When people of Scottish decent first begin learning about their family history, one of the first questions that they ask is, "Which clan do I belong to?" Unfortunately for Mavers, the answer is not so clear.
Depending on what source you look at, Maver is listed as a sept of either the Clan Gordon or the Clan Innes. I have done quite a bit of searching to find out how the authors of these different sources came to the conclusion that Maver is a sept of one clan or another and I wasn't able to find any clarification.
Next, I checked the various publications put out by both the Clan Innes and the Clan Gordon and I wasn't able to find any additional information there either. Both of these clans held land in the north eastern area of Scotland that the Mavers come from.
As I was doing some research on the heraldry of the Maver family, I came across the official position of the Lord Lyon King of Arms on the matter or clan affiliation. The Lord Lyon is the legal authority in Scotland for things like heraldry, chieftainship and clan affiliation. The web site for the Lord Lyon states the following:
"Who is a member of a clan?
Every person who has the same surname as the chief is deemed to be a member of the clan. Equally a person who offers allegiance to the chief is recognized as a member of the clan unless the chief decides that he will not accept that person's allegiance.
There is no official list of recognized septs. This is a matter for each chief to determine. But where a particular sept has traditionally been associated with a particular clan it would not be appropriate for that name to be treated by another clan chief as one of its septs. " source
This means that because Maver is a recognized sept of both the Clan Gordon and the Clan Innes, you may decide to owe your allegiance to either clan and thus wear that clan's tartan and crest badge. However, you can only offer you allegiance to one clan, you can not be both a member of the Clan Innes and the Clan Gordon.
I plan on writing a letter to both the Clan Innes and the Clan Gordon to see what their official position is on accepting Mavers into their clans.
Sources:
Clan Innes: http://www.clan-innes.org/
House of Gordon: http://www.houseofgordon.com/
Lord Lyon's Court: http://www.lyon-court.com/