Dickinson, Jonathan definition of Dickinson, Jonathan in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Dickinson, Jonathan, 1688–1747, American Presbyterian clergyman, a founder and first president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton Univ. Princeton University, at Princeton, N.J.; coeducational; chartered 1746, opened 1747, rechartered 1748, called the College of New Jersey until 1896.

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..... Click the link for more information. ), b. Hatfield, Mass., grad. Yale, 1706. He was a leading preacher of the Great Awakening in the middle colonies and supported the revivalists or "New Sides" in the ensuing controversy. Convinced of the need of an educational institution to carry forward the ideals of William Tennent Tennent, William, 1673–1745, American Presbyterian clergyman and educator, b. Ireland, grad. Univ. of Edinburgh, 1695. He was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1706. He emigrated to America c.1718; in 1726 he was called to a pastorate in Neshaminy, Pa.
..... Click the link for more information. , he obtained a charter (1746) for the College of New Jersey. In 1747 he opened the institution at his house in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N.J.