USA > Maryland > Talbot County > History of Talbot county, Maryland, 1661-1861, Volume I > Part 39
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2 The intermarriage of the descendants of John, with those of Walter, gave that branch representatives here in the Kerseys.
3 It may be interesting to some to note, on the authority of Mr. Dickinson, that Howell Powell was from Brecknockshire, Wales. He was the son of Hugh Powell, of Castle Madoc, in the same county, the representative of an honor- able family.
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he left children, sons and daughters, of whom Samuel, the first of that name which has been perpetuated in the family to the present, was the eldest and heir to the homestead on Crossiadore Creek, in Trappe dis- trict of this county, where he was born March 9th, 1689, or 90. He enjoyed such advantages of education as the province afforded, and was subsequently sent to England where he read law at the Temple, and returning home about 1707-9, practised his profession in the provinces of Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. He married for his first wife Judith Troth, a Quakeress, daughter of William Troth, of this coun- ty. "Departing this life in sweet peace with her Maker," as the family chronicle relates in the language of her people, in August 1729, she left a number of children, one of whom, Henry, is the progenitor of the Dickinsons now resident of this county, and others of this stem. Sam- uel Dickinson married for his second wife, in 1731, Mary, the daughter of John Cadwalader, Esq., of Philadelphia. By this lady, who survived her husband many years, three sons were born to him: John, the sub- ject of this memoir; Thomas, who was killed in London, by being thrown from his horse, and Philemon, who subsequently became honorably known as General Dickinson, of New Jersey. All of these were born in Talbot.4 In 1740 Mr. Samuel Dickinson (first of the name) removed from this county to Kent, in Deleware. There he was appointed Presi- dent Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1754 he was com- missioned an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware. He died in 1759, leaving an immense estate in lands, in the counties of Queen Anne, Talbot and Dorchester, in Maryland, and in Kent county, Delaware, besides much personal property in England and America. Of this land he bequeathed more than three thousand acres to his son John Dickinson-a fortune which enabled him to live with ease, com- fort and independence, and to indulge those tastes for literature and socie- ty which through life were to him sources of unfailing pleasure. And more: it was this fortune which releasing him from the necessities of providing for the wants of life, enabled him to devote his great abilities to the interests of his country. Judge Samuel Dickinson is represented as having been "an enlightened and liberal man, extremely desirous of giving his children the best education in his power." His second wife is described by the same hand as "a distinguished woman, of fine under- standing and graceful manners, who had enriched her mind by an
4 It is common for biographers to designate Delaware, or even New Jersey, as the State of the nativity of General Dickinson. The investigations of Mr. Wharton Dickinson has settled the question definitely.
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acquaintance with the best authors." This may be regarded as not an unmerited eulogium of one who was the mother of two sons, distinguished the one in the forum and the other in the field. Portraits of this worthy couple, Samuel and Mary Dickinson, by Hesselius,5 a pupil of Sir Godfrey Kneller, are still in the possession of the family in New Jersey.
Before concluding this account of the Dickinson family, it may be well to say, what already has been hinted, that those of the name, resid- ing in this county and State, are the descendants of Judge Samuel Dickinson through the gentle Judith Troth. To her only surviving son, Henry, the lands on Crossiadore passed by the will of her husband, and in the hands of his lineage the homestead has remained to the present. The house now occupied by Mr. Overton Dickinson, the son of the late Samuel Dickinson, whom many remember as a most amiable and courteous gentleman, is one of the oldest in this county, and, before the late changes and "betterments," one of the most curious to the local antiquary. Through the pious care of Mr. Sam- uel Dickinson, now of New York, it has been recently renovated and improved, to the loss of much of its ancient picturesqueness, but to the gain of much of its modern comfort. Several members of this branch of the family are entitled to be ranked among the worthies of Talbot, and among them may be mentioned General Solomon S. and Doctor Philemon Dickinson. Collaterally John Leeds, the mathematician and John Leeds Bozman, the historian, are connected with this branch. Some of these have already been and others may yet be commemorated in these contributions.6
John Dickinson, LL.D., was born at "Crossiadore," the seat of his father, Judge Samuel Dickinson, Nov. 13th, 1732. When eight years of age, his father removed from Talbot county, Md., to Kent county, Del., where he became the first President Judge Court of Common
5 An evident error of Sept. 22d
6 In this compilation of the descent of the Dickinsons, chief reliance has been upon Mr. Wharton Dickinson's account, because he had made the most thorough study of the family history. The writer is indebted to Mr. John Sharp Dickinson, of Baltimore, for a copy of an old manuscript of Mrs. Mary Gordon, a venerable lady connected with the Dickinsons. This differs from Mr. Dickinson's in some particulars, but as he has drawn his information chiefly from written memorials, while Miss Gordon has derived hers largely from tradition, what he says seems to have the greater authority. But on the other hand, Miss Gordon was able to speak with many who had personal knowledge of the facts they related, and she recorded. This serves to exemplify the difficulties and obscurities attending genealogical investigations.
