MacThomas Tartan
Shortly before World War II an old lady called Mrs. Duncan gave to our late Chief an ancient and faded fragment of tartan cloth which, although she could no longer remember under what circumstances it had come into her possession, she stated quite categorically to be his family tartan. This fragment was sent in due course to a firm of weavers in Selkirk, D. C. Dalgleish & Co., Ltd., and from it was made up the sett now known as MacThomas. By a stroke of gross misfortune this priceless original fragment became mislaid. Therefore, we cannot now form any opinion as to how faithfully the old design was reproduced. However, it is presumed that the copy was a fair one, although we cannot completely exclude the possibility that the colours of the two double over-stripes have become somewhat altered in reproduction. It would not surprise me if the double over-stripes had originally been of the same colour, probably red, and it is interesting to note that Gammell of Forter now uses precisely such a sett in order to distinguish it from the present MacThomas sett. Innes of Learney states the irregularity of dyes and tendency to fade irregularly sometimes explains the apparent differences in tartans of the same clan.
Mrs. Duncan was born Emily Henrietta Walker on 11th August 1849. She was the youngest of the four children of Crawford Walker, a Dundee merchant, and his wife Isabella Thoms. This Isabella Thoms was youngest daughter of Baillie George Thomas or Thoms, and thus sister to Provost Patrick Hunter Thoms, 1st Laird of Aberlemno, who was some fifteen years her senior. Emily Henrietta Walker lost her mother when she was just over one year old, and her father a little over two years later, when she was almost three and-a-half, so that she can hardly have had any recollection of her parents in later life. She was brought up from infancy in the home of Provost Thoms, her uncle, and thus lived as one of his own family until her marriage at the age of 27 to Dr. Andrew James Duncan, on 27th September 1876. It seems not unreasonable to assume that the fragment of tartan to which we allude had come into her possession before this date, while she was still a member of the Thoms household. In my opinion the MacThomas sett was almost certainly designed for or by Sheriff George Hunter MacThomas Thoms of Aberlemno before 1876. Perhaps the reason for it's lapse into oblivion until Mrs. Duncan gave a piece to the late Patrick MacThomas of Finnegand was probably that the Sheriff's more conventional relations tended to regard him as something of an eccentric and went out of their way not to publicize his newly devised tartan for fear of being made to appear ridiculous. Thus, it can hardly be less than a century old.
This tartan, when it first came into being, should obviously have been considered a Family tartan rather than a Clan tartan, since no organized MacThomas Clan existed at that time. Therefore, the House of Aberlemno in which, it is now officially recognized that the chiefship of the clan nevertheless existed must accordingly have used the tartan more or less exclusively. From being the tartan of the chiefly house, it has subsequently become accepted as the tartan of the clan in general, in which evolution it has merely repeated what has happened in respect of a very considerable number of other clans, many of what are now called clan tartans can hardly have been in general use amongst members of the clans at an early date. Although it must be accepted that the MacThomas tartan (like so many others) most probably evolved during the Victorian era, it nevertheless seems possible that it may have been consciously derived from the Atholl district tartan, which the Glenshee clan would, in fact, have been most likely to have worn.
It may surprise some readers to learn that the clan tartans of today are not by any means identical with those worn by the Highlanders of old. Indeed it has been authoritatively stated that it is very rare to find any clan or family wearing before 1822 the tartan sett attributed to it after that date. Even where a tartan is known to have existed earlier, it would be a rash person who would allot it exclusively to any one particular clan. There is indeed a considerable school of thought that holds that such uniformity as there was in the clan arose from the fact that it's members all inhabited the same district. Members of other clans in the same district would have likewise worn the same tartan. It is certainly noticeable that many clans in Moray have tartans in which a certain common theme is discernible. While the Mackintoshes and their satellites account for several of these, there are others such as the Grants, Frasers, Chisolms, and possibly even Macdonnells of Kepoch (traditional enemies of the Mackintoshes) whose tartan belongs to the same group. It is equally noticeable that the Farquharsons, having removed into Mar, wear a tartan very similar to those of their principal neighbours, giving absolutely no hint of their Mackintosh origins. Additionally, it seems at least likely that the MacThomases, who probably left the Mackintosh zone of influence rather earlier than 1500, would have adopted a tartan in their new territory.
