St Kilda Kilts & Scottish Gifts

The Dunlop crest of a right hand holding a dagger, with the motto ‘Merito’ (deservedly). This crest  was recorded in Nisbet’s 1722 System of Heraldry for Dunlop of Househill, who were a cadet branch of Dunlop of Dunlop (‘of that Ilk’), who did not have a crest at that time. The Househill branch would later succeeded as the principal family of the name, hence it now being the chiefly crest.

Nisbet also records at the same time the crest of the cadet branch of Dunlop of Garnkirk. Their crest was a rose with the motto ‘E Spinis’ (meaning ‘out of the thorns’).

Exactly what the dagger is a reference to does not seem to be remembered: the similar crest of Charteris, for example, specifically remembers the murder of John Comyn during the Wars of Independence. 

However, it may just be a reference to the family’s martial prowess, perhaps being raised in triumph. As such the motto ‘deservedly’ would suggest that victory in battle (or against a more general cosmic adversity) was rightly earned.

The Dunlop surname refers to the placename, although Sir George MacKenzie, writing in the 1680s in his Families of Scotland manuscript recorded how the family (mistakenly) believed they ‘come of a Colonel of the Grecians called De Lopes’. This was perhaps a garbled effort to make sense of the Dunlop shield, which featured a double eagle.

MKP 19 September 2023