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Pleas, of that county serving from 1740 to the time of his death, July 6, 1760, aged 71. Chancellor William Killen, then a law student in Judge Dickinson's office, was the tutor of John. It was his father's original intention to have him sent to Oxford, but the death of his eldest son, William, who died of the smallpox, at London, deterred him from so doing. In 1750, John entered the law office of John Moland, Esq., a distinguished Barrister of the Philadelphia Bar. Among his fellow students, in this office, were George Read and Samuel Wharton. All three were subsequently members of the Continental Congress. George Read was one of the "Signers" and Messrs. Read and Dickinson were framers of the Federal Constitution. The intimacy thus early formed between the three, lasted through life .. In 1752 Mr. Dickinson set sail for London, where he entered the Middle Temple. Among his fellow students at the Temple were Edward Thurlow, subsequently Lord High Chancellor of England, Lloyd Kenyon, subsequently Lord Chief Justice King's Bench, and William Cowper, the poet. He returned home in 1755, just before hostilities broke out between France and England. In Sept., 1755, he was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, and immediately commenced a successful practice of his profession. In the year 1760 he was elected to a seat in the General Assembly of the three lower coun- ties, now Delaware, and of this body he was chosen the Speaker, a fact that has been overlooked by his biographers. (Penna. Archives, 2nd Series.) In July, 1756, he accompanied Samuel Morris, Sr., (an uncle by marriage) to Easton, and was present when the Treaty was signed between the Government of Pennsylvania and Tedeguscung and other Indian Chiefs. Sept. 7, 1762, he took his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly, a fact which he announces to his friend George Read, in the following playful manner.
You may congratulate me on my salvation, for I am certainly among the elect, and may enter into the assembly of righteous men.
After a considerable discussion of the leading topics of the day he says:
I confess I should like to make an immense bustle in the world, if it could be made by virtuous actions. But, as there is no probability of that, I am content if I can live innocent and beloved by those I love, in the first class of whom you are always esteemed by, dear sir, your most affectionate friend and very humble servant: John Dickinson.
Mr. Dickinson soon gained an enviable notoriety as a ready, earnest, and eloquent debater, and in his long term of service in the Assembly
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(1764-1776), was always one of the master spirits. May 27, 1764, he delivered his great speech against the change of the Government of Pennsylvania from Proprietary to Royal. Joseph Galloway replied to it; both were published, Dickinson's, with a preface, by William Smith, D. D., Provost University of Penna., and Galloway's with a pref- ace by Benjamin Franklin. In May, 1765, appeared his article en- titled "The late Regulations respecting the British Colonies on the Continent of America considered in a letter from a gentleman in Phila- delphia to his friend in London." September 11, 1765, he, with Joseph Fox (speaker), George Bryan, and John Morton, were sent as delegates to represent Pennsylvania in the "Stamp Act Congress," held in New York from October 7 to 21, 1765. Mr. Dickinson was the author of the "Resolves" of that body. November 7, 1765, he, with his brother Philemon; uncles, Thomas Cadwalader and Samuel Morris; cousins, Lambert and John Cadwalader, and Samuel Cadwalader Morris, signed the famous "Non Importation Resolutions." In 1766 he opposed the proposition offered at a meeting of the Phila. Bar to conduct business without the use of stamps. Only three votes were recorded in the affirmative. This same year appeared his article entitled, "An Address to the Committee of Correspondence in Barbadoes, occasioned by a letter from them to their agent in London. By a North American." In 1767 appeared, what are considered by many, his greatest political work, viz .: his celebrated "Farmers Letters," for which he received a vote of thanks of the citizens of Boston, through the hands of a com- mittee composed of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Dr. Benjamin Church, Dr. Joseph Warren and John Rowe, Esq. In this address they say:
To such eminent worth and virtue the inhabitants of the town of Boston, the capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in full town meeting assembled, express their gratitude. Though such superior merit must assuredly in the closest recess enjoy the divine satisfaction of having served and possibly saved this people, though veiled from our view, you modestly shun the deserved applause of millions, permit us to intrude upon your retirement, and salute the Farmer, as the friend of Americans and the common benefactor of mankind. In May, 1768, an association in Philadelphia, called the Society of Fort St. David, presented an address to Mr. Dickinson, in a box of "heart of oak."
