David Dickson the Younger
David Dickson was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and writer.
Life
He was born in 1780 at Libberton, Lanarkshire, the parish where his father Rev David Dickson was minister. He was educated at the parish school of Bothkennar. In 1792 the family moved to Edinburgh and after several assistant minister positions his father got a post as minister of the New North Church. He had some reputation as a Hebrew scholar and his sermons were plain. He avoided mixing in the doctrinal disputes which culminated in the Disruption of 1843 of the Scottish church. On the occasion of Sir Walter Scott's funeral he was chosen to hold the service in the house at Abbotsford. He was secretary of the Scottish Missionary Society for many years.Dickson died at West Kirk manse on 28 July 1842, and was buried in St Cuthbert's Church, where a monument was erected to his memory. The statue of Dickson is by Alexander Handyside Ritchie. He is buried in a vault on the raised ground to the south-west.
His position at St Cuthbert's was filled by Rev James Veitch.
Works
Dickson wrote articles in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor and other magazines. He published:The Influence of Learning on Religion, 1814.- A small volume of sermons, 1818. Discourses, Doctrinal and Practical, a collection of his homilies, 1857.
- Five separate sermons.
- Rev. Walter Foggo Ireland's sermons, 1829; and
- lectures and sermons by the Rev. George Bell Brand, 1841.
Family
In August 1808 Dickson married Janet Jobson, daughter of James Jobson of Dundee, and together they had nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood:- David Dickson
- James Jobson Dickson an accountant in Edinburgh
- John Wardrobe Dickson
- Elizabeth Crawford Dickson married Dr John George Pack of Bathgate
- Charles Dickson an advocate
- Christian died in infancy
- Jane Dickson
- Christian Helen Dickson
- Margaret Ann died in infancy