Clan MacThomas

History

MacThomas is a Clan Chattan family that made its home in Glenshee. The clan society and the Clan Chattan Association both trace the name to Thomas, a 15th-century Highlander known in Gaelic as Tomaidh Mòr, or Big Tommy. He is said to come from the Mackintoshes: his grandfather was a son of William, 8th chief of Clan Chattan. So the story goes, the confederation had become too big to manage. Thomas left Badenoch with his kin and followers and crossed the Grampians to Glenshee.

MacThomas was the name the government used, and it appears on the Roll of the Clans in Acts of Parliament of 1587 and 1595. Locally, though, the forms were McComie, McColm or MacComas, from the Gaelic MacThomaidh. The first chiefs had their home at the Thom, facing the Spittal of Glenshee from the eastern side of the Shee Water. Around 1600, the society says, Robert, the 4th chief, was murdered. His brother John moved the seat to Finegand, some three miles further down. Life turned on raising cattle and keeping them from raiders. The society remembers a skirmish of 1606 as the Battle of the Cairnwell, though some accounts tie it to a raid of 1602.

The best-remembered chief is the 7th, John McComie, known as Iain Mòr or McComie Mòr. The folklore of Perthshire and Angus gives him feats of strength that are plainly legend. On firmer ground, the society says he came out with Montrose at Dundee in 1644 and served the royalist side until the defeat at Philiphaugh. After that he put his energy into cattle. In those years the clan pushed into Glen Prosen and Strathardle, and Iain Mòr bought Forter, a barony in Glenisla, from Lord Airlie.

That purchase brought trouble. After the Restoration, Iain Mòr was heavily fined. A lawsuit then handed Airlie the Canlochan Forest, which lay within the Forter lands. Airlie leased it to Robert Farquharson of Broughdearg, Iain Mòr's own cousin. On 28 January 1673 the quarrel came to blows at Drumgley, near Forfar. Broughdearg died there, with two of Iain Mòr's sons. Between the fines, the feud and the legal costs, the family was ruined. Once Iain Mòr was dead, his sons sold the lands.

The clan then scattered, and its names changed with it. Thomsons appeared in the Tay valley to the south. In Angus and Fife the name became Thomas, Thom or Thoms, and in Aberdeenshire to the north it became McCombie. The chiefly line took the name Thoms, did well in Dundee and bought Aberlemno, an estate close to Forfar. Patrick Hunter MacThomas Thoms was Provost of Dundee from 1847 to 1853. His heir, Sheriff George Hunter MacThomas Thoms, died in 1903 and left his fortune to St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, and Aberlemno was lost.

The 20th century brought a revival. The Clan MacThomas Society was formed in 1954. In 1967, according to the society, the Lyon Court recognised Patrick Watt MacThomas as MacThomas of Finegand. His son Andrew succeeded him in 1970. In Andrew's time the clan bought the Cockstane, where it used to gather, and its ties with Glenshee were made new again. COSCA and the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs both list Andrew MacThomas of Finegand as chief today.