John Dunlap

Background

John Dunlap was born on August 21, 1747 in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland.

Career

At about ten years of age Dunlap was sent to Pennsylvania to be trained by his uncle, William Dunlap, a printer, who had just married a relation of Mrs. Benjamin Franklin and through this influence had been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia. William Dunlap, who had learned his trade as apprentice to William Bradford, had been engaged as printer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, but in 1757 moved to Philadelphia, where he opened a shop as printer and bookseller. At this juncture it seems probable that he sent to Ireland for his young nephew, who was immediately apprenticed to him to learn the trade of typography. William Dunlap felt he had a call to the ministry, and accordingly, in the year 1766, sold his stock as bookseller, leaving the printing business in charge of John, whose apprenticeship was near its close, while he went to England to receive ordination. Two years later, in 1768, he was given a charge in the parish of Stratton, in King and Queen County, Virginia, and sold his shop and equipment to his nephew. At this time the business consisted mainly in the printing of books, but in November 1771 John Dunlap began the publication of a weekly newspaper, The Pennsylvania Packet, or The General Advertiser.

From September 1777 to July 1778, during the British occupation of Philadelphia, he printed his paper in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When he returned to Philadelphia, he changed the period of issue to three times a week, and on September 21, 1784, he began its publication as a daily — the first daily newspaper in the United States. Through numerous changes of ownership and name its tradition has been continued, its present successor being the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, by which it was absorbed in 1924. The Declaration of Independence was printed in Dunlap’s office from Jefferson’s manuscript, and this broadside, signed by Iiancock and the Secretary of Congress, was the form in which the Declaration was sent to the various colonial Assemblies and to Europe.

From 1778 until the federal government was founded and the capital removed to New York, Dunlap was printer to Congress. Soon after he returned from Lancaster he took David Claypoole, who had been his apprentice, into partnership. The Constitution of the United States was printed in the office of Dunlap & Claypoole and was first published in their Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser. The senior partner retired from business in 1795. In the words of a fellow printer: “Dunlap executed his printing in a neat and correct manner. It is said that, whilst he conducted a newspaper, he never inserted a paragraph which would wound the feelings of an individual". “The amiableness of disposition which might be implied from that sentence was not, perhaps, his talent. However, Dunlap possessed till his death, a handsome fortune. In 1780, he was one of ninety-two subscribers to the National Bank for the United States, formed for the purpose of supplying provisions to the army. His subscription was for £4, 000. He was also active in military affairs, was one of the original founders of the 1st Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry, in 1774, and as cornet accompanied the command in the campaign of 1776-77, taking part in the actions at Princeton and Trenton.

In 1781, he was elected first lieutenant, and in 1794, captain of this ancient military company.

During the Whiskey Insurrection, in 1794, he served as major commanding all the cavalry during the campaign. From 1789 to 1792 he was a member of the Common Council of Philadelphia.

Achievements

• The Constitution of the United States was printed in the office of Dunlap & Claypoole and was first published in their Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser.

Connections

On February 4, 1773 Dunlap married Mrs. Elizabeth Ellison, nee Hayes of Liverpool.

Spouse:

Elizabeth Ellison

Uncle:

William Dunlap