David Beers Quinn (24 April 1909 – 19 March 2002) was an Irish historian who wrote extensively on the voyages of discovery and colonisation of America. Many of his publications appeared as volumes of the Hakluyt Society. He played a major role in assisting the presentation of the historical aspects during the quadricentennial celebrations (1984–1987) of the first establishment of a colony at Roanoke Island.

Quinn was born in Dublin, Ireland and was the single pupil at his first school. He graduated from Queen's University, Belfast in 1931. He then completed a PhD on the early Tudor administration in Ireland at King's College London. He subsequently spent five years as a lecturer at University College, Southampton (now Southampton University). Returning to Belfast in 1939, he taught Irish history.

He became interested in the voyages of discovery made by Humphrey Gilbert. At that time historians relied uncritically on the works of Richard Hakluyt published around 1600. Quinn's work and the new sources he discovered resulted in his first volume for the Hakluyt Society, and marked the beginning of his seminal work on voyages of exploration, which he developed from 1944 at University College, Swansea. In 1947 he contributed Raleigh and the British Empire to the "Teach Yourself History" series.

In 1957 he moved to Liverpool University.

At the instigation of America's Four Hundredth Anniversary Committee his Set Fair for Roanoke: Voyages and Colonies, 1584–1590 was published by University of North Carolina Press in 1985.

He died in Liverpool, England on 19 March 2002.

References

• Brief Obituary
• David Beers Quinn, the Roanoke Voyages, and North Carolina
• Biography of the first Fellow of the Society for the History of Discoveries, 2001 Archived 19 February 2003 at archive.today
• Register of the David B. Quinn Papers in the Library of Congress.
• Hakluyt Society Tributes to David Quinn