Jonathan Dickinson

Jonathan Dickinson (born April 22, 1688, Hatfield, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7, 1747, Elizabethtown, New Jersey) was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman of the American colonial period and the first president of Princeton University. Joining the newly founded Presbyterian body in the Middle Colonies in 1717, he soon became a leader in theological thought and debate. When in 1721–29 its synod deliberated over adoption of a constitution, it was largely through Dickinson’s efforts that the undefined powers...