Strabane's John Dunlap printer of Declaration of Independance v1

John Dunlap (b.1746/7 d.1812) was born in Meetinghouse Street, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland the younger son among probably three sons and four daughters of John Dunlap Snr. (b.1718 d.1783), possibly a saddler and Sarah Ector (b.1725 d.1780). They married Feb 1735. John’s grandfather Gabriel Dunlap (b.1696 d. 1770) was the saddler, married Ardstraw 1713 to Barbara Gilmour (b.1696 d.1765).

Gray’s Printers, Strabane now owned and operated by the National Trust, is suggested to be the place where John Dunlap learned the print trade. However, no records are available to substanciate this.

As a ten year old boy in 1757, John immigrated to America, where he became an apprentice to his uncle, printer, bookseller, postmaster and later a minister of the Anglican Church, William Dunlap (b.? d.1779).

Partly as a result, of financial difficulties in 1766 William gave up bookselling, handed over management of his print shop to his nephew John so he could travel to England to be ordained as minister of the Church of England.

John, after purchasing his uncle’s print business, paying him off in instalments, during this period John’s close friend Dr. Benjamin Rush (b.1746 d.1813) recalled that John was so poor that he lived in his print shop, sleeping on the floor under the counter.

On 28 Oct 1771, Dunlap launched a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Packet and the General Advertiser, to be published every Monday. David C. Claypoole (b.1757 d.1849) eventually became Dunlap’s partner in this enterprise, and on 21 Sept 1784, the Pennsylvania Packet became the first newspaper of significance in America to be published daily.

On 7 June 1776, Richard Henry Lee (b.1732 d.1794) of Virginia at a meeting in Philadelphia introduced a resolution urging Congress to declare independence from Great Britain. Four days later, John Adams (b.1735 d.1826) repesenting Massachusetts, Roger Sherman (b.1721 d.1793) representing Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston (b.1746 d.1813) representing New York, Thomas Jefferson (b.1743, d.1826) representing Virginia and Benjamin Franklin (b.1706 d.1790) representing Pennsylvania were appointed as a committee to draft a declaration of independence.

The Declaration was a dangerous document for the signers and anyone having anything to do with it. The signers pledged to each other “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” in support of the declaration. Dunlap, just 29, made no such pledge, but by setting the document in type, placed himself in harm’s way as much as any delegate.
When the first copies of the Declaration of Independence were sent out across the United States, just three names were on the document, John Hancock as President, Charles Thomson as Secretary and John Dunlap.

After it had been adopted the committee took the manuscript, possibly, Thomas Jefferson's "fair copy" of his rough draft, to Dunlap for printing. The text was followed by the words "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President. Attest, Charles Thomson, Secretary." John and David Chambers Claypoole (b.1757 d.1849) produced the first printed versions of the Declaration in Dunlap’s Philadelphia shop on the night of 4 July 1776.

There is no official record of just how many broadsides Dunlap produced, the general consensus seems to be 150-200 copies, 26 copies are known to exist.

Dunlap, in 1774 was one of the founders of the 1st Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry he saw action as a cornet and as bodyguard to George Washington (b.1732 d.1799) at the battles of Trenton (26 Dec 1776) and Princeton (13 Jan 1777). It was in this capacity that Dunlap would have witnessed the negotiations for the surrender of New York on 25 November 1783, by fellow Strabane man Sir Guy Carleton aka Lord Dorchester (b.1724 d.1808).

John married Elizabeth (Eliza) Hayes (née Ellison) b.1746 d.1836, a widow from Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, Merseyside on the 3 February 1773 in Pennsylvania. Elizabeth was born on 7 April 1746.

John found retirement disagreeable and according to his friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, he sought refuge in the bottle and became a drunkard in his final years. John died in Philadelphia, at the age of 65 on 27 November 1812 of apoplexy (unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke) ironically, as he was reading a newspaper. He was buried with military honours in the graveyard of Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, (where Benjamin Franklin is buried).

A blue plaque was errected on the front of the house where John Dunlap was born, possibly 21, Meetinghhouse Street, Strabane. The blue plaque was mounted on the house of the last occupiers Mary, Betty, Patsy & Domnic Shearer (Domnic, was a member of the Clipper Carlton Show Band) which was the middle house of three, two-story terraced houses. To the left was the family of Mary & Barney Mulhern and to the right my Father & Mother, Eddie & Margaret ‘Greta’ Devlin, my family home, 19 Meetinghouse Street.