MacThomas Tartan

Clan MacThomas

Clan MacThomas descends from Thomas, in Gaelic Tomaidh Mòr, “Great Tommy”, a Gaelic-speaking Highlander of the fifteenth century descended from the Mackintoshes of the Clan Chattan confederation. Tradition holds that he led his kinsmen over the Grampians from Badenoch into Glenshee because Clan Chattan had grown too large to manage; that is the clan’s received account rather than a documented one, and no charter verifies Tomaidh Mòr himself. The firm anchor is statutory: the clan is named in the Roll of the Clans in the Acts of the Scottish Parliament of 1587 and 1595. Clan MacThomas remains a member of the Clan Chattan confederation.

The early chiefs sat at the Thom, on the east bank of the Shee Water opposite the Spittal of Glenshee. Around 1600, after the murder of the 4th chief, the seat moved three miles down the glen to Finegand, from the Gaelic feith nan ceann, the burn of the heads. After the affray at Drumgley in 1673 the clan dispersed and its surnames fragmented into Thomson, Thomas and Thom. Patrick, the 16th chief, became Provost of Dundee in 1847, and Patrick, the 18th, founded the Clan MacThomas Society in 1954. The Lyon Court again officially recognised him as The MacThomas of Finegand in 1967; his successor, the 19th chief, succeeded in 1970.

The MacThomas tartan

The Scottish Register of Tartans holds a MacThomas entry in the Clan/Family category with no designer and no date of origin recorded, under Scottish Tartans Authority reference 407. The clan society describes the sett as blue and green divided by narrower bands of black, with two adjacent lines of magenta crossing the blue squares and two of lilac crossing the green.

A note on honesty: the society offers the tartan in an “Ancient” and a “Modern” version, and is clear that these differ only in dye shade — softer vegetable tones against darker chemical colours. They are colourways of one sett, not two tartans, and the same goes for any Weathered or Muted version. MacThomas does not appear in the Vestiarium Scoticum, and no MacThomas sett is attested before the commercial era; the clan’s documented history begins in 1587, but its tartan does not. Dates and weavers circulated for the sett elsewhere are not corroborated by the register or the society. One trap to avoid: Thompson Black and Thompson Grey Dress are fashion tartans from a commercial mill, not MacThomas setts, despite Thomson being a MacThomas sept name.

Clan facts

References

1. About the clan — Clan MacThomas Society
2. Clan tartan and crest — Clan MacThomas Society
3. Clan MacThomas — The Clan Chattan Association