Philemon Dickinson (5 April 1739 – 4 February 1809) a senator from New Jersey from 13 November 1790 to 4 March 1793, succeeding William Paterson and preceding Frederick Frelinghuysen. Dickinson served as a Major-General of the New Jersey militia during the American Revolutionary War.
Biography[]
Philemon Dickinson was born on 5 April 1739 in Trappe, Maryland, and his family moved to Delaware a year later. Dickinson graduated law from the University of Pennsylvania in 1759 with a law degree and moved to New Jersey in 1767, living in Trenton. During the American Revolutionary War, Dickinson served as a Major-General of the New Jersey militia. He led 400 Continental Army troops in the "Forage War" against the British Army, capturing British supply wagons and harassing Charles Cornwallis' army. On 4 July 1778, Dickinson was the second for his cousin John Cadwalader in his duel with Thomas Conway, a general who sought to remove George Washington from command of the Continental Army. After the war, Dickenson represented Delaware in the Continental Congress from 1782 to 1783, and in 1790 he continued William Paterson's term as Senator from New Jersey after his resignation, and he retired to his estate, where he died in 1809.