BEFORE THOMAS DUNLOP AND JEAN WHYTE:EXPLORATORY GENEALOGY: CAN YOU HELP? (Contributed by Robert Jack Dunlop (Robbie), Maggie Le Mesurier and John MacIntyre Dunlop)

According to the author of 'Garnkirk House' (believed to be John Buchanan) in The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry, (Glasgow, 1878) John Dunlop, the third son of James Dunlop of that Ilk, acquired the 'town and lands of Garnkirk', some six miles north-east of Glasgow and in the parish of Cadder, from Robert and John Stirling, their lawful owners, on 10 March 1634. John Dunlop was a merchant, 'a sort of banker, or dealer in money', and a rich man.  The estate remained in the hands of John's lineal descendants until the death of James Dunlop of Garnkirk on 3 August 1769.  James Dunlop, the son of Provost Colin Dunlop of Carmyle, and the deceased's nephew, bought the estate in 1782, and assumed the title of James Dunlop of Garnkirk.  The estate was sold again in 1799 to John M'kenzie, a merchant in Glasgow, and again in 1811 to a Mr Mark Sprot. The Dunlops of Garnkirk had large families and numerous descendants, some of whom have never been traced, and it has long been assumed that our Dunlops descended from one of them. We no longer believe that! On the contrary, it is now our view that the closest we ever got to the Dunlops of Garnkirk was a farm in Frankfield adjoining the Garnkirk estate. Instead, we think that our Dunlops probably had very humble origins, and that they blew into Glasgow from Ayrshire at the start of the industrial revolution (usually taken to be about 1760). At the moment we suspect, with very little supporting evidence it must be said, that the parents of Thomas Dunlop who married Jean Whyte in 1791, hailed from Stewarton or from Irvine. CAN ANYONE HELP US WITH OUR QUEST TO FIND OUR ROOTS?

[Buchanan, John],'Garnkirk House', in
	The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry.  One hundred photgraphs by Annan,
	of well know places in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, with descriptive notices of
	the houses and families.  [Some of the papers contributed by John Buchanan.]: 
	Second Edition, [revised and enlarged by J. G. Smith and J. D. Mitchell].
		John Maclehose
			Glasgow, 1878
	

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