Glenshee is situated in the easternmost part of the district of Atholl and was part of the lordship of the Earls of Atholl which, had succeeded to the Earldom in 1629. The tartan known as Murray of Atholl is generally is considered to be an Atholl district tartan rather than a Murray tartan, and is known to have existed as early as 1745, when the Black Watch, then commanded by Lord John Murray, wore it for a number of years. However, D.C. Stewart states that in one of the early collections there is a version of this tartan that is the simplest and possibly the oldest Murray design. This simple tartan was composed of equal bands of blue and green, divided by a band of black approximately half as wide. In the middle of the green bands was a narrow red over-stripe, while in the middle of the blue was a double narrow black over-stripe. The only way in which the MacThomas sett differs from this venerable Murray tartan (apart from its precise proportions) is that there is a double over-stripe over both green and blue bands. In the MacThomas tartan as we now know it this double over-stripe is purple over the green and crimson over the blue, but it is just possible that the colours may originally have been identical, and that the present use of two different colours may be due to the uneven fading of the original red (or crimson) in the ancient fragment mentioned at the beginning of this paper.
Certainly it seems most unlikely that the 17th century Glenshee clansmen would have worn the Mackintosh tartan of the present day. D. C. Stewart remarks that the use of specific tartans as cognizance's of clans and families developed during the 17th and 18th centuries, but was never built up into a rigid system. No formal record of the designs, such as we have in heraldry, was kept. That is to say, clans only started developing their own distinctive tartans more than a century after the MacThomases had left the clan Chattan country. Still less would the MacThomases have worn Hunting Macintosh (which a certain Edinburgh outfitter confidently informed the writer a few years ago was the correct tartan for them), as this sett was only invented during the 1920's. It is for all that a genuine tartan, although particularly badly designed for a hunting tartan as it has too much red in it, and was registered by the Mackintosh as such in the Lyon Court in 1951. This is further proof, if any were needed, that the authenticity of a tartan is not to be measured by it's antiquity, but by it's acceptance by the Chief as being the tartan of his clan. However, there does appear to be some evidence to show that something very like the present day Clan Chattan sett was sometimes worn by both Farquharsons and MacThomases about the end of the following century, before they had evolved distinct tartans of their own. Additionally, Mr. Robert Shand Thoms, of Edinburgh, has in his possession seven letters written by one, Alexander Thoms, of Dundee, to the well known tartan manufacturers, Messrs. Wilson of Bannockburn between 1795 and 1799, ordering what, from the fragment attached to one of them, is clearly a Clan Chattan variant.
Unfortunately, Clan Chattan is one of the gaudiest of setts, and would have been totally useless on occasions when the wearer wished to remain inconspicuous. Therefore, it is not impossible that the present MacThomas tartan was first designed to meet the need for a hunting sett, and this view receives some corroboration from the fact that one of the specimens in the Inverness Museum Collection is labelled a hunting tartan. However, as I understand there to be one specimen in new colours and another in ancient colours, and that it is the former which is labelled a hunting tartan, it is possible that this was done in ignorance of the fact that the new colours and ancient colours are merely different shades of the same sett. The former being darker than the latter but the pattern being precisely the same (i.e. there is only one MacThomas clan tartan although, like all other tartans, it may be made in two different shades). In fact, only those clans whose tartans were largely red or yellow required hunting tartans, which were normally green/blue. Those clan tartans that were already green/blue (as in our case) did not require any other for hunting.
Mrs. Duncan was born Emily Henrietta Walker on 11th August 1849. She was the youngest of the four children of Crawford Walker, a Dundee merchant, and his wife Isabella Thoms. This Isabella Thoms was youngest daughter of Baillie George Thomas or Thoms, and thus sister to Provost Patrick Hunter Thoms, 1st Laird of Aberlemno, who was some fifteen years her senior. Emily Henrietta Walker lost her mother when she was just over one year old, and her father a little over two years later, when she was almost three and-a-half, so that she can hardly have had any recollection of her parents in later life. She was brought up from infancy in the home of Provost Thoms, her uncle, and thus lived as one of his own family until her marriage at the age of 27 to Dr. Andrew James Duncan, on 27th September 1876. It seems not unreasonable to assume that the fragment of tartan to which we allude had come into her possession before this date, while she was still a member of the Thoms household. In my opinion the MacThomas sett was almost certainly designed for or by Sheriff George Hunter MacThomas Thoms of Aberlemno before 1876. Perhaps the reason for it's lapse into oblivion until Mrs. Duncan gave a piece to the late Patrick MacThomas of Finnegand was probably that the Sheriff's more conventional relations tended to regard him as something of an eccentric and went out of their way not to publicize his newly devised tartan for fear of being made to appear ridiculous. Thus, it can hardly be less than a century old.
This tartan, when it first came into being, should obviously have been considered a Family tartan rather than a Clan tartan, since no organized MacThomas Clan existed at that time. Therefore, the House of Aberlemno in which, it is now officially recognized that the chiefship of the clan nevertheless existed must accordingly have used the tartan more or less exclusively. From being the tartan of the chiefly house, it has subsequently become accepted as the tartan of the clan in general, in which evolution it has merely repeated what has happened in respect of a very considerable number of other clans, many of what are now called clan tartans can hardly have been in general use amongst members of the clans at an early date. Although it must be accepted that the MacThomas tartan (like so many others) most probably evolved during the Victorian era, it nevertheless seems possible that it may have been consciously derived from the Atholl district tartan, which the Glenshee clan would, in fact, have been most likely to have worn.
