Last modified: 2002-11-02 by rick wyatt
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![[Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania]](../images/u/us-pa-wc.jpg)
by Dov Gutterman, 11 June 2000
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Tradition holds that the flag was made in 1775 at Hanna's Town from a pre-existing British standard. The flag measures seventy-six inches by seventy inches. The field of the flag is red silk. The canton in the upper right hand corner consists of individual pieces of red, white and blue silk and forms two crosses. The red on white represents the English cross
of St. George; the white on blue the Scottish cross of St. Andrew. The retention of the British symbol on the flag indicates that the inhabitants of Westmoreland County, although ready to resist the tyrannical acts of the British Parliament, still considered themselves loyal subjects of King George III.
In the center of the field is a rattlesnake coiled to strike. The snake's thirteen rattles signify the American colonies. The rattlesnake device is painted directly on the silk, as is the lettering and decorative scrollwork. The painting was obviously done by a skilled artisan. The gold banner is lettered in black, "DON"T.TREAD.UPON.ME"; the first two letters of the word UPON have flaked away over the years. Unlike the rattlesnake on other early flags, the snake on the Proctor flag faces right toward the symbol of the British empire. Above the snake is the monogram of John Proctor and the letters, "I.B.W.C.P.", 1st Battalion, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania or Provincials.
The flag was not flown from a pole. The staff was inserted through the sleeve on the canton side of the flag and carried by the color bearer of the battalion.
Samuel Craig, Sr., who with his three sons, John, Alexander and Samuel, Jr. served in the Revolution, was the original color bearer. The Proctor Battalion did not fight in the Revolution as an organization and it is not known if this flag was ever carried in the battle. On Colonel Proctor's death, ca. 1810, the flag was sent to General Alexander Craig, the son of
Samuel Craig, Sr. The flag remained in the Craig family until 1914 when Jane Maria Craig of New Alexandria, Pennsylvania, the great-granddaughter of Samuel Craig, Sr., donated the flag to the State Library at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Later, it was transferred to the William Penn Memorial Museum.
It was designated the official flag of Westmoreland County in 1973, the county's bicentennial year.
Dov Gutterman, 11 June 2000
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