Who We Are

Since the early 1950's The Friends of the John Dickinson Mansion have provided support for the State of Delaware's efforts to preserve and maintain the boyhood home of John Dickinson, "The Penman of the Revolution." The house was built by Dickinson's father, Samuel Dickinson, in 1740 and remained in the family until the twentieth century when it passed through a series of owners. In 1952 the National Society of Colonial Dames of America in the State of Delaware purchased the Mansion and gave it to the State. In consideration of the work needed to restore the house, members of the Colonial Dames and other concerned individuals organized the Friends to lend continuing support to the restoration effort, and we continue that support and the memory of Dickinson's legacy to this day.

Click below to see Dr. Jane Calvert's introduction to John Dickinson

Dickinson Speaks to All of Us

            "Honor, justice and humanity call upon us to hold and to transmit to our posterity that liberty which we received from our ancestors. It is
            not our duty to leave wealth to our children, but it is our duty to leave liberty to them." (Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania 1767-68)    

          "Let the general government be like the sun and the states the planets, repelled yet attracted, and the whole moving regularly and 
           harmoniously in several orbits."      (John Dickinson at the Constitutional Convention 1787)
 
         “Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all!  /  By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.”   ("The Liberty Song"  by John Dickinson  1768)

         “Experience must be our only guide. Reason may mislead us.”   (John Dickinson at the Constitutional Convention 1787)

( Closed Zoom Board Meeting: March 7th @ 10:00am )