Daniel Dulany the Younger (June 28, 1722 – March 17, 1797) was a Maryland Loyalist politician, Mayor of Annapolis, and an influential American lawyer in the period immediately before the American Revolution.
Dulany was a member of the Maryland legislative assembly from 1751 to 1754, he was appointed to the Governor’s Council (1757–76) in recognition of his support for the colony’s proprietary government.
Daniel Dulany the elder arrived in colonial Maryland in 1703.
A native of Ireland, Dulany arrived shackled by his status.
He was an indentured servant, in an era when that status remained common.
He came to Maryland and quickly proved himself to his masters by his resilience and his industry. Maryland’s growth ensured a measure of prosperity, even for the indentured.
Daniel Dulany the elder eventually moved into the highest circles of Maryland’s colonial society. When his indenture ended in 1706, Dulany traveled to London and studied the bar.
He decided to begin his law practice in Maryland and gained admission to the Charles County Bar in 1709.
He enjoyed the patronage of his former master, George prater II, and he married into an aristocratic family and eventually became a state councilor.
Land’s story explores the whole of Dulany’s life, but his analysis on Dulany’s religion allows the reader to infer Dulany’s Catholicism instead of rely on historical fact.
Daniel the elder’s influence on his son pushed the younger Dulany to use his legal skills to improve the lot of Maryland’s Catholics.
Another interesting historiography facet of Land’s work is where he places Maryland culturally and regionally.
Land conjoins the plantation South in Land’s work; Daniel Dulany the elder’s rise occurs during the era of the great plantations on Maryland’s Eastern and Western Shore.
Surprisingly, Dulany’s lowly origins never hinder his progress.
In 1751 Dulany was elected to the Maryland General Assembly to represent Frederick County.
He served for three years.
Daniel Dulany was educated in England and became a lawyer after returning to Maryland.
He was a member of the Maryland legislative assembly from 1751 to 1754, and he was appointed to the Governor’s Council in 1757 in recognition of his support for the colony’s proprietary government.
In the following years, he held other high offices and also became known as one of the best lawyers in the American colonies.
Though his sympathies were those of a loyal British subject, Dulany was critical of some policies of the British government, and, during the crisis over the Stamp Act of 1765, he wrote Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies (1765), which was the most influential pamphlet that appeared in opposition to the Stamp Act.
His arguments were widely read in America, and in England were drawn upon by William Pitt in his plea for repeal of the Stamp Act.
He lost his popularity, however, when in 1773 he engaged in newspaper controversy with Charles Carroll in defense of the fees exacted by government officials for performing certain services.
Dulany was a Loyalist during the Revolution and most of his property was confiscated by the state in 1781.