Diokey, 'WilUam, a Presbyterian minister, was bom Dec. 6, 1774, in TorlL County, S. C. His parents soon after removed to Kentucky, where he grew to manhood. He obtained an education with much self- denial, and in 1802 was licensed to preach. He la- bored fourteen years with the churches of Salem and Bethany, Ky., and then removed to Washington, La- fiiyette County, Ohio, and soon after to Blooming- burg, Ohio, where he remained forty years, '^fi died in December, 1857.— Wilson, Predtiterian Hi$L AUim- nac, 1864, p. 112.
DiokinB, John, a distinguished preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was bom in London 1746. He studied at Eton College; emigrated to America before the Revolution ; became a Methodist in 1774 ; preached extensively in Virginia and North Carolina from 1777 till 1782, when he located, bat continued his ministerial labors diligently in Virginia. Bishop As- bury met him there in 1780, when Dickins framed a subscription paper for a seminary, on the plan of Wes- ley*s Kingswood School, the first project of a literary institution among American Methodists. It resulted in Cokesbury College. At the close of the war Asbury induced him to go to New York, where he took charge of John-street Church, the first married preacher who occupied its parsonage. His labors were successful in gathering together the fragments of the Church, seri- ously broken by the recent war. Dickins was here the first American preacher to receive bishop Coke, and approve Wesley's scheme of the organization of the denomination. He had an important agency in that work. In 1785 he travelled Bertie Circuit, Va. He was reappointed to New York in 1786, *87, '88. In 1789 he was stationed in Philadelphia, and there be- gan one of the greatest institutions of American Meth- odism, its ** Book Concem ;" there also he died in the memorable outbreak of the yellow fever in 1798. He was one of the soundest minds and ablest preachers of early Methodism ; a good scholar in English, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and mathematics ; an influential coun- sellor, and a mighty preacher. — Stevens's Hitt, of the Meth, Episc. Church, vol. ii, iii, and iv, passim ; Mi»- tttes of Cor^erenoee, i, 179.
Dickinaon, Austin, a Congregational minis- ter, was bom at Amherst, Mass., Feb. 15, 1791. He gpraduated at Dartmouth 1813; studied theology at Princeton ; was admitted to the ministry Feb. 2, 1819, and travelled south for his health. He came North in 1822, and became agent for Amherst College, and was very efficient and successfril. *' Besides being large- ly successful in raising the charity fund of $50,000, which has been a source of permanent prosperity to the college, and $30,000 for general purposes, he ex-
erted as much influence as any ether am iB«bti a charter for the college" (Spam). In 182fi k ed the '' National Preacher" inKew Yoit asdi editor until 1838. In 1844 he began wiitiog id articles for the secular press, and oo&tinisd si useful task until the end of his life, Aug. 14,11^ Sprague, AmtaU, ii, 674.
Dickiiisoii, Jonathan, A.M^ a
minister and President of Princeton College, rav at Hatfield, Mass., April 22, 1688, and gndaM Yale 1706. After being en^ged for some ta» a a study of theology, he was licensed and ordsBedsn His field of labor embraced Etisabethtewi, B^, Westfield, Connecticut Farms, Springfield, tadCk ham, N. J. In 1717 he joined the Philaddpb hi byteiy, where he continued to exercise his for nearly forty years. In tiie great Wlntdei£s» vival he stood up firmly in defence of the of the work, and on one occasion st least WhMtUi known to have {n^ached in his parish to sa congregation. Still he had no sympsthj wtk 6 prevailing fanatical tendencies of the time, aad sn fosted the utmost caution in discriminating bet*«i true and false religious experience. He pab&ieJi tract bearing on this subject, written with gtatvff and discrimination. After the division oi the Ptnb terian Church in 1741 into the Synods of KevT:^ and Philadelphia, each synod was intent co osib; provision to tnin up young men for the tmsr Dickinson was the acknowledged leader of tk S/inJ of New YoriL, as he had been of the old Synod d FB> adeiphia before the separation, and he is sa^iM.* have had a primary influence in originating tke i* lege of New Jersey. A charter for a ooll^ l»raj been obtained from the acting governor of the esier the Institution, which took the name of Kasau Bd went into operation, with Jonathan DickinsoB »s president, though, in taking upon himself ^v* office, he did not relinquish any of his duties ai ip tor. It did not commence its operations till lTtf,fl^ his death occurred on the 7th of October, 1747. Ei publications include A Defence ofProbjfkntm&i* tion (1724) ; Four Servums <m the Iiea$(mM»m i Chnttiamty (17d2); FSMDucourmsonPomHefOi* tian Faith, etc. (1741); A JHtplas of Gtii ^ Grace (1742) ; Rejlectume on RegmereAm, w* « •» (Hcaium qfthe received Doctrine (1745); A F»&b« of God** sovereign free Grace (1746); A ««^^ cation, etc. (1748) ; and several detached Sprague, Annah, iii, 14.
Diokinaon, Peard, an English WeslcTis ^ ister, was bom at Topsham, Devonshire, Not. 16* 1^"* He received a caref^ training ttom a velk<i8C«i father, and in 1775 went to Bristol, where he io(»M ed a Methodist society. He entered Oxford is c» moner of St. Edmund Hall in 1779, pawed A.& 1782, and A.M. in 1785. In 1783 he was ordii^^ the Church of England, and became corate to Pa? net (q. v.) at Shoreham. In 1786 he went to I^ as pastor of one of Mr. Wesley's societies, and tf0 ued to reside there in charge of various woe^^ ing the rest of his life. He died May 1^^^^ was a man of great learning, and especially 0 0^ lent linguist. His researches in the earfy wiM^ Christianity were very thorough. He was » ** and beloved pastor, an intimate friend of the V«^?J and a sort of intermediate link between the Qmn^* England and Wesleyan Methodism. — Smith, ^ ofWeskyam MeAodism, i, 574; Jackson, OWi<i»> ogrcqohg ; Stevens, History oflfethodism, ii, 81^