Dunlop

This name arises in Scotland around the lands of Dunlop in the district of Cunningham in Ayrshire. The name may be from ‘dun lub’, meaning ‘fort at the bend’. The name may also derive from ‘dunlapach’, meaning ‘muddy hill’. The name is recorded around 1260, when Dominus Willelmus de Dunlop is noted as a witness in a deed concerning the Burgh of Irvine. The name appears also in the 1296 Ragman Roll of those nobles submitting to Edward I of England. Constantyn Dunlop of that Ilk appears to have been summoned to Parliament as a minor baron at the end of the fifteenth century, and the name appears regularly in the charters of other prominent Dumfries and Ayrshire families of that time. The family continued to reside at Dunlop, and James Dunlop of Dunlop commanded a brigade under Wellington during the Peninsular War of 1808–14, obtaining the rank of major general. His eldest son was MP for Ayr and was created a baronet in 1838. This title became extinct in 1858. Another branch of the family were prominent Glasgow shipowners and merchants, and Sir Thomas Dunlop was created a baronet in 1916. He was Lord Provost and Lord Lieutenant of Glasgow from 1914 to 1917, and was decorated by several other countries. The name is, of course, now synonymous with the famous rubber company. In 1771 John Dunlop founded the first newspaper in the USA, The Pennsylvania Packet. He was also the printer of the Declaration of Independence.

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