William Drummond Delap or Dunlop

1. Son of Robert Delap and Mary Ann Bogle, brother of James Bogle Delap (q.v.) and Samuel Francis Delap.

2. Married (1) Catherine Foster [d. 1842] 05/09/1805 (2) Mary Sankey, St Mary Bryanston Square 09/07/1845. Four childen with his first wife: Robert Foster, Catherine Letitia Drummond (d. 1827), Mary Anne Sarah (d. 1841) and Henrietta Jemima (d. 1831).

3. Of Queen Anne Street, Westminster, 1807. Described by his wife's uncle, John Foster (Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer) as "a good man of business resident in London where he acted as a merchant and has a West India property of his own to look after", 1811.

4. Resident at Geneva in the early 1820s; in September 1821 his wife wrote home that "The Prince and Princess of Denmark are very gracious to me for being Augustus Foster's relation".

5. Subscribed to Samuel Lewis' 'A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland' 1837, when his address was given as Monasterboice, Collon, Co. Louth. Lewis noted that Delap "has a large estate here and is planting on an extensive scale... a spacious mansion is now being erected". He was a Governor of Drogheda Infirmary by 1842. His first wife Catherine died that same year.

6. Resumed by licence in 1861 his family's original surname of Dunlop. Delap is how the name Dunlop was pronounced in Ayrshire in the late 1500s; his ancestor, Hugh Delap arrived in Sligo in the early 1600s from Ayrshire). "He failed as a merchant in Scotland, left his inheritance to his sisters and came to Sligo. He was one of the first Protestants who lived there. He grew rich and died at Sligo aged 60. Miss Aitken (his wife) came from Scotland to Sligo and was robbed by a gang at Barnkmore (sic. probably Barnesmore). Their children remained unbaptized for years until a Mr Rosecraft came and baptized them. Hugh Dunlop's widow married, secondly, a Mr. Galt, a Scotsman. Three days before the massacre of Protestants in Sligo, Lord Taafe sent the two families of Dunlop and Galt away to Ballymote. Galt and his wife remained for three years at Ballymote and then went to Ballyshannon where she lived to upwards of 100 years old."

7. Reporting his death, the Cork Constitution stated that he "had served with his brother in the Army of Napoleon" (which he didn't). William Drummond Dunlop died at Monasterboice, 08/03/1873.

1. Life dates and parentage are drawn unconfirmed from Leghorn Merchant Networks [http://gw0.geneanet.org/index.php3?b=alivornesi&lang=en;p=william+drummond;n=delap accessed 15/11/2010].

2. The Banner of Ulster 07/10/1842 shows the death of Catherine wife of William Drummond Delap 26/09/1842 at Monasterboice House; Debrett's Peerage (1825) p. 476 shows Catherine Foster's antecedents and marriage. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online] St Mary Bryanston Square, shows William Drummond Delap widower, witnesses include John Nesbitt and James Bogle Delap. Children's names and baptism dates from Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 [database online]. Burke's Landed Gentry (1879) vol. 1 p. 491, 'Dunlop of Monasterboice'.

3. References from Paul Hitchings, 26/04/2017: Kentish Weekly Post, 29/05/1807; Public Record Office of Northern Ireland D207/38/99.

4. Email from Paul Hitchings 24/04/2017 sourced to Foster family correspondence.

5. Ancestry.com, UK and US Directories 1680-1830 [database online]; Email from Paul Hitchings sourced to Drogheda Conservative Journal, 09/07/1842 and Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 05/10/1842.

6. Burke's Landed Gentry (1879) vol. 1 p. 491; email from Sylvia McClintock 05/06/2020 sourced to private family documents.

7. Email from Paul Hitchings sourced to Dublin Evening Mail, 07/02/1861; Cork Constitution, 12/03/1873.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings and Sylvia McClintock for their assistance with compiling this entry.