GEORGE DUNLOP (1818 to 1893), WINE AND SPIRIT MERCHANT & THOMAS DUNLOP (1831 to 1893), GRAIN MERCHANT AND SHIPOWNER

ABOUT THIS WEB SITE

This web site began life as a brief biography of the writer's great-grandfather, George Dunlop, and George's cousin, Thomas Dunlop.  It is now a series of biographies of Glasgow and Greenock Dunlops, and kinsfolk overseas, that have been contributed by their descendants (see table of contents).

BACKGROUND TO THE DUNLOP NAME

Dunlop is a family name that is well known in Ayrshire, Scotland.  The name itself is of a small village, and is Gaelic meaning something after the fashion of, fortfied hill by the bend in the stream.  The pre-Roman inhabitants of the area were Brythonic Celts, but they had to fight to hold their lands against the Gaels, and others.  It is believed that it was the Celts who first fortified the hill, and thus bequethed the village its name. The earliest recorded use of the name by a person is by one Dom. Guillielmus De Dunlop, who was witness to a legal document taken out in Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1260.  It was not, however, until the beginning of the fifteenth century that there was a family who styled themselves Dunlop of that Ilk.  There are cadet branches in various corners of the globe who can trace their genealogy in an unbroken line to that family, but the stem of the breed became extinct in 1858 when James Dunlop, Bart., died without leaving issue.

Please note: If George and Thomas Dunlop of this web site, or their forebears, had any connection with the Dunlops of Dunlop, then, as far as this writer is aware, all record of it has been lost in the mists of time.

In fact, the earliest known event in George and Thomas's genealogy (as best this writer can make out) was the marriage of their paternal grandparents, Thomas Dunlop and Jean Whyte (or White).

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