It may surprise some readers to learn that the clan tartans of today are not by any means identical with those worn by the Highlanders of old. Indeed it has been authoritatively stated that it is very rare to find any clan or family wearing before 1822 the tartan sett attributed to it after that date. Even where a tartan is known to have existed earlier, it would be a rash person who would allot it exclusively to any one particular clan. There is indeed a considerable school of thought that holds that such uniformity as there was in the clan arose from the fact that it's members all inhabited the same district. Members of other clans in the same district would have likewise worn the same tartan. It is certainly noticeable that many clans in Moray have tartans in which a certain common theme is discernible. While the Mackintoshes and their satellites account for several of these, there are others such as the Grants, Frasers, Chisolms, and possibly even Macdonnells of Kepoch (traditional enemies of the Mackintoshes) whose tartan belongs to the same group. It is equally noticeable that the Farquharsons, having removed into Mar, wear a tartan very similar to those of their principal neighbours, giving absolutely no hint of their Mackintosh origins. Additionally, it seems at least likely that the MacThomases, who probably left the Mackintosh zone of influence rather earlier than 1500, would have adopted a tartan in their new territory.
Glenshee is situated in the easternmost part of the district of Atholl and was part of the lordship of the Earls of Atholl which, had succeeded to the Earldom in 1629. The tartan known as Murray of Atholl is generally is considered to be an Atholl district tartan rather than a Murray tartan, and is known to have existed as early as 1745, when the Black Watch, then commanded by Lord John Murray, wore it for a number of years. However, D.C. Stewart states that in one of the early collections there is a version of this tartan that is the simplest and possibly the oldest Murray design. This simple tartan was composed of equal bands of blue and green, divided by a band of black approximately half as wide. In the middle of the green bands was a narrow red over-stripe, while in the middle of the blue was a double narrow black over-stripe. The only way in which the MacThomas sett differs from this venerable Murray tartan (apart from its precise proportions) is that there is a double over-stripe over both green and blue bands. In the MacThomas tartan as we now know it this double over-stripe is purple over the green and crimson over the blue, but it is just possible that the colours may originally have been identical, and that the present use of two different colours may be due to the uneven fading of the original red (or crimson) in the ancient fragment mentioned at the beginning of this paper.
Certainly it seems most unlikely that the 17th century Glenshee clansmen would have worn the Mackintosh tartan of the present day. D. C. Stewart remarks that the use of specific tartans as cognizance's of clans and families developed during the 17th and 18th centuries, but was never built up into a rigid system. No formal record of the designs, such as we have in heraldry, was kept. That is to say, clans only started developing their own distinctive tartans more than a century after the MacThomases had left the clan Chattan country. Still less would the MacThomases have worn Hunting Macintosh (which a certain Edinburgh outfitter confidently informed the writer a few years ago was the correct tartan for them), as this sett was only invented during the 1920's. It is for all that a genuine tartan, although particularly badly designed for a hunting tartan as it has too much red in it, and was registered by the Mackintosh as such in the Lyon Court in 1951. This is further proof, if any were needed, that the authenticity of a tartan is not to be measured by it's antiquity, but by it's acceptance by the Chief as being the tartan of his clan. However, there does appear to be some evidence to show that something very like the present day Clan Chattan sett was sometimes worn by both Farquharsons and MacThomases about the end of the following century, before they had evolved distinct tartans of their own. Additionally, Mr. Robert Shand Thoms, of Edinburgh, has in his possession seven letters written by one, Alexander Thoms, of Dundee, to the well known tartan manufacturers, Messrs. Wilson of Bannockburn between 1795 and 1799, ordering what, from the fragment attached to one of them, is clearly a Clan Chattan variant.
Unfortunately, Clan Chattan is one of the gaudiest of setts, and would have been totally useless on occasions when the wearer wished to remain inconspicuous. Therefore, it is not impossible that the present MacThomas tartan was first designed to meet the need for a hunting sett, and this view receives some corroboration from the fact that one of the specimens in the Inverness Museum Collection is labelled a hunting tartan. However, as I understand there to be one specimen in new colours and another in ancient colours, and that it is the former which is labelled a hunting tartan, it is possible that this was done in ignorance of the fact that the new colours and ancient colours are merely different shades of the same sett. The former being darker than the latter but the pattern being precisely the same (i.e. there is only one MacThomas clan tartan although, like all other tartans, it may be made in two different shades). In fact, only those clans whose tartans were largely red or yellow required hunting tartans, which were normally green/blue. Those clan tartans that were already green/blue (as in our case) did not require any other for hunting.
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