John Dickinson

John Dickinson was born in 1732 in Talbot County, Maryland, and grew up in Delaware. He studied law in Philadelphia and then at the Middle Temple in London before returning to practice law in Philadelphia. He served in the assemblies of both Delaware and Pennsylvania. When the British Parliament passed the Townshend Acts, taxing goods imported into the colonies, he wrote a series of essays, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania (1767–1768), arguing that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies to raise revenue. They were reprinted widely and made him famous. He also wrote the words of The Liberty Song. In the Continental Congress he hoped for reconciliation with Britain and refused to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776, but he then served in the militia. He wrote the first draft of the Articles of Confederation, later served as president of both Delaware and Pennsylvania, and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He died in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1808.

John Dickinson is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Raised among Quakers; he was buried in the Friends' burial ground in Wilmington, Delaware. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) (via Wikisource)