Clan Home
The Homes are a Border family descended from the Earls of Dunbar, and through them from Cospatric, who died after 1073. William, son of Patrick of Greenlaw, married Ada, a daughter of Patrick I, Earl of Dunbar; she brought the lands of Home in Berwickshire, and the family took its name from them in the early thirteenth century. A charter of William son of Patrick granting the church of Greenlaw to Kelso Abbey survives from between about 1200 and 1232, although it does not yet use the style “of Home”. The Aldan de Home often named as founder cannot be verified in any record and is best set aside.
Home Castle in Berwickshire was the family seat, with Dunglass added by marriage in the fourteenth century and Wedderburn held by the senior cadet branch. Alexander Home was created Lord Home in 1473 and served as Warden of the East March. The family fought at Flodden in 1513, and in October 1516 the 3rd Lord Home and his brother were executed. The earldom of Home followed in March 1605. In October 1963 the 14th Earl disclaimed his peerages in order to become Prime Minister as Sir Alec Douglas-Home, and was created Baron Home of the Hirsel in 1974; the disclaimer affected the peerage and not the chiefship. The present chief is Michael Douglas-Home, 16th Earl of Home, who succeeded in August 2022.
The Home tartan
The Home, or Hume, tartan is a black, red, dark blue and green sett first published in the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842. That book, the work of the brothers who styled themselves Sobieski Stuart, has long been shown to be a forgery, and it is the only authority for this pattern. The register’s own note observes that the sett follows the same scheme as the Grey Douglas.
A second record of the design, taken from cloth of about 1880, shows the same arrangement at a slightly different count with a tan ground in place of the dark blue. It is the same tartan recorded from a different piece rather than a new design. The Home tartan was worn by 40 Regiment Royal Artillery until 2010.
A note on honesty: there is one Home design, not several. Modern, Ancient and Weathered Home are colourways — one threadcount in different shades — and the spellings Home and Hume refer to the same sett. No Home tartan predates the commercial era, and none has any documented connection to the family before 1842.
Clan facts
| Chief | Michael Douglas-Home, 16th Earl of Home, succeeded 2022 |
|---|---|
| Motto | “True to the end” (English; no translation needed) |
| Plant badge | Not recorded. Broom is often quoted, but without a traceable source. |
| Lands | Home and Greenlaw, Berwickshire; Dunglass; the Hirsel at Coldstream |