Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Walter Dulany (d. 1773)
MSA SC 3520-373

Biography:

BORN: of age by 1743; second son.
NATIVE: second generation.
RESIDED: in Annapolis, Anne Arundel County.

FAMILY BACKGROUND.
FATHER: Daniel Dulany (1685- 1753).
MOTHER: Rebecca (ca. 1695-1737), daughter of Walter Smith (?-1711).
STEPMOTHER: Henrietta Maria (?-1766), widow of Samuel Chew (1704-1736/37); daughter of Philemon Lloyd (ca. 1674-1732/33).
AUNTS: Lucy Smith (1688-1770), who married Thomas Brooke (1683-1 744); Eleanor Smith (1690-1761), who married Thomas Addison (1679-1727); and Ann Smith (1694-1759), who married second, Thomas Trueman Greenfield (1682-1733).
BROTHERS: Daniel Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797); Dennis (1730-1779).
HALF BROTHERS: Lloyd (1742-1782); Richard (?-died in infancy).
STEPBROTHERS: Samuel Chew (by 1734- 1786); Philemon Lloyd Chew (?-1770); Bennett Chew (?-1793).
SISTERS: Rebecca; Rachel; Margaret, who married first, Dr. Alexander Hamilton (1712-1756), and second, William Murdoch (?- 1769); and Mary.
STEPSISTERS: Henrietta Maria Chew (1731-1762), who married Edward Dorsey (1718-1760); Margaret Chew (?-1773), who married John Beale Bordley (1726/27-1804); and Ann Mary Chew (1736-1774), who married William Paca (1740- 1799).
FIRST COUSINS: Richard Brooke (1716-1783); Eleanor Brooke, who married Samuel Beall (ca. 1713-ca. 1778); John Addison (1713-1764); Ann Addison (1711/12-1753), who married William Murdock (?-1769); and Marianne Greenfield, who married John Stoddert (?-1767).
NEPHEWS Benjamin Tasker Dulany (1752-1816); James Heath (?-1766).
MARRIED ca. 1745 Mary, daughter of Richard Grafton, a wealthy landowner and merchant of New Castle, Delaware.
CHILDREN. SONS: Daniel, of Walter (?-1783), who was living in London by 1781; Walter, Jr., who married ca. 1785 Elizabeth Brice, widow of his half uncle Lloyd Dulany (1742-1782); and Grafton (?-1778). DAUGHTERS: Rebecca, who married first, in 1767 Thomas Addison, Jr., and second, Thomas Hanson (1750-1810), son of Samuel Hanson (1716-1794); Mary, who married (first name unknown) Fitzhugh; Margaret, who married ca. 1771 Rev. John Montgomery; and Catherine, who married (first name unknown) Belt.

PRIVATE CAREER.
EDUCATION: literate; apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1735.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: Anglican, St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County.
SOCIAL STATUS AND ACTIVITIES Gent., 1747; Esq., 1764; member of the Tuesday Club.
OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE: merchant; investor; contractor; officeholder; controlled his father's share of the Baltimore Ironworks Company jointly with his brother Daniel Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797) until 1759 when he sold his interest to his brother Daniel; handled the sale of the indentures of German immigrants for his father, 1752; served as contractor for public buildings and a wharf in Annapolis, 1763-1766.

PUBLIC CAREER.
LEGISLATIVE SERVICE Lower House, Annapolis, 1745/46-1748, 1749-1751 (Laws Cv- 3; discharged from the 2nd session for serving as deputy commissary of Anne Arundel County; re-elected to the 2nd session and seated), 1751-1754 (Bills of Credit 1-6), 1754-1757 (Bills of Credit 1- 6), 1757-1758 (Bills of Credit 1. Cv, 2), 1758-1761(Bills of Credit Cv 1, 1, Cv 2, 2, 3, Cv 3), 1762- 1763 (Bills of Credit 1, 2; Grievances 1, 2), 1765 (discharged on September 24, 1765, for serving as naval officer of the Patuxent; reelected to the 2nd session; Bills of Credit 2; Grievances 2; reelection voided on November 12, 1765, for serving as mayor of Annapolis at the time of his election); Upper House, 1768-1770 (Claims-Bills of Credit 1-4), 1771 (Claims-Bills of Credit), 1773.
OTHER PROVINCIAL OFFICES, naval officer, Patuxent, 1765-1767 (resigned); commissary general, 1767-1773; Council, 1767-1773 (appointed and qualified on February 11, 1767).
LOCAL OFFICES: deputy commissary, Anne Arundel County, 1749- 1754; churchwarden, St. Anne's Parish, Anne Arundel County, in office 1749-1750, 1764-ca. 1765; St. Anne's Parish Vestry, Anne Arundel County, in office 1751-1754, ca. 1765-1768; common councilman, Annapolis, 1756-1764; alderman, Annapolis, in office 1764-1765, 1767; mayor, Annapolis, 1766-1767 (elected September 1765 and in office by October 1765).

WEALTH DURING LIFETIME.
ANNUAL INCOME: estimated gross income per year as commissary general £1,000, 1767-1769.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: he borrowed heavily from at least 1770 until his death. His principal creditors included John Cadwalader (1741/42-1786), Upton Scott, and Osgood Hanbury & Company, of London, merchants.
LAND AT FIRST ELECTION: none in his own name, but probably controlled 5,258 acres in Baltimore County that was formally deeded to him by his father as a gift in 1747.
SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN LAND BETWEEN FIRST ELECTION AND DEATH: received an additional 363 acres in Baltimore County, plus at least 1 lot, warehouses, and land on the dock in Annapolis as gifts from his father, 1747-1748. Lost 294 acres in a resurvey of his Baltimore County land in 1750. Inherited 1,231 acres in Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties under the terms of his father's will in 1753. Purchased 12.5 lots in Annapolis, 1753-1759. In 1765 Walter and his brother Daniel Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797) patented 1,950 acres in Frederick County in individual tracts of between 50 and 200 acres each. This was a part of the acreage for which their father had received warrants, but which he had not patented. Purchased 1,250 acres and sold 363 acres in Baltimore County in 1767. Purchased 1,126 acres in Anne Arundel County shortly before his death.

WEALTH AT DEATH.
DIED: on September 20, 1773, in Annapolis.
PERSONAL PROPERTY: TEV, £6,260.6.6 current money (including ca. 58 slaves, 412 oz. plate, a harpsichord, and 51 books); FB, estate overpaid £768.2.5. Dulany's estate was not settled until 1800. Debts paid by his administrator included £3,041.13.7 to John Cadwalader (1741/42-1786).
LAND: 8,571 acres in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties and 14.5 lots in Annapolis, plus 1,950 acres in Frederick County held jointly with Daniel Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797). After his father's death Daniel Dulany, of Walter mortgaged 6,544 acres in Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties and the "mansion house" with adjacent lots in Annapolis to Osgood Hanbury & Company to secure a debt of £9,121.13.7 sterling that Walter owed the company at the time of his death.

Source:  Papenfuse, Edward C., et al. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature 1635-1789, Vol. I, A-H.  (Baltimore:  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), 287-289.

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