Anothers tartan

[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.