Daniel Dulany, Jr. (1722-1797)
MSA SC 3520-372
New DNB Sources sheet
Subject's name Dulany Daniel 68544
MATERIAL USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE ARTICLE
1* E. C. Papenfuse, A. F. Day, D. W. Jordan, and G. A. Stiverson, eds., A biographical dictionary of the Maryland legislature, 1635-1789, vol. 1, A-H (1985)
2* A. C. Land, The Dulanys of Maryland: a biographical study of Daniel Dulany, the elder (1685-1753), and Daniel Dulany, the younger (1722-1797), (1968)
3* R. J. Brugger, Maryland: a middle temperament (1988)
4* R. Hoffman, Princes of Ireland, planters of Maryland: a Carroll saga, 1500-1782 (2000)
5* Peter Onuf, ed., Maryland and the empire, 1773: The Antilon-First Citizen letters (1974)
6 A. C. Land, Colonial Maryland - a history (1981)
7 M. D. M[ereness], Dictionary of American biography,
vol. 3 (1958)
ARCHIVAL DEPOSITS
SUBJECT'S ARCHIVE
Dulany Family Papers, MS.1919, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
Dulany Family Papers, MS.1562, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
OTHER IMPORTANT DEPOSITS
None
SOUND ARCHIVES
None
MOVING-PICTURE ARCHIVES
None
LIKENESSES
artist unknown, portrait (oils), n.d., Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
WEALTH AT DEATH
Value of estate or
possessions at death Value of personalty unknown; c. 3,000 acres in two counties.
Source of data Biographical Dictionary, 1:287
INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR Date completed:
10/1/01
YOUR NAME FOR PUBLICATION Edward C. Papenfuse
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Surname Papenfuse
Full forenames Edward Charles
Title(s) Ph.D.
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION
Post State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents
Institution Maryland State Archives
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Address Maryland State Archives
350 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, Maryland
Post/zip code 21401 Country USA
Telephone (410) 260-6401
E-mail edp@mdarchives.state.md.us
New DNB Information sheet
SUBJECT'S NAMES
Main Name Dulany Daniel
Variants of main names none
Alternative names none
Name as known none
TITLES
none
BIRTH AND BAPTISM SEX Male x
Birth 28 June 1722 Annapolis, Maryland
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:286
Baptism 29 July 1722 St. Anne's Church, Annapolis, Maryland
Source of data and comments: St. Anne's parish register, M143, MSA
FATHER
Main name Dulany Daniel
Alternative names none
Titles none
Birth date 1685 Death date 5 Dec 1753
Occupation Lawyer, placeman
MOTHER
Maiden name Smith Rebecca
Alternative names none
Titles none
Birth date 1695 Death date Mar 1737
Occupation none
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:286;
Land,
Dulanys, 151
EDUCATION
Dates: Institution:
?-1738 Eton College, Eton
Jan 1739-1742 Clare College, Cambridge
Mar 1742- June 1746 Middle Temple, Inns of Court, London
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:287;
Land,
Dulanys, 153, 167
RELIGION
1722-1797 Christian: Church of England, Protestant Episcopal Church
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:287
FIRST WIFE
Main name Tasker Rebecca
Alternative names none
Titles none
Birth date 4 Nov 1724 Death date 1822
Occupation none
Relationship married x
Date started 16 Sep 1749 Ended 17 Mar 1797 by death
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:287;
St. Anne's parish register, M143, MSA
RESIDENCE
Date Address
1722-? Annapolis, Maryland
?-1738 Eton, England
1739-1742 Cambridge, England
1742-1747 London, England
1747-July 1761 Annapolis, Maryland
July 1761-July 1763 London and Bath, England
July 1763-1781 "Hunting Ridge," Baltimore County, Maryland
1781-1797 Baltimore Town, Maryland
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:286;
Land,
Dulanys, 237, 243
GEOGRAPHICAL/ETHNIC ASSOCIATIONS
By descent Ireland
By association Maryland, England
DEATH AND BURIAL
Death 17 March 1797 Baltimore, Maryland
Cause of death unknown
Burial unknown St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, Maryland
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:287
Missing data
None not noted above.
ARTICLE CHECK-LIST
Birth, death, burial x
Parents x
Spouse/partners x
IN YOUR ARTICLE TEXT
Double spacing x
Quotations x
Daniel Dulany (1722-1797), lawyer and placeman, was born in Annapolis, Maryland on 28 June 1722, the eldest son of Daniel Dulany (1685-1753) and his wife Rachel Beard (ca.1695-1737), the daughter of Richard Beard of Annapolis. Dulany had two brothers and four sisters, as well as three stepbrothers, three stepsisters, and two half-brothers by his father's marriage to Henrietta Maria Lloyd Chew (?-1766). Dulany's father was one of the colony's most astute lawyers, holder of major proprietary offices, successful land developer, and investor in the Baltimore Ironworks Company. He provided his son with both a superior education and the connections needed to pursue an equally successful career.
