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THE CLAN AND ITS SEPTS: McCOLM
(by Roger F. Pye)
If we are to take the septs in the order in which they branched off from the main
stem of the clan, then without a doubt we must begin with McColm. This family has
for at least the better part of five centuries been concentrated in Galloway, in the
extreme south West corner of Scotland, and indeed there must remain an element of
doubt as to whether they are derived from Clan MacThomas at all. There exists a
tradition that they are so however, and since the positive truth of the matter will
now probably never be known, it is our intention to presume that the McColms are in
fact a sept of our clan. Certainly the name is a phonetic form of the Gaelic
MacThom (i. e. <.son of Tom>) which, as we have mentioned elsewhere, was
pronounced . There is nothing intrinsically impossible about the Highland derivation
of the McColms; for there are other families in Galloway with similar traditions. The
McKies in Galloway, for instance claim descent from the Mackays, whose territory
was in Sutherland, at the extreme opposite end of Scotland, and the McDowalls in
Galloway have a tradition of derivation from the MacDougalls, on the Firth of Lorne.
The key to such transplantations is of course the sea, for whereas the journey
overland from the Highlands down to Galloway would in those early days have been
so arduous and fraught with difficulties as to daunt the most adventurous traveler,
the galleys of the clans of the Western Highlands and Isles ranged freely along the
whole of the rugged western seaboard of Scotland, from Cape Wrath to the Mull of
Galloway. As early as 1479 we find one John Makcom holding a tenement in the
parish of Wigtown (1), in the county of same name.
If we are to accept the MacThomas origin of the McColms, we must conclude that
about the same time that Tomaidh Mór left Garvamore and led his clan
Southeastward to their new home in Glenshee, some member of his family made his
way in the opposite direction, towards what is now Fort William, some thirty miles to
the South-west of Garvamore, and there took to the sea, eventually settling in
Galloway (2). It would of course only have required one such fifteenth century
migrant to account for all the McColms of the South-west and their offshoots, whom
it will be useful to classify collectively by the name of Clan Thomas South (3). In
early times the spelling of the name was exceedingly variable, and Dr. Black (4)
mentions the following examples; all of them in the vicinity of Galloway: Gilchrist
Makcome at Cassillis (Ayrshire) in 1526, Roger M'Com at Netherglen ( Kirkcudbright )
in 1679; Robert McKome at Carsfern (Kirkcudbright ) in 1684, and in the same year
further individuals in Wigtownshire and Minnigaff (Kirkcudbright ) using the spellings
McColm, McCome and McKcom. Besides these examples of Black's I have found
Bessie and Jean M'Comb referred to in relation to the lands of Kildonan, in
Wigtownshire, in 1634 and 1636 respectively (5). It is suggestive that the early
chiefs of Clan MacThomas in Glenshee (or Clan Thomas North, as we may term it)
themselves seem to have used the patronymic McColme, as we may infer from the
fourth chief, Robert McColme of the Thom, but after the latter s death this
patronymic appears to have been discontinued among the Glenshee tribe in favour
of that of McComie, and it seems doubtful whether it has survived except among
the McColms of Galloway.
Although, as has been demonstrated, the early spelling was very variable, it has
become fixed in Scotland for some time as McColm. By the mid-sixteenth century
some of this family had crossed the narrow straits between Galloway and the
North-east coast of Ireland, where the name has become standardized as McComb
(with which sept we shall deal in a future issue), while others seem to have crossed
to Kintyre by the end of the seventeenth century (6). In spite of the facilities
afforded by modern forms of transport for the dispersal of families, the regional
distribution of the McColms in Scotland has remained remarkably constant right
down to the present, and a comparatively recent consultation of the telephone
directories for all Scotland revealed that of a total of 33 subscribers surnamed
McColm, no less than 29 dwelt in the South West (18 in Wigtownshire, 1 in Ayrshire
and 10 in the Glasgow area), while in the rest of Scotland there were only 4 (1 in
Edinburgh, 1 in Fife, 1 in Banff and 1 in Inverness).
R.F.P.
1) P. H. M'Kerlie, History of the lands and Their Owners in Galloway, 1906, Vol. II,
p.161
2) See map issue 1
3) In the same way as the Macdonalds of Islay and Kintyre, and McDonnells of
Antrim, were known as Clan Donald South..
4) Surnames of Scotland, 1946.
5) P. H. M'Kerlie, op. cit. Vol. I, p. 312.
6) Mr. Colin Campbell, the well known armorist, of Belmont, Massachusetts, kindly
informed me that he had found a couple of references to M'Combs or M'Comys at
Campbelltown, in 1680, and went on to explain that < There were numerous families
brought into Kintyre from Ayrshire and the Lowlands after the Argylls acquired the
peninsula early in the 17th century-a systematic , and this may explain the
presence of McCombs >.
7) These last two may possibly belong to a different sept, long in the neighborhood
of Inverness, of which Black (op. cit.) mentions Angus McThome, in Petty, in 1502.
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