MacThomas

Thomas, a Gaelic-speaking Highlander known as Tomaidh Mor, from whom the clan takes its name, was a descendent of the Clan Chattan Mackintoshes, his grandfather having been a son of William, eighth chief of the Clan Chattan. Thomas lived in the fifteenth century, at a time when the Clan Chattan Confederation had become large and unmanageable, and he took his kinsmen and followers across the Grampians, from Badenoch to Glenshee, where they settled and flourished, being known as Mccomie, a phonetic form of the Gaelic, as well as Mccolm and Mccomas. To the government in Edinburgh, they were known as MacThomas, and are so described in the roll of the clans in the Acts of Parliament of 1587 and 1595.

The early chiefs ruled from the Thom, on the East Bank of the Shee Water opposite the Spittal of Glenshee, thought to be the site of the tomb of the legendary Diarmid, of the Fingalian saga. In about 1600, when the fourth chief, Robert Mccomie of Thom, was murdered, the chiefship passed to his brother, John Mccomie of Finegand, who lived about three miles down the glen, and Finegand in turn became the seat of the chief. Finegand is the corruption of the Gaelic, ‘feith nan ceann’, meaning ‘burn of the heads’, which is said to be a reference to the fate of some unfortunate tax collectors who were killed and whose severed heads were tossed into the burn. The MacThomases consolidated their power in the glen and became well established at Kerrow and Benzian, and up into Glen Beag. The seventh chief, John Mccomie, more properly known as Iain Mor, has passed into the folklore of Perthshire and Angus as McComie Mor. Tax collectors appear to have been particularly offensive to him, especially those of the Earl of Atholl. The earl enlisted a champion swordsman from Italy, whom he hoped would slay McComie, but the swordsman was himself slain by his intended victim.

The MacThomases supported Charles I, and lain Mor joined Montrose at Dundee in 1644. When Aberdeen fell to royalist forces it was Iain Mor who captured Sir William Forbes of Craigievar, the sheriff of Aberdeen and Covenant cavalry commander. After Montrose’s defeat at Philiphaugh, the chief withdrew his men from the struggle and devoted his energies to his lands and people, extending his influence into Glen Prosen and Strathardle. He purchased the Barony of Forter in Glenisla from the Earl of Airlie. Forter Castle had been burned eleven years earlier and so Iain Mor built his house at Crandart on the bank of the River Isla, a few miles north of the castle ruins. Despite his earlier royalist sympathies, Iain Mor admired the stability of the government brought by the Commonwealth, with the attendant prosperity it brought to Scotland. This soured his relationship with his royalist neighbours, including Lord Airlie.

At the Restoration in 1660, the local royalists took their revenge. MacThomas was fined heavily by Parliament and Lord Airlie took legal action to recover the forest at Canlochan, although it was actually part of the Fortar estates. Airlie’s suit prevailed, but the chief refused to recognise the decree and continued to pasture his cattle on the disputed land. Airlie, in turn, exercised his legal right to lease the land to Farquharson of Broughdearg, a cousin of Iain Mor, which led to a bitter family feud. In an affray on the 28 January 1673 at Drumgley just west of Forfar, at a spot now known as McCombie’s Field, Broughdearg was killed, along with two of Iain Mor’s sons. The feud continued, and crippling law suits and fines ultimately ruined the MacThomases, and after Iain Mor’s death in 1676 his remaining sons were forced to sell their lands.

The MacThomas chief is mentioned in Government proclamations in 1678 and 1681, but the clan was now drifting apart. Some moved south into the Tay valley where their name became Thomson, or to Angus in Fife where they are found as Thomas, Thom or Thoms. The tenth chief, Angus, took the surname Thomas, and later Thoms, and settled in northern Fife where he and his family farmed successfully. They moved to Dundee at the end of the eighteenth century, acquiring the estate of Aberlemno near Forfar.

In Aberdeenshire the name became corrupted to Mccombie, as well as the anglicised forms Thom and Thomson. William Mccombie of Tillifour, descended from the youngest of Iain Mor’s sons, was MP for South Aberdeenshire at the end of the nineteenth century, and is today regarded as the father of Aberdeen-Angus cattle breeding. The fifteenth chief, Patrick Hunter MacThomas Thoms of Aberlemno, was Provost of Dundee from 1847 to 1853. He was succeeded by his son, George, an advocate and a great philanthropist. In 1967 George’s great-nephew was officially recognised by the Lyon Court as MacThomas of Finegand, eighteenth chief.

MacThomas sept names are Combie, McColm, McComas, McComb, McCombie, McComie, McComish, McOmie, MacOmish, Tam, Thom, Thomas*, Thoms, Thomson*

* also found in other clans but those originating from eastern Scotland (Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Fife) are regarded as MacThomases.

The Clan MacThomas has its own website:
www.clanmacthomas.org