Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/330

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Siawrll. was a distinguished lawyer of \'ir- ginia. and married Maria Henry Tyler, sis- ter of President Tyler.

Cocke, William, born in Amelia county, \irginia. ab'.)Ut 1740, son of Abraham Cocke. He received an English education, and began the practice of law. After serv- ing in the Virginia legislature and as colonel ot militia, he went to Tennessee, where he became brigadier-general of militia. When Tennessee was admitted into the Union in 1796, he and William Blunt were elected as its first United States senators, Cocke serv- ing from December 5, 1796, till 1797, and again from 1799 till March 3, 1805. He was a member of the legislature in 1813, a judge o: the circuit court, and in 1814 was ap- pointed by President Madison as Indian agent for the Chickasaw nation. He died in Columbus. Mississippi, August 22, 1828, in the eighty-first year of his age.

Darkc, William, born in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, in 1736; he was reared and educated in Virginia, his parents removing thither when he was four years cf age. and when he attained the age of nineteen years he joined the army, and was with Gen. Braddock at his defeat in 1755. During the early part of the revolutionary war. he was promoted to the rank of cap- tain, and later became colonel, