Clan Tartan Appropriateness

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Referring back to the original post (four plus pages ago):

What do you mean, you are not a Campbell? You are a member of your grandfather's family by marriage are you not? I was always of the impression (having step & adopted, cousins, etc) that if you were related by blood, marriage or love (which would include adoption and remarriage), then you are a member of that extended family. So, if your grandfather could call himself a Campbell, then you too, as a member of his family, can say you are one (at least in part). And there you have my tuppence worth.

Generally it was the accepted custom that the woman married into her husband's clan. When the reverse happened the husband customarily was adopted into her clan by a bond of manrent in which he foreswore allegiance to any chief but the chief of his wife's clan. Their children had the option of taking the Mother's surname, the father's surname, or adopting some other descriptive "surname" (ie: MacBaxter if their father was a baker (baxter).

Because clanship is based on name, some chiefs still issue a "bond of manrent" to those who wish to be regarded as members of their clan, but do not bear one of the recognized clan surnames. Of the several modern bonds that I have seen, although they vary in language, all contain a statement to the effect that the person entering into the bond "owes no allegiance to any other chief, clan, or great house of the realm."