The following inscriptions were done upon it in gold letters. On the top was represented the cap of liberty on a spear, resting on a cipher of the letters J. D. Underneath the cipher, in a semi-circular label, the words Pro Patria. Around the whole the following:
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The gift of the Governor and Society of Fort St. David to the Author of The Farmers Letters, in grateful testimony to the very eminent services thereby rendered to this county, 1768.
On the inside of the top was the following inscription:
The liberties of the British Colonies in America asserted with Attic elo- quence and Roman spirit by John Dickinson, Esq., barrister-at-law.
This society is better known as the "Governor and Colony in Schuyl- kill." Mr. Dickinson was once its Governor. The "Farmers Letters" were republished in London in 1768, with a preface by Dr. Arthur Lee, and in Paris in 1769, with a preface by Dr. Benj. Franklin. There was also a Virginia edition published in 1769 with a preface by Richard Henry Lee.
In 1769 Mr. Dickinson visited Boston in company with Joseph Reed (then on his way to Europe). They stopped at Princeton college, to attend the commencement exercises, and Mr. Dickinson received the degree of LL.D. from the hands of the Faculty, through President John Witherspoon. While in Boston he made the acquaintance of Samuel Adams, and renewed a former one with James Otis. February 4, 1771, he was chairman of a committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who drafted a petition to the King for the repeal of all acts placing duties on importations of any kind. This brings our record of Mr. Dickinson up to the time of the agitation of the "Boston Port Bill," and consequently to the threshold of the Revolutionary war. He was now forty years of age, had established a European reputation, and had an intimate knowl- edge of the events leading to the war, and the wants of the Colonies as any man in America. The eyes of his compatriots were upon him, let us see how he acquitted himself.
May 13, 1774, he attended the meeting at the city tavern to take measures regarding the close of the Port of Boston. It has been erro- neously stated that Mr. Dickinson wrote the letter of the Committee of Correspondence appointed by that meeting, but although a member of the committee, the letter was from the pen of Provost Smith, of the University of Pennsylvania, June 18, 1774. John Dickinson, Thomas Willing and Edward Pennington, were joint chairmen of the mass meet- ing held in Independence Hall to take further measures in regard to the closing of the Port of Boston, and Mr. Dickinson was appointed chair- man of the Committee of Correspondence which issued the call for the famous first Continental Congress. He was a delegate to the Provincial Convention held in Carpenter's Hall, from July 15th to 22d, 1774, and
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was the author of the two important state papers issued by that body, viz., the "Resolves of the Committee of Safety of the Province of Penn- sylvania" and the "Instructions of the committee to their representa- tives in the Pennsylvania Assembly." He also wrote a paper entitled "An Essay on the Constitutional powers of Great Britain over the Col- onies of America." He was also chairman of the committee of three (Joseph Reed and Charles Thompson) appointed to communicate these instructions to the neighboring colonies. Mr. Dickinson's labors were fully appreciated by his colleagues of convention, as appears from the following record from the minutes.
Agreed unanimously that the thanks of this committee [Com. of Safety, Pa.] be given from the Chair to John Dickinson, Esquire, for the great assistance they have derived from the laudible application of his emi- nent abilities, to the service of his country, in the above performance, Thursday, July 21, 1774.
