Family background
Robert Dunlop was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on 28 May 1818. He taught at the Wesleyan Day School in Newtown for over 25 years. He was married to Harriet Hourn (variously spelled as Horn, Horne or Howin), from Kent, England in Newtown in 1844; they had at least 12 children. He died ‘of dropsy’ at his home on Wilson Street Newtown, in the parsonage behind the church, aged 53, on 19 June 1871. His wife died in 1893. There was a partial close of the principal businesses in Newtown on his death due to the respect for his ‘high moral character and uprightness of conduct’.
Occupation & interests
Dunlop was superintendent of the Newtown Wesleyan Methodist Sabbath School until 1861. He was a teacher of the Wesleyan Methodist day school.
Community activity
Dunlop was on the management committee of the Newtown School of Arts. He was instrumental in having the Wesleyan Methodist Church built. He was also an active letter-writer to the newspapers, and a debater of the merits of National Schools.
Local government service
Robert Dunlop was an alderman on Newtown Council in 1864-66, representing O’Connell Ward.
References
Biographical information for this alderman was originally researched by Mark Matheson for the Newtown Project Website.
‘Family Notices’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 January 1851, p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12924276
‘Glebe National School’, Empire, 12 April 1862, p. 5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60508210
‘Central Police Court’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 November 1865, p. 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13122508
‘Launceston’, Evening News, 21 June 1871, p. 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article129968610
‘Family Notices’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 July 1871, p. 1 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13241613
‘Public School Teachers’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 June 1880, p. 7 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13462916 (Mrs Harriette Dunlop employed as sewing teacher at Sussex Street School in 1880?).
‘Family Notices’, 21 October 1893, The Methodist, p. 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155399266
http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/harriett-hourn_48322205