Anothers tartan

[Phil]

However, I would point out that there is no "Clan Thompson" per se.

There is a clan MacThomas, however.



Wonder if there is a connection?

[David Thorpe]

There is a clan MacThomas, however.
Wonder if there is a connection?

Clan MacThomas is a different clan altogether and from a different area.

[Nathan]

Clan MacThomas is a different clan altogether and from a different area.

But just to complicate matters, as I understand it, there are some Thompsons who are part of Clan MacTavish, some that are part of Clan Campbell (A certain Mr. Thompson is very active in the local Clan Campbell society here), and some that are part of Clan MacThomas.

We have Thompson as a family name, one of my brothers is named for that connection, but we don't know which Thompsons they are...

[David Thorpe]

But just to complicate matters, as I understand it, there are some Thompsons who are part of Clan MacTavish, some that are part of Clan Campbell (A certain Mr. Thompson is very active in the local Clan Campbell society here), and some that are part of Clan MacThomas.

We have Thompson as a family name, one of my brothers is named for that connection, but we don't know which Thompsons they are...

It is complicated indeed. Serious genealogy is required by Thompsons to determine the origin of their particular family's origin. To further complicate matters, the Thompson association claims descent either from Dunardry or the lowland border revier country depending on who is asking.

[MacLowlife]

The Thompson Camel Tartan is registered with the STA as #2421. It is dated circa 1960 and is listed as a fashion, not a clan Tartan. Due to its similarity to the Burberry it is often seen being used as a knock-off for Burberry.

It can be seen everywhere. So would suggest that very few would regard wearing Thompson Camel as infringing on a Clan.

In light of this information and the discussion regarding the Thompsons that has been posted since, I would suggest that the OP is mildly mistaken. I believe we have established clearly that Thompson Camel is not "Anothers Tartan" at all. As such, it is available to anyone who wants to wear it, even those who are strictly observant about clan tartans.

Wear it and say what you will- I know people who could stretch their explanation through dinnertime: You can call it Thompson, you can call it camel, You don't have to call it Ray ...

[ThistleDown]

There is a clan MacThomas, however.



Wonder if there is a connection?

Phil, there are no "Thompsons" among the Clan MacThomas. The clan is descended of a 14C illegitimate son of William 2nd of Mackintosh through Big Adam of Garvamore at the southern tip of Clan Chattan territory. By the latter half of the 15C the family was large enough in numbers to be considered a distinct clan under Thomas, their then patriarch. Like his great- or great-great grandfather, Thomas was a big man and took the name Tomaidh Mor. The MacThomases left Badenoch sometime between 1464 and 1496 and settled beside the River Shee in what is now Perthshire. That's where you found the sign.

MacThomas obviously translates to Thomson and shortened forms Thom and Thoms. No 'p' exists in any Mackintosh, MacThomas or Farquharson documents. The name MacThomaidh, however, is pronounced MacHomy and was often simplified to the phonetic form, MacComie, so among the MacThomas records there are found names like Combe, Combie, McColm, McComas, MacComb and MacComish.

There is no connection between the Clan MacThomas in Glen Shee and Glen Isla, one of the nine tribes of Mackintosh, and the Lowland and English families of Thompson, or the MacTavishes of Argyll other than the fact that they all originated in the name Thomas.

[creagdhubh]

To add to Jock's remarks about the Clan Chattan. Clan Chattan is one of the 'super clans', confederations of smaller entities gathered together over the centuries as a result of marriages or the need for defense through numbers. The difference between Chattan and the others is that the individual clans retained their own identities and were not even encouraged to take the names of those who held the lands on which they lived. Small and primarily landless families with names such as Gow, Tarril, Andrish and Clark were not septs of the larger constituent clans but clans themselves in the older meaning of the word: descended of one ancestor.

Others -- like Shaw, Farquharson, MacRitchie, MacThomas -- were offshoots of Mackintosh lines spreading out from the old lands. They took new patronymics but stayed within the super clan. Some -- Macpherson, Cattanach, Macphail, Macbean, Macdhaibhidh-- probably were left-overs from the centuries older Clan Chattan of Lochaber and who knows where before that. Then there were the incomers, Macgillivray, Macqueen and some Maclean and Macintyre lines settled in the lands from Badenoch to the Moray Firth.

It's a bit ludicrous to think that there was ever a common tartan for all these, even at the height of 19C inventiveness. In fact, it wasn't until the death in 1938 of Alfred Mackintosh, the 28th chief of Mackintosh and 29th of Clan Chattan, that Lord Lyon appropriated to the clan two tartans that had originally been Mackintosh. One of these is now called Clan Chattan and is accepted by all the constituent chiefs.

Excellent information and crucial details presented here, Rex. Well said indeed.

[creagdhubh]

Wear it and say what you will- I know people who could stretch their explanation through dinnertime: You can call it Thompson, you can call it camel, You don't have to call it Ray ...

Hahahaha! Brilliant (beer) commerical from the 1970's.

[Andrews Son]

\ Thanks to advertising ( and Chavs- if it is OK to use that term)

LOL sorry to say i am a chav, got the tracksuits to prove it. Sorry

And, just in case you ARE going to wear it, why not say "My cousins are Thompsons" instead of "My uncle by marriage is a Thompson"?

[QUOTE=MacLowlife;1217100]
I will say that, as i do like the tartan, not because its close to burberry. If anyone asks ill tell them its Thompson.

[Andrews Son]

Nathan, I agree wholeheartedly with your post.
However, I would point out that there is no "Clan Thompson" per se. Thompson is a direct Anglicization of MacTavish, meaning "son of Thomas", and many, but not all Thompsons regard themselves as being of Clan MacTavish. We have many active Thompsons in Clan MacTavish USA.
Several years ago a splinter group broke off and petitioned the Lyon Court for recognition as "Clan Thompson". They were granted recognition as a clan association - a corporate entity, but not as a clan. Their website understandably omits this point. The Clan Thompson Association has no Chief.
This is a huge can of very stinky worms, and I will not discuss it further here. I probably should have limited my post to something like, "The Chief of Clan MacTavish does not consider Thompson Camel an official clan tartan." - and left it at that.

No hijack is intended here. Apologies for what some may consider a trivial sidebar.

I read the Thompson clan is like the Anderson clan, in that people spread across Scotland all took on the name for some reason or another. And are not related, hence why different Clans claim them as there own. If i got this wrong im happy to be corrected.