John Dunlap

John Dunlap (21 August 1746 – 27 November 1812) was an early American printer who emigrated from Ulster, Ireland and who printed the first copies of the United States Declaration of Independence and was one of the most successful Irish/American printers of his era. He served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the American Revolutionary War.

Biography

Dunlap was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland on August 21, 1746. When he was ten years old, he went to work as an apprentice to his uncle, William Dunlap, a printer and bookseller in Philadelphia. In 1766, William Dunlap left the business in the care of his nephew. John eventually bought the business, and at first made a living by printing sermons and probably broadsides and handbills too. In November 1771, Dunlap, with David C. Claypool began the publication of the Pennsylvania Packet, or General Advertiser, a weekly newspaper. From 1791 to 1793 Dunlap was the sole publisher, but in the following year Claypoole again became a partner until December, 1795, when Dunlap finally withdrew. In 1773 he married Elizabeth Hayes Ellison.

During the American Revolutionary War, Dunlap became an officer in the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, and saw action with George Washington at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. He continued in the First City Troop after the war, rising to the rank of major, and leading Pennsylvania's cavalry militia to help suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.

In 1776, Dunlap secured a lucrative printing contract for the Continental Congress. In July 1776, fighting between the American colonists and the British forces had been going on for over a year. On 2 July, the Second Continental Congress voted on the Lee Resolution to secede. Two days later, they approved the final wording of a public declaration regarding their decision, which we today call the Declaration of Independence. President of Congress John Hancock signed the fair copy with Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson attesting it. That evening Hancock ordered Dunlap to print broadside copies of the declaration. Dunlap printed perhaps 200 broadsides, since known as the Dunlap broadsides, which were the first published versions of the Declaration.

Continuing to serve the changing needs of the government, Dunlap and his partner David Claypoole printed the Constitution of the United States 19 September 1787 for use by the Constitutional Convention, and later published it for the first time in The Pennsylvania Packet.

Dunlap's major financial success came from real estate speculation. During the American Revolution, he bought property confiscated from Loyalists who refused to take Pennsylvania's new loyalty oath. After the war, he bought land in Kentucky. By 1795, when he was forty-eight, he was able to retire with a sizable estate. He died in Philadelphia.