Edward Dwelly - Biography

Biography

Born in Southern England near Arundel, he became interested in Scottish Gaelic, after being stationed in Scotland with the army and working with the Ordnance Survey. He began collecting words when he was 17 in the late 19th century. He was also a keen bagpiper.

He released the first part of his dictionary under the name of "Eoghann MacDhòmhnaill" (Ewen MacDonald) because of fears that his work would not be so well accepted if he used an obviously non-Gaelic or non-Scottish name. The first edition was published in 1911.

He did the vast majority of the work for his dictionary, not only collating the words from older dictionaries, but also collecting thousands of new words himself, both from publications, and from many trips he took around Gaelic-speaking parts of Scotland. He also illustrated, bound, printed and marketed his dictionary, with some help from his children and wife (herself a native Gaelic speaker). At times, he had to teach himself the various skills required.

In 1912, Dwelly had a book published entitled; Compendium of Notes on the Dwelly Family, it was in essence a 54 page genealogical book tracing the history of the Dwelly family from a John Duelye, 1229 to date, mainly covering Britain but with an American section, with lots of family trees and Parish Register extracts, with supporting notes.

He later gained a state pension for his work.

In later life, alienated by the attitude of some people in Scotland, both Gaels and non-speakers, he returned to England, leaving behind his great legacy, but dying in undeserved obscurity there.

In 1991, the late Dr Douglas Clyne sourced several manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland which were published as an "Appendix to Dwelly's dictionary"; over half of the words are from "A-D", but contained additional information which did not get published in Dwelly's lifetime.

His life has been poorly researched, but the best biography to date is by Peter Berresford Ellis.