Mr. Dickinson being absent this day, on account of the funeral of a relative, the next day [22d], the chairman, in a very pleasing way delivered to him the thanks of the committee; to which he replied as follows:
Mr. Chairman: I heartily thank this respectable assembly for the honor they have conferred upon me, but want words to express the sense I feel of their kindness. The mere accidents of meeting with par- ticular books, and conversing with particular men, led me into the train of sentiments, which the committee are pleased to think just; and others, with the like opportunities of information, would much better have deserved to receive the thanks they now generously give. I con- sider the approbation of this company as an evidence that they enter- tain a favorable opinion of my good intentions, and as an encouragement for all to apply themselves, in these unhappy times, to the service of the public, since even small endeavors to promote that service can find a very valuable reward. I will try, during the remainder of my life, to remember my duty to our common country, and, if it be possible, to render myself worthy of the honor for which I now stand so deeply indebted. I thank you, sir, for the polite and affectionate manner in which you have communicated the sense of the committee to me.
In Sept. 1774, Mr. Dickinson was nominated for the then high office of Speaker of the Assembly, but declined. On October 20, he took his seat in the famous first Continental Congress, and was at once added to the committee to prepare a petition to the King. The committee had just reported a draft, which Congress rejected. Mr. Dickinson drew the next one, which was after some slight amendments, adopted. Oct. 26, he drew the "Address to the inhabitants of Quebec." He was a
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delegate to the Provincial Convention held in Carpenter's Hall from January 23 to 28, 1775, which ratified the work of the First Congress. April 24, 1775, he attended the great mass meeting held in the State House yard, where eight thousand freemen declared to defend their "lives, liberty, and prosperity, by a resort to arms." Several battalions of Associations were formed for this purpose, and Mr. Dickinson was unanimously ' elected Col. of the First Battalion. Their first public appearance was in May when they marched out of town to meet the delegates to the Congress, from the Southern states and escorted them into the city. A few days later they paid a similar compliment to the delegates from the Eastern States. May 2d, 1775, Gov. Penn trans- mitted the resolutions of the British Parliament known as "Lord Norths Olive Branch," to the assembly. But headed by Mr. Dickinson, the assembly refused to accept proposals therein contained. June 30, 1775, Mr. Dickinson was chosen a member of the newly organized Committee of Safety, and acted as chairman of the committee to inspect military store. October 20, he was elected a member of the Council of Safety, [same body, only name changed] serving until July 20, 1776. July 6 1775, he penned the famous "Address to the Armies." When read at the head of Putnam's division it was received with three huzzahs and a loud Amen! Nov. 29, 1775, he was appointed a member of the first committee on Foreign Affairs, ever selected in this country. His colleagues selected him as chairman [the others were Benjamin Harri- son, Dr. Franklin, Thomas Johnson and John Jay]. June 12, 1776, the committe was remodeled, Messrs. Jay and Johnson were withdrawn, and John Adams and Robert Morris selected in their place. Mr. Dick- inson was still chairman. As we had no secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Chairman of this committee acted as such ex-officio. Mr. Dickin- son was, historically, our first Secretary of State, serving from Nov. 29, 1775 to July 20, 1776. In October 1775, he was chairman of a com- mittee of the Penna. Assembly to which was referred the petition from the Committee of Defense for Northampton and Northumberland counties. In December he was appointed by Congress, Chairman of a committee of three to proceed to Burlington for the purpose of dis- suading the New Jersey Assembly from granting further supplies for the support of the royal government, the other two members were John Jay and George Wythe. Mr. Dickinson, as chairman, delivered an able address before the Assembly, on Dec. 7. Said he, during the course of his remarks:
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After Americans were put to death at Lexington without cause, had the Continental Congress drawn the sword and thrown away the scab- bard, all lovers of liberty would have applauded. To convince Britain that we will fight, an army has been formed and Canada invaded; suc- cess attends us everywhere; the savages who were to have been let loose to murder our wives and children, are our friends; the Canadians fight in our cause and Canada, from whence armies were to have overrun us, is conquered in as many months, as it took Britain years; so that we have nothing to fear but from Europe, which is three thousand miles distant. Until this controversy the strength and importance of our country was not known; united, it cannot be conquered. The nations of Europe look with jealous eyes upon the struggle; should Britain be unsuccessful in the next campaign, France will not sit still. Nothing but unity and bravery will bring Britain to terms; she wants to secure separate petitions which we should avoid, for they would break our union, and we should become a rope of sand; rest therefore upon your former noble petition [that of the New Jersey Assembly to the King] and that of United America.
