John Dickins

Background

John Dickins was born on August 24, 1747, in London.

Education

Dickins received a good education, and came to America some years before the Revolution.  

Career

John Dickins was converted in 1774, began evangelistic work in Virginia, and was admitted to the itinerant ministry on trial at the Conference of 1777, bringing to the Methodist movement an intellectual equipment, an interest in literature and learning, and an administrative wisdom, which few of his contemporaries possessed. He traveled extensively in North Carolina and Virginia until 1781, when the Conference Minutes list him among those "who desist from travelling. " 

Dickins then labored in New York until 1789, rehabilitating John Street Church, cradle of Methodism in America, which the removal of Loyalists, and other war conditions, had weakened.  He became an intimate friend and counselor of Asbury.  They were "like unto Jonathan and David, . .. one in hand, mind, and mutual affection".  He was the first to meet and advise with Dr. Coke when the latter arrived as Wesley's emissary in 1784.  At the "Christmas Conference" held the same year, he was one of the leading spirits, offering the resolution which constituted the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, the name of which he himself had suggested. At this Conference he was ordained deacon, but was not made elder until September 16, 1786.  With Thomas Morrell Dickins was delegated by the Conference of 1789 to wait on President Washington with a copy of the bishops' congratulatory address.  He also accompanied them when the President received them and made his reply.  

Dickins was appointed Book Steward of Cokesbury College, being then pastor of the church in Philadelphia, St. George's.  During the nine years of his management, which included the superintendency of printing, binding, and distribution, he made the Book Concern a permanent and increasingly valuable institution.  Besides issuing more than one hundred and fourteen thousand copies of books and pamphlets, he published the Arminian Magazine (1789 - 1790) and the Methodist Magazine (1797 - 1798).  Although urged to seek safety, he continued at his work during the yellow fever epidemic of 1798, and died of that disease.  

Achievements

• John Dickins is best remembered as a co-founder of the Methodist Book Concern and the principal provider of literature for the growing Methodist movement. In time his publishing concern grew into The Methodist Publishing House, which in the mid-twentieth century was the largest religious publishing house in the world.

Connections

Dickins married Elizabeth Yancey of North Carolina.

Spouse:

Elizabeth (Yancey) Dickins

References

• Pictures And Royal Portraits Illustrative Of English And Scottish History: From The Introduction Of Christianity To The Present Time : Engraved From ... Authentic State Portraits, With Descriptive
• Beams of Light on Early Methodism in America: Chiefly Drawn from the Diary, Letters, Manuscripts, Documents, and Original Tracts of the Rev. Ezekiel Cooper: Rev. Ezekiel Cooper