John Dunlap (430)

John Dunlap (1747 – 27 November 1812) was a printer, publisher, military officer and member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1784. Born in Tyrone County, Ireland, Dunlap moved to Philadelphia in 1757 at the age of ten to apprentice under his uncle, a printer and bookseller. At nineteen, Dunlap purchased the printing house from his uncle and in November 1771 began publishing the Pennsylvania Packet, or General Advertiser, a weekly newspaper. By 1784 the Packet became a daily publication renamed the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Organizer. Although not the first daily newspaper in America, it became one of the most successful.  In addition to printing, Dunlap also accumulated wealth by investing in real estate. With the onset of the Revolutionary War, Dunlap joined the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry alongside other prominent Philadelphians. By 1794, Dunlap was promoted to major and commanded the cavalry in the Pennsylvania militia during the Whiskey Rebellion. Dunlap established significant government connections with his print shop; on July 8, 1776 he printed the Declaration of Independence in the Packet. During the war, he also printed loyalty oaths for the Philadelphia Council of Safety. Dunlap relocated to Lancaster, the new location of the Pennsylvania Assembly, when the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777. There he assumed the role as the new printer of the Journals of the Continental Congress. Dunlap also became the main printer for the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1778 and 1779. In 1779, Congress removed Dunlap as the printer of the Journals after he published a letter in the Packet from Thomas Paine which unveiled that France supplied aid to the Continental Army before the release of the French-American pact. Following the war, he served on Philadelphia’s Common Council from 1789 to 1792. His business continued to thrive until he sold it and retired from printing in 1795 at 48-years-old. He died from apoplexy in 1812. (ANB)