David Dunlop (8 September 1804–25 May 1864), tobacco manufacturer, was born in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, and was the son of Robert Dunlop and Agnes Aitken Dunlop. He immigrated to Virginia about 1820 to work in the Petersburg tobacco factory of his uncle James Dunlop, who had lived in the state since about 1791. Intending to remain in Virginia, Dunlop declared his desire in November 1822 to become a citizen and took the oath of citizenship on 18 June 1835. He formed his own tobacco company after his uncle died in 1827. Dunlop executed a bond on 27 April 1830 and on that date or soon afterward married Anna Mercer Minge. They had at least five sons and three daughters, of whom one son and two daughters died young.

Dunlop arrived in Petersburg when improvements in transportation had increased the profitability of tobacco manufacturing in Virginia. His uncle's large brick factory in the central business district of Petersburg was probably typical. Because tobacco factories used very little mechanical power, they did not cluster along riverbanks, as grist-, flour-, and sawmills did. The factories packed chewing tobacco and other products for shipment to American and foreign markets, and until the 1850s enslaved laborers performed most of the work. Dunlop's two-story brick factory, constructed by 1833, grew to be one of the largest in Petersburg. In 1860 it employed about 175 men and 125 women, but whether those totals included the 87 slaves that the business owned or hired that year is not certain. Between June 1859 and June 1860 the company produced 450 tons of lump and twist tobacco valued at $180,000.

Commitment to local economic development was evident in Dunlop's involvement and investment in a variety of Petersburg organizations and institutions. He became a director for the Petersburg branch of the Farmers' Bank of Virginia in 1838, was active in the Petersburg Fire and Life Association (incorporated in 1848 to provide the city with a private fire department), and served as a founding director of the Petersburg Classical Institute in 1838 and of the Petersburg Exchange in 1839. Dunlop invested in several improvements projects, including the Upper Appomattox Company, to improve river access to Petersburg, and the South Side Railroad Company, which provided the first rail link with Lynchburg in 1854, as well as the Petersburg Railroad Company, the Petersburg Steamship Company, and the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Company. In 1839 Dunlop joined other prominent manufacturers and master artisans as a member of the Petersburg Benevolent Mechanic Association, which connected successful businessmen with upwardly mobile skilled workers through a fraternal network that offered business loans and a place to discuss economic development. In May 1856 Dunlop won election to a term on the Petersburg Common Council.

In December 1838 Dunlop purchased 200 acres of land along Swift Creek near Petersburg, on the line of the new Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Company in the part of Chesterfield County that in 1948 became the city of Colonial Heights. He planted tobacco there, more than doubled his acreage, and constructed Ellerslie, a large plantation house that boasted a mosaic floor and frescoed inner dome. On 22 June 1856 Ellerslie, valued then at about $8,000, burned. Dunlop engaged the Irish architect Robert Young to design a villa-style mansion to replace the first house. During construction in 1859, an apparent arson attempt led Dunlop to offer a reward of $1,500 for conviction of the perpetrator. The new Ellerslie, valued for tax purposes in 1860 at $9,000, featured turrets and towers and was elegantly furnished and set amid romantically landscaped grounds.

Dunlop's wife died of cancer on 5 June 1863. United States and Confederate armies swarmed over the Ellerslie property during the Battle of Swift Creek on 9 and 10 May 1864, and Federal artillery fire damaged the mansion. David Dunlop probably continued to reside at Ellerslie during those events, and that is most likely where he died, following a stroke, on 25 May 1864. He was buried in Blandford Cemetery, in Petersburg. The value of his investments and accounts receivable and of his Petersburg factory with all its appurtenances was nearly $560,000, and the twenty-four slaves and furnishings of Ellerslie, including $20,000 worth of china, silver, and works of art, an additional $72,000. Confederate general Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard established his headquarters at Ellerslie by 7 June 1864, and Dunlop's fine brick townhouse in Petersburg suffered severe damage during the siege of the city that began shortly after his death. After the Civil War, his son David Dunlop (1841–1902) established his own tobacco business in Petersburg.

Sources Consulted:
Biography in David G. Malgee, "A Brief History of Ellerslie" (1996), copy in Dictionary of Virginia Biography Files, Library of Virginia (LVA); birth and death dates and birthplace from gravestone inscription in Bettie B. Powell, Dorothy G. Pilout, and Mamie B. Fraser, "Blan[d]ford Cemetery" (typescript dated 1936–1937), p. 288, in Works Progress Administration, Virginia Historical Inventory, LVA; parents' names in Blandford Cemetery Record of Interments (1843–1871), 295–296, LVA; Petersburg Circuit Court Marriage Bonds; Petersburg Hustings Court Minute Book (1820–1823), 366, and (1832–1835), 435–436; In the Circuit Court of the City of Petersburg: Tennant et als. vs. Dunlop et al. [ca. 1895], 58–60, 290 (immigration date), 324; Robert Young's Plan of a Proposed Villa Drawn for David Dunlop (1856), Acc. 36663, 36664, LVA; family and business records in Dunlop Family Papers (1836–1930), David Dunlop Accounts (1836–1863), David Dunlop Tobacco Company Account Book (1847–1856), and portrait in Dunlop family photograph album, all Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.; United States Census, Slave Schedule, Chesterfield Co., 1850, 1860, Petersburg, 1850, 1860, and Industrial Schedule, Petersburg, 1860, all in Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; Land Tax Returns, Chesterfield Co., Petersburg, both 1860, and Personal Property Tax Returns, Chesterfield Co., 1859, Petersburg, 1860, all Record Group 48, LVA; estate inventory in Petersburg Hustings Court Will Book, 5:303–304, 330–331.

Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by L. Diane Barnes.

How to cite this page:
L. Diane Barnes,"David Dunlop (1804–1864)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2016 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Dunlop_David_1804-1864, accessed [today's date]).

Return to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography Search page.