John Dickinson (historical figure)

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Dennis Drabelle, The Prudent Patriot; There's a lot more to Founding Father John Dickinson than not signing the Declaration of Independence. The Pennsylvania Gazette (alumni magazine of University of Pennsylvania), September | October 2025 (out on Aug 22, 2025).
https://thepenngazette.com/the-prudent-patriot/

Note:
(a) "Dickinson was born to wealth on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in 1732. His father was a tobacco farmer, and his mother was said to be 'a distinguished woman of fine understanding and graceful manner.' They [John's parents, but not John himself] were both Quakers. In 1741, the Dickinsons moved to what is now Delaware but was then a part of Pennsylvania known as The Three Lower Counties on the Delaware; there they built a house called Poplar Hall. * * * In 1759, Dickinson was elected to a seat in the Lower Counties Assembly, which had broken away from the Pennsylvania Assembly because of dissatisfaction with being ruled by Quakers. With an eye toward a political career in the larger colony [ie, Pennsylvania], Dickinson did not run for reelection when his term ended. His gamble paid off in 1762, when he was elected to fill the seat of a Pennsylvania assemblyman who had died."
(i) John Dickinson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dickinson
(1732 – 1808; "He was the great-grandson of Walter Dickinson who came from England as an indentured servant to the Colony of Virginia in 1654 * * * Samuel [was] the father of John Dickinson * * * These plantations were large, profitable agricultural enterprises worked by slave labor, until 1777 when John Dickinson freed the enslaved of Poplar Hall.[4] * * * When the Second Continental Congress began the debate on the Declaration of Independence on July 1, 1776, Dickinson reiterated his opposition to declaring independence at that time. Dickinson believed that the Congress should complete the Articles of Confederation and secure a foreign alliance before issuing a declaration. Dickinson also objected to violence [Revolutionary War to come] as a means for resolving the Thirteen Colonies' dispute with Britain. He abstained or absented himself from the votes on July 2 that declared independence and absented himself again from voting on the wording of the formal declaration on July 4. * * * Dickinson refused to sign the declaration, and since a proposal had been brought forth and carried that stated 'for our mutual security and protection", no man could remain in the Continental Congress without signing it, so Dickinson voluntarily departed and joined the Pennsylvania patriot militia.[15] * * * Dickinson is one of only two members of the First Continental Congress who actively took up arms during the Revolutionary War")

Dickinson participated in both Continental Congress as a delegate from Pennsylvania: First Continental Congress (Sept 5 - Oct 26, 1774) and Second Continental Congress (May 10, 1775 - Mar 1, 1781; Dickinson resigned from the Second in July 1776, believing it was too early)
(ii)
(A) Delaware River
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_River
(282 miles (454 km); section 1 Name)
(B) Province of Pennsylvania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Pennsylvania
("The proprietary colony's charter remained in the Penn family until the Penns were ousted in 1776 during the American Revolutionary War * * *In June 1776, the Lower counties [composed of three counties] on the Delaware, a separate colony within the Province of Pennsylvania, broke away from the Province of Pennsylvania. On December 7, 1787, following independence, this former colony, renamed Delaware, was the first state to ratify the US Constitution, making it the nation's first US state and one of the original thirteen states. Five days later, on December 12, 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the US Constitution and join the United States")
(C) "the Penns" in the preceding quotation
William Penn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn
(1644 – 1718; Quaker; "An advocate of democracy and religious freedom, Penn was known for his amicable relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans * * * In 1681, King Charles II granted an area of land corresponding to the present-day US states of Pennsylvania and Delaware to Penn to offset debts he owed Penn's father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. The following year, Penn left England and sailed up Delaware Bay and the Delaware River, where he founded Philadelphia on the river's western bank. * * * In 1704, the three southernmost counties of provincial Pennsylvania were granted permission [by William Penn] to form a new, semi-autonomous Delaware Colony [officially, Lower Counties on the Delaware]")

Hannah Callowhill Penn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Callowhill_Penn
(1871-1726; "A Quaker, she married William Penn on March 5, 1696, when she was 25 and he was 52 * * * When William Penn died at age 73 on July 30, 1718, his will gave Hannah Penn full control of the Province of Pennsylvania and his fortune.[1]   William Penn's oldest son by his first marriage, William Penn Jr., sought to dismiss his father's will in order to obtain control of the colony. His suit was unsuccessful")
After her death, Pennsylvania was passed among her sons: John, Thomas and Richard.