After attending Eton College, Dulany enrolled in Clare College, Cambridge in Jan 1739, entered the Middle Temple of the Inns of Court in Mar 1742, and was called to the bar in June 1746, one of the few Maryland lawyers to claim that distinction. Dulany returned to Maryland in 1747 and soon qualified to practice in the Provincial and Chancery courts as well as several county courts.
On 16 Sep 1749, Dulany married Rebecca Tasker (1724-1822), second daughter of Benjamin Tasker (ca.1690-1768) and his wife Anne Bladen (?-1775). Rebecca's father was president of the governor's council and served as agent and receiver general, among numerous other offices. Her uncle was former governor Thomas Bladen. Her sister Anne married governor Samuel Ogle in 1741 and her sister Frances would marry Robert Carter of Nomini Hall, Virginia, in 1754. The marriage thus united two politically powerful families as well as bringing Dulany "a handsome fortune" (Day, 322). The Dulanys had two sons and one daughter during the next decade.
Dulany represented Frederick, the county his father had done so much to develop, in the lower house from 1751 to 1754 and sat as the Annapolis delegate from 1756 to 1757 before being named to the governor's council, where he served from 1757 until 1774. From 1754 to 1756 he shared the office of commissary general with his father-in-law and occupied it exclusively from 1759 to 1761. In July 1761 Dulany arrived in England in the hope of improving his health, with an extended stay at Bath. During this visit he also sought to solidify his position with the proprietary establishment. When Dulany returned to Maryland in July 1763, he held the lucrative post of deputy secretary, which he retained until the Revolution.
In the fall of 1763, before ceasing publication in response to the Stamp Act, the Maryland Gazette advertised an anonymous pamphlet, Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, For the Purpose of Raising a Revenue. The author, soon known to be Dulany, argued that because colonists enjoyed neither direct nor virtual representation in parliament, only the Maryland assembly, its members chosen by the electorate, had the right to impose internal taxes. "Easily the most influential American protest" against the Act, Dulany's essay was printed not only in other colonies but also in London, where its language appeared in parliamentary debates (Brugger, 106).
During his stay in London, Dulany had had several encounters with a fellow Marylander, the young Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1737-1832), whose father had encouraged him to call upon Dulany, "the best Lawer on this Continent," in the elder Carroll's opinion (Hoffman, 173). The exchanges did not go well; Carroll, insulted, described Dulany as an "un homme bizarre" (Brugger, 111). A decade later, and after further hostilities between the families, the two men had their most significant encounter, taking opposite sides on the perennially contentious issue of Maryland politics, the question of officials' fees.
In Jan 1773, Dulany, hoping to influence elections later that spring, wrote a dialogue for the Gazette debating the merits of the governor's 1770 fee proclamation. In Dulany's account, "Second Citizen" finally convinced "First Citizen" of the proclamation's legality. In Feb, however, a new author took up the role of "First Citizen" and carried on a six-month exchange of letters with Dulany, now writing as "Antilon." "First Citizen," known to all to be the young Carroll, espoused the popular position against encroachments by the prerogative, arguing that fees constituted a tax that could only be enacted by the legislature, that as a new law the proclamation could not be enacted unilaterally by the governor, and that the constitution would be unbalanced if legislative control over finance were compromised. Dulany, writing in defense of the established form of government, argued that fees were not taxes and had historically been levied by various branches of government. Dulany saw all branches of government as competing for power; to function effectively there had to be a final authority -- that of the executive -- over the legislature. Dulany marshaled cogent legal arguments but Carroll claimed victory in the exchange, as Maryland voters returned a lower house favorable to his views, not those of Dulany.
The death of Benjamin Tasker in 1768 had deprived Dulany of a major source of his political strength, a trip to England in 1771-1772 to bolster his position with the proprietary establishment had the effect of alienating the governor, and the exchange with Carroll dissipated the popular support he had earlier achieved with Considerations. Carroll wrote to his father after the 1773 election that the Dulanys "have great reason to fear an end of their powers, influence, and future promotion" (Brugger, 111).
Dulany might have been able to regroup had not the movement for independence intervened, but Carroll's prediction came true as events in Maryland and elsewhere moved toward revolution. Neither Dulany's intellectual position nor his strong affiliation with England would permit him to do more than maintain a position of neutrality during the ensuing war, although after the war he wrote a number of unsigned pamphlets supporting the opposition to the ratification of the Constitution and continued to give legal advice. During the Revolution, he retired to his Hunting Ridge estate near Baltimore, where he lived from 1776 until 1781, when the property was confiscated along with other loyalist holdings. In that year Dulany moved to Baltimore Town, where he died on 12 Mar 1797 and was buried in the St. Paul's churchyard.
Edward C. Papenfuse 991 words