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D - David Dale
Stewarton's most famous son was probably David Dale, the founder of New Lanark.
It is generally accepted that his family came from Stacklawhill farm outside the town, and his parents, Annie Blackwood and William Dale are buried in St Columba's Kirkyard.
The mystery is - where exactly was he born?
According to local tales he was born on the site of The Granary in Rigg Street, but the family never owned this property. William did however own a yard between the 'Granary' and the Cross. This yard passed to David, and in turn to his daughters, so it was in the Dale family well into the 19th. century.
Portrait of David Dale
New Lanark Mills
According to the Title Deeds of The Granary, a Dispositon of May 30th., 1790, by John Brownlee to James McGowan states that -'the yard formerly posest by William Dale, now belonging to David Dale, merchant in Glasgow, lies to the south (this would put the Dale's yard around where the chip shop is to-day).
In 1807 another disposition calls it 'the yard now belonging to the heirs of the late David Dale, merchant in Glasgow...(i.e. his daughters).'
Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that he was born there - he could have been born at the Dale family farm, (Stacklawhill) or at his mother's family home. What we do know is that he was baptised in the Parish Church on January 6th 1739.
He moved to Paisley, to learn to be a weaver, then became an intinerant 'packman' travelling from farm to farm buying yarn or cloth. Later he opened a shop in Glasgow High Street near Glasgow Cross, where he became the first agent of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
As well as having shares in mills in Blantyre, Catrine, and Spinningdale (Sutherland), etc., he also lent thousands of pounds to help build Stanley Mills in Perthshire which have recently been restored by Historic Scotland. He was also a founder member of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, as well as being a Baillie in the city, donated money for the building of the Anderson Institute (now Strathclyde University)and built a large house in Charlotte Street.
He was also a deeply religious man, became a lay preacher in the city and sent money to the poor people of Stewarton in times of hardship.
He eventually died in Charlotte Street in 1806 and was buried in the Ramshorn Kirkyard in Ingram Street in the Merchant City, but he had no sons to whom he could leave his fortune, only daughters.
Charlotte Street residence
D – Dunlop ( Frances Ann) 1730 – 1815
Francis Anna Dunlop of Dunlop House was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Wallace whose family claimed lineage to Sir William Wallace the great Scottish patriot. She married John Hope he being 23 years older than her and lived happily together producing seven sons and six daughters. On the Demise of her mother, she inherited the estates of Loch Ryan but when her father died in 1774 the Craigie Estate was left to her son Thomas, unfortunately he was unable to manage the estate and Craigie was sold in 1785. This was the source of a great distress to her. Life was to deal her a second blow when in June 1785 her husband died and such was her grief that she lapped into Deep depression. She said that my only refuge will inevitably be the Madhouse or the Grave.
At this point that Miss Betty Mc Adam of Craigengillan near Dalmellington gave that a copy of the “Cotters Saturday Night”. She was greatly taken by the verse relating to her ancestor. This was the start of an enduring friendship with Robert Burns in which he saw her as his mentor, friend and confident. In 1789 Burns named his new son Francis Wallace after his great friend, she in turned treated him like a son, worried for him and in particular for his health.
She criticised his wrong-doings, praised him, and was always there for him in his many times of trouble.
Her family were married in two French Aristocracy with two daughters married to French Royalists and four sons in the Army it was clear to most where her sympathies lay all except Burns who greatly offended her by writing of his support for the French Revolution.
This action caused a riff between them and although he continued to write to her, on many occasions she never replied.
At the end of his life he tried once more to prevail upon her to forgive him and eventually she relented. It was said by Jesse Lewars that her letter to him was one of the last things he read on his deathbed.
She outlived the Poet by 19 years.
The relationship between the Dunlop family and the Burns family did not stop with Robert's death. Agnes, Mrs Dunlop’s daughter who was married to a French Nobleman became one of Jean Armour's closest friends. Jean gave her the original burial plot in St.Michael’s in Dumfries after the Bard had been re-interred in the new Mausoleum When she died she was buried in a plot where the Bard first lay.
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