Extracts from: The Book of Arran
Vol 2, W. M. MacKenzie, Arran Society of Glasgow, Hopkins, Glasgow, 1914
pp. 114, 115, and 127.
“We have already seen one way of their coming as settlers ; another report is that MacAlisters came over to Shisken from their home country in the south side of Loch Tarbert to fill up places vacant by a destructive visit of the plague in 1666. The year preceding is that of the Great Plague of London, but there is no record of the infection having passed to Scotland. But the MacAlisters had been so often a plague to the island that it was fitting such a forerunner should prepare a place for them. Other families credited with occupying these sorrowful vacations are Thomsons and MacMillans, while Bannatynes came from Rothesay. But no doubt there was normally, from time to time, an infusion of Kintyre and Cowal blood in Arran. The ecclesiastical connection between Saddell and Shisken would be one channel. Several families of the name of Thomson are descended from Lachlan MacTavish or Thomson, a shepherd brought over from Skipness by Hector MacAlister (Eachann Og), tenant of Moine-choille and Glaster. Lachlan, after some time, married a relative of his employer's wife, and later on, being desirous of acquiring a farm, got the sympathies of his own and his master's wife enlisted to the end that Eachann Og should solicit this favour for him. During a visit to the castle Eachann Og did so, with the result that some families of MacGregors and MacAlisters were removed from their holdings in Achancar (sic Achincar) to make room for Lachlan MacTavish or Thomson.” [Bold Text supplied] (Achincar for clarity. See following: CLANS OF SHISKINE)
In 1849 there was still living, at Kildonan, Lachlan Thomson, a veteran of the crew of the frigate Shannon, who had been present at her capture of the American Chesapeake on June 1, 1813. (p. 127)
--Notes:
- MacTavishes took and used the name (alias) Thomson, and over a great expanse of time; for many families the alias became their surname.
- The American 38-gun (Frigate) USS Chesapeake, was captured by HMS (Frigate) Shannon, in a single ship action on 1st June 1813. This two ship action remains one of the bloodiest of the war of 1812, and the numbers of casualties aboard both ships remained the worst for any single ship action for those years. Among the USS Chesapeake dead, was her captain, James Lawrence, whose dying words were “Don't give up the ship!” It has been a rallying cry in the U.S. Navy ever since.
Following is still further elaboration pertaining to the MacTavishes, alias Thomsons, from the Isle of Arran.
Extracts from: CLANS OF SHISKINE, PAST AND PRESENT
(Skishkine, the Isle of Arran)
-Extracts from Parts 1 and 2-
Compiled and read by
Mr. Charles Robertson, Burncliff, Shiskine,
to the Natives of Arran in Glasgow, March, 1936
From Part 1, p. 1.- “Mr Chairman and friends:- It gives me the greatest pleasure to be here this evening. I invariably read the reports of your meetings, and they seldom fail to strike a sympathetic note, as each and all of us are intensely interested in all that concerns our native Island. I am especially pleased to have in the chair this evening my friend and kinsman, Duncan Thomson. In fixing the title of my address, I had at the back of my mind the feeling than nothing could interest my audience more than to hear something (to use a Scripture phrase) of the rock from whence most of us were hewn. The subject must have a local setting. I therefore, at the outset, crave the indulgence of those from other parts of the Island. Yet I hope my whole survey will make a general appeal.”
From Part 2, p. 3 – “ THOMSON. The Thomsons came to Arran from Argyllshire, farmed in Auchincar. There are no Thomsons in the district now. One cannot mention clans without associating certain christian names with those clans, for instance, you could not think of Bannatynes without Ebenezers and Ronalds; M'Alisters without Hectors and Matthews; M'Kenzies without Gilberts and Angus; Robertsons, Archibalds and Charles; Sillars without Malcolms; and Curries without Johns and Donalds, and M'Brides without Peters. I was very surprised at finding so many Old Testament names among the Christian names of the clans of Arran. ”
--Note: Duncan Thomson, Part 1, is friend and kinsman to Mr. Robertson, of Shiskine, Arran, a direct descendant of the Thomsons sprung from Lachlan MacTavish who had settled at the farm of Achancar (Achincar) about 1667, as in the Book of Arran. Duncan Thomson, formerly an Arran (MacTavish) Highlander, is noted living in Glasgow, the Lowlands.
The foregoing two entires reveal that for nearly two centuries extended families of the MacTavishes, acquired the alias Thomson. They had occupied lands on the Isle of Arran. Later, none-too-few of them, had removed themselves from the island, and settled in Glasgow or the surrounding area, about the time of the Industrial Revolution. Some eventually settled in America.
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Topic: Achan carr arran (Read 9736 times)