John DICKINSON, Congress, PA (1732-1808)

DICKINSON, John, (brother of Philemon Dickinson), a Delegate from Pennsylvania and from Delaware; born on his father’s estate, “Crosiadore,” near Trappe, Talbot County, Md., November 8, 1732; moved with his parents in 1740 to Dover, Del., where he studied under a private teacher; studied law in Philadelphia and at the Middle Temple in London; was admitted to the bar in 1757 and commenced practice in Philadelphia; member of the Assembly of “Lower Counties,” as the State of Delaware was then called, in 1760; member of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1762 and 1764; delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; Member from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress 1774-1776 and from Delaware in 1779; brigadier general of Pennsylvania Militia; President of the State of Delaware in 1781; returned to Philadelphia and served as President of Pennsylvania 1782-1785; returned to Delaware; was a member of the Federal convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution and was one of the signers from Delaware; died in Wilmington, New Castle County, Del., on February 14, 1808; interment in Wilmington Friends Meetinghouse Burial Ground.

Bibliography

Jacobson, David Louis. John Dickinson and the Revolution in Pennsylvania, 1764-1776. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1965; Calvert Jane E., “Liberty Without Tumult: Understanding the Politics of John Dickinson,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 131 (July 2007): 233-62.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present