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DICKINSON, John, (brother of Philemon Dickinson),
a Delegate from Pennsylvania and from Delaware; born on his fathers
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.
BibliographyJacobson, 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.
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