At the time of the address there were strong hopes that Canada would join us; these hopes were subsequently doomed to disappointment. His other predictions proved true. In May 1776 he was chairman of a committee of the Pennsylvania Assembly to draft new instructions to their delegates in Congress. June 12, 1776, he was appointed chairman of a committee consisting of one delegate from each state to draft Articles of Confederation for the Colonies. The committee was consti- tuted as follows: Bartlett, of New Hampshire; Sam Adams, of Mass .; Hopkins, of Rhode Island; Sherman, of Conn .; R. R. Livingston, of New York; Witherspoon, of New Jersey; Dickinson, of Pennsylvania; McKean, of Delaware; Stone, of Maryland; Nelson, of Va .; Hewes, of N. C .; E. Rutledge, of S. C .; and Gwinnett, of Ga.
Mr. Dickinson was the author of the 2d petition to the King, adopted in June, 1776. His opposition to the Declaration of Independence is the one blot, if blot it can be called, in Mr. Dickinson's life. No pen had been busier, during the last two years, than his, in asserting the rights and liberties of America. The following extract from his speech, deliv- ered June 20, 1776, will explain his motives, as far as they can be ex- plained. Said he:
Prudence required that we should not abandon certain for uncertain objects. Two hundred years of happiness, and prosperity, resulting from English laws and the union with Great Britain, demonstrated that America could be wisely governed by the King and Parliament Shall the transports of fury sway us more than the experi-
.
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ence of ages, and induce us to destroy, in a moment of anger, the work that has been cemented and tried by time? * * * Even when sup- ported by the powerful hand of England, the Colonies had abandoned themselves to discord and sometimes to violence, from the paltry motives of territorial limits and distant jurisdiction. What then might they not expect when their minds were heated, ambition aroused, and arms in the hands of all?
Hildreth in his History of the United States says that "John Dickin- son's opposition to the Declaration of Independence was one of the greatest acts of moral courage that history makes mention of." In connection with this subject we give, as an historical fact, that he was the only member of the Congress which adopted the Declaration that took up arms in the defence of their country. July 22, '76, he accom- panied his regiment to Amboy, N. J., where he remained until Sept. Ist. Sept. 3d he and his cousin, John Cadwalader, were appointed special Justices of the Peace for Philadelphia. Sept. 23d he was appoint- ed special Atty .- Gen. of Penna., to try several important cases on behalf of that commonwealth. In January, 1777, Delaware selected him as a delegate to Congress, but his health was in such a condition as not to admit of his accepting the position. For the next two years he was absent from the State and National councils. At the battle of Brandy- wine, Mr. Dickinson served as a private in Capt. Lewis' company of Cæsar Rodney's Del. Brigade. Acting Pres't Mckean, of Del., com- missioned him Brig .- Gen. in Oct., 1777; he served as such until the following Dec. His house at "Fairhill" was burnt by the British Nov. 22, 1777. John Adams speaks of this place in his diary:
Monday Sept. 12, 1774-Returned and dined with Mr. Dickinson at his seat at Fairhill, with his lady, Miss Thompson, Miss Norriss, Miss Harrison. Mr. Dickinson has a fine seat, a beautiful prospect of the city, the river and country, fine gardens, and a very grand library. The most of the books were collected by Mr. Norris, once speaker of the House here, father of Mrs. Dickinson.
The party who burned the house were commanded by Col. Twestle- ton, subsequently Lord Saye and Sele; not a very creditable perform- ance for an English peer. When Dickinson College was erected the part of the library not burned was presented to it. In April, 1779, Delaware sent Mr. Dickinson to Congress, and in May of that year he penned his famous "Address to the States." This same year he was elected a Trustee of the University of Penna., serving until 1791; Chief Justice High Court of Appeals of Penna., 1779-'80; Member Delaware
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State Council, 1780-'81; President of Delaware, 1781-'82; President of Pennsylvania, Nov. 7, 1782, to Oct. 17, 1785. He was elected by a majority of 9 votes over Gen. James Potter [41 to 32]. In Dec., 1782, the Council ordered the Treasurer to pay Gov. Dickinson £150 for neces- sary repairs to the "Mansion House." In March, 1783, the Council drew an order in his favor for £1,000 loaned by him to the State for re- cruiting purposes. His salary was £1,250 per annum. Sept. 23, 1783, the Legislature chartered a college at Carlisle, which they named Dick- inson College.
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