Francis Dunlavy (1761–1839) was a teacher, judge and Ohio Senator.
Biography
Born in Virginia, he moved to
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
, near
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...
, in 1792. In 1800, he was elected to the Northwest Territorial Legislature as an
Anti-Federalist
Anti-Federalism was a late-18th century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Conf ...
. Two years later, he was chosen as a delegate to the
Ohio Constitutional Convention, representing
Hamilton county.
Dunlavy took an active role in writing the Ohio Constitution but was unable to include any sort of provision guaranteeing suffrage to African-Americans. In 1803, he was elected to the first Ohio State Senate but was soon appointed a president judge for the Court of Common Pleas for Southwest Ohio even though had never been called to the bar. This position he occupied for the next 14 years, after which he commenced private law practice for about 10 years.
He died November 6, 1839, and is interred in
Lebanon, Ohio
Lebanon is a city in and the county seat of Warren County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,841 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
History
Lebanon is in the Symmes Purchase. The first European settl ...
. His tombstone reads-
He was one of the first white men who entered the Territory now forming Ohio; was a member of the Territorial Legislature, and of the convention which formed the Constitution of Ohio
References
Sources
Historical Lebanon Ohio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunlavy, Francis
1761 births
1839 deaths
Northwest Territory House of Representatives
Ohio state senators
Ohio Constitutional Convention (1802)
Ohio state court judges