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MACTHOMAS HERALDRY: THE HOUSE OF ABERLEMNO
That the ancient chiefs of the clan were armigerous we can scarcely doubt, since
any Scottish mediaeval landowner or chief was in those days expected to bear arms
more or less as a matter of course. Not only were armorial bearings used in the field
for leading and rallying the clan, but also in a generally illiterate age they were
invaluable for authenticating documents in addition to, or even in lieu of, a hand
written signature.
Unfortunately, no record of any ancient MacThomas bearings has survived. When
the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland was inaugurated in 1672, the
MacThomas chiefly house was already deep in those troubles, which within another
ten years virtually overwhelmed it. Therefore, we need not be surprised that no
arms were recorded during that very unpropitious period. It would be pointless to
speculate on what the ancient chiefly arms might have been. However, it seems
reasonable to assume that they would have incorporated the red lion rampant in a
gold field, borne quarterly by the Mackintosh chiefs as the attributed arms of their
traditional forebears, the MacDuff Earls of Fife. It will, of course, be remembered
that the MacThomas chief's are traditionally derived from the House of Mackintosh.
The last of the ancient de facto MacThomas chiefs was Thomas, fifth son of the
renowned Iain Mor. When he died without male issue about the turn of the
seventeenth Century and the chiefship became dormant, the representation of the
family devolved upon the line of his immediate younger brother Angus. Angus was
Iain Mor's sixth son who is claimed to have married a younger daughter of Sir James
Balfour of Denmyln, Lord Lyon King of Arms in the reign of King Charles I. It was not
until 26th October 1881 that arms were officially recorded in the Public Register in
the name of Angus's twice-great-grandson, Patrick Hunter Thoms, D. L., Provost of
Dundee and first Laird of Aberlemno in the County of Forfar. The family surname of
this branch evolved from MacThomas to Thomas and finally to Thoms.
The arms allowed to Provost Thoms were: Or, a lion rampant Gules, armed and
langued Azure, debruised of a chevron Sable, which is to say: a red lion with blue
claws and tongue, ramping in a gold field with a black chevron superimposed. It has
been suggested that this is the traditional MacDuff coat differenced by the addition
of the black chevron of the Balfours, and indeed this would be highly appropriate for
the line springing from Angus MacThomas and Elizabeth Balfour, of which Provost
Thoms was then head.
Unfortunately the crest granted at the same time, viz. A demi-unicorn Ermine,
armed, crined and unguled Or, supporting a shield also Or, (in other words: an
ermine coloured demi-unicorn, with golden horn, mane and hooves, and holding a
golden shield) was not so appropriate, being clearly based in error upon the almost
identical crest of the totally unrelated Welsh Thomas baronets of Wenvoe. The
motto borne above this crest was Virtutis Praemium (i. e. "the reward of virtue").
It should be understood that in Scottish armorial law any given armorial bearings can
only belong to one person at a time, and descend from father to eldest son' ad
infinitum. All the other, junior, members of the family (or "cadets" as they are
technically called) have no right to arms whatever, unless they obtain from the Lord
Lyon a suitably differenced version of their paternal coat (the process is known as
"matriculation"). Even the eldest sons, when they succeed are, strictly speaking
expected to re-matriculate in the Lyon Court, in order to establish their right by
succession. Therefore, it was under these circumstances that the bearings of
Thoms of Aberlemno were re-matriculated on 13th February 1884 in the name of the
second laird, George Hunter MacThomas Thoms, Sheriff of Orkney, Zetland and
Caithness. On 11th October 1946, Patrick Watt Thoms, Younger of Aberlemno (that
is to say, heir apparent) re-matriculated these same armorial bearings debruised by
the three-pointed green label of an eldest son. (2) Patrick Watt Thoms succeeded
as the fourth laird on 17th May 1958, and resumed the surname of MacThomas on
24th October the same year.
The only cadet matriculation off these arms is that of Harry Duncan Thoms, T. D.,
who matriculated on 10th February 1955. (3) He was given the Thoms of Aberlemno
coat, differenced by a bordure engrailed Gules, that is to say a red scallop-edged
border round the edge of the shield; and a red collar was placed round the neck of
his demi-unicorn crest. He was at the same time allowed the motto: "Never Say
Die." When in 1967 the lairdship of Aberlemno became officially merged in the
chiefship of the clan, the arms of Thoms of Aberlemno became a quartering in the
coat of The MacThomas of Finegand.
R. F. P.
We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to Burke's Peerage Limited for the loan
of the block of the bearings of Thoms of Aberlemno for the illustration on page 8,
originally published in Burke's Landed Gentry, 1952 ed.
1) Although, if the owner of the arms so wishes, he can designate some other
member of his family to succeed him, in which case the eldest son would merely be
treated as a cadet.
2) A narrow horizontal band across the shield near the top, having three square
ended vertical pieces hanging down from it. This is the mark of the heir apparent or
(in Scotland) presumptive to the arms in question.
3) With special remainder to his nephew, Gavin Malcolm MacThomas Thoms who
thus bears his uncle's arms differenced by a 3-pointed label as heir designate of
tailzie.
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