.Sc. 1937 W. C. Mackenzie Highl. Scot. 298:
The men of these Independent Companies wore a uniform of dark tartan, from which circumstance, and the nature of their duties they were called in Gaelic by a name meaning “the Black Watch,” to distinguish them from the red-coated regulars.