History of Hatfield, (Hampshire County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Biographies:

Biography of Jonathan Dickinson

Jonathan Dickinson, educator, was born in Hatfield, Mass., April 22, 1688; grandson of Deacon Nathaniel Dickinson (Wethersfield, Conn., 1637). He was graduated from Yale in 1706, studied theology, and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry. He became pastor at Elizabethtown, N.J., in 1709, having also charge of the adjoining towns of Rahway, Westfield, Union, Springfield and Chatham. He was also a practising physician and accomplished much good in the community by giving free medical advice to the poor. In 1741 he succeeded in obtaining a charter for the College of New Jersey, which up to that time had been called Nassau Hall, and at its opening in 1746 in Elizabethtown he was elected its president. He published: Reasonableness of Christianity: Four Sermons (1732); The True Scripture Doctrine Concerning some Important Points of Christian Faith (1741); and Familiar Letters to a Gentleman (1745; 2d ed., 1757). He died in Elizabethtown, N.J., Oct. 7, 1747.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor