Jonathan Dickinson (of New Jersey)
| Jonathan Dickinson | |
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Edward Ludlow Mooney, Jonathan Dickinson (1688–1747), President (1747), Princeton University Art Museum
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| 1st President of Princeton University | |
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In office 1747–1747 |
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| Succeeded by | Aaron Burr, Sr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 22, 1688 Harfield, Massachusetts Bay |
| Died | October 7, 1747 (aged 59) Elizabethtown, Province of New Jersey |
Jonathan Dickinson (April 22, 1688 – October 7, 1747) was a Congregational, later Presbyterian, minister, a leader in the Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s, and a co-founder and first president of the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University.
Born in Hatfield, Massachusetts on April 22, 1688, Dickinson studied theology at the Collegiate School of Connecticut, which later changed its name to Yale College, graduating in 1706. In 1709 Dickinson was ordained minister of the Congregational church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.
Dickinson became concerned about the attempts of the established Church of England to suppress dissenters in New Jersey. Seeing a need for more coordination among dissenting churches, in 1717 Dickinson persuaded his congregation to join the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became an active and influential participant in the affairs of the Presbyterians, and was twice elected moderator of the Synod of Philadelphia. As a former Congregationalist, Dickinson was part of the New England faction of Presbyterians who opposed the strict doctrinal requirements favored by the Scots-Irish faction. Dickinson was a strong supporter of Presbyterianism, earning a reputation as a leading defender of Calvinism in America. His book Familiar Letters to a Gentleman, upon a Variety of Seasonable and Important Subjects in Religion was reprinted a number of times in America and elsewhere.
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