(b) "In 1764, Dickinson and Franklin were again at loggerheads. The Penns’ overlordship had become increasingly unpopular, and Franklin's proposed solution was to get their proprietary charter revoked and have Pennsylvania become a crown colony. Dickinson had the gumption to challenge Franklin on this, urging the Assembly to 'let our resentment bear proportion to the provocation received; and not produce … effects more fatal than the injury of which we complain.' As an example of such an unwanted effect, Dickinson cited the charter's guarantee of religious freedom and warned that the sought-after change could lead to the establishment of the Church of England in Pennsylvania."
(i) English dictionary:
* gumption (n)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gumption
, whose origin is unknown, per Merriam-webster.com.
(ii) crown colony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_colony

Quote:

introduction: "A Crown colony or royal colony * * * There was usually a governor to represent the Crown, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local council.

section 1 History: "Early English colonies were often proprietary colonies, usually established and administered by companies under charters granted by the monarch. The first 'royal colony' [or crown colony] was the Colony of Virginia, after 1624, when the Crown of the Kingdom of England revoked the royal charter it had granted to the Virginia Company and assumed control of the administration.[2] * * * Executive crown governors are sometimes complemented by a locally appointed and/or elected legislature with limited powers – that is, such territories lack responsible government. * * * After that time it was more broadly applied to every British territory other than British India,[4] and self-governing colonies, such as the Province of Canada, Newfoundland, British Columbia, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, and New Zealand.[5]

(A) Click "responsible government" and it will lead to, in the first sentence of the new Wiki page, "government." Click it again, and the bew Wiki page shows in the top map that people in Tainwan already have knowm that the system there is semi-presidential (similar to France's). But remember: Chiang Kai-shek together with KMT, for whatever reasons that they selected this system for Republic of China in 1947. The model, constitution of French Fouth Republic (Oct 27, 1946 - Oct 4, 1958; a parliamentary republic; preceded by Third Republic and succeeded by Fifth Republic), did not last because the presidency was too weak (the same problem that now plagues Taiwan).
(B) "Virginia Company"
•  In 1606, King James I of England granted two charters (each to form a joint-stock company which would hold land patent after it reached Nw World) to  colonize eastern seaboard of what is now the United States by forming propertary colonies. See top map in Plymouth Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Company
("Plymouth Company, officially known as the Virginia Company of Plymouth, was a company chartered by King James in 1606 along with the Virginia Company of London [the latter being Virginia Company or London company unofficially] * * * The Plymouth Company established the one-year Popham Colony in present-day Maine in 1607, the northern answer to Jamestown Colony. Two ships, the Gift of God and Mary and John, arrived in August 1607 with around 100 settlers. * * * The Popham Colony was abandoned in 1608. In 1620, after years of disuse, the Plymouth Company was revived and reorganized as the Plymouth Council for New England with a new charter, the New England Charter of 1620.[11])
• Plymouth Colony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony
("The congregation obtained a land patent from the Plymouth Company in June 1619")
• Virginia Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Company
("The company failed in 1624, following the widespread destruction of the Great Massacre of 1622 by indigenous peoples in the colony, which decimated the English population")

That was why the proprietary company of Virgia was rescinded to establish the first British crown colony ever.
• Founded in 1600 the English East India Company became the de facto ruler of part of Indian subcontinent (the other part was Princely States, not governed by the cOmpany) starting with Robert Clive's defeating Mughal Empire in the 1757 Battle of Plassey ( (East India) Company rule (1757–1858) ). Indian rebellion of 1857 (against Company rule) was subdued, but power was transferred from the Company to the Crown, in a period called British Raj (1858–1947).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Raj
The Hindi noun masculine raj (meaning reign or rule, from Sanskrit rājya) is a cognate of Latin noun masculine rex king.

See also list of princely states of British India (by region)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li ... dia_%28by_region%29
(top map)
British India at the time included the present-day Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh.