David Dickson

[close] David Dickson (c.1583–1663) was a Scottish theologian. He was the only son of John Dick or Dickson, a merchant in the Trongate of Glasgow.

Dickson was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A., and was appointed one of the regents or professors of philosophy, a position limited to eight years. On the conclusion of his term of office Dickson was in 1618 ordained minister of the parish of Irvine.

Having publicly testified against the Five Articles of Perth, he was at the instance of James Law, archbishop of Glasgow, summoned to appear before the High Court of Commission at Edinburgh on 9 January 1622; but having declined the jurisdiction of the court, he was subsequently deprived of his ministry in Irvine, and ordained to proceed to Turriff, Aberdeenshire, within twenty days. When he was about to travel northward, the Archbishop of Glasgow, at the request of the Earl of Eglinton, permitted him to remain in Ayrshire, at Eglinton, where for about two months he preached in the hall and courtyard of the castle. As great crowds went from Irvine to hear him, he was then ordered to set out for Turriff, but about the end of July 1623 was permitted to return to his charge at Irvine, and remained there unmolested till 1637.

In 1643 Dickson was appointed, along with Alexander Henderson and David Calderwood, to draw up a Directory for Public Worship, and he was also joint author with James Durham, who afterwards succeeded him in the professorship in Glasgow, of The Sum of Saving Knowledge, frequently printed along with the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms, although it never received the formal sanction of the church. In 1650 he was translated to the divinity chair of the University of Edinburgh, where he delivered an inaugural address in Latin, which was translated by George Sinclair into English, and, under the name of Truth's Victory over Error, was published as Sinclair's own in 1684. The piracy having been detected, it was republished with Dickson's name attached and a Life of Dickson by Robert Wodrow in 1752.

In 1650 he was appointed by the Committee of the Kirk one of a deputation to congratulate Charles II on his arrival in Scotland.