Date Published:
July 2007

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

William Dunlop

Dunlop, William (1792-1848), author, was born at Greenock, Scotland, in 1792. He became an assistant surgeon in the 89th Regiment, and served in Canada during the War of 1812. He then accompanied his regiment to India, where his prowess in hunting tigers won for him the sobriquet of "Tiger" Dunlop. An attack of fever compelled his return to England on half-pay, and he there employed himself in literary journalism. He came to Canada in 1826 with John Galt, and settled in the Huron district, in the service of the Canada Company. In 1841 he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly of Canada for Huron as an independent; and he continued to sit in the Assembly until 1846. He died at Lachine, near Montreal, on June 28, 1848. He was not married; and his will, which has been several times reprinted, is one of the curiosities of early Canadian literature. Both before and after coming to Canada, he was a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine; and his Autobiography of a rat (vol. xxiv) is typical of the character of his work. In Canada, he was the founder of the Toronto Literary Club in 1836; and he contributed to the Canadian Literary Magazine (Toronto) and the Literary Garland (Montreal). Under the nom-de-plume of "A Backwoodsman" he published Statistical sketches of Upper Canada (London, 1833). See A. H. U. Colquhoun (ed.), Recollections of the War of 1812, by Dr. Wm. Dunlop (Toronto, 1908), with biographical sketch, and F. S. L. Ford, William Dunlop (pamphlet, Toronto, 1931).

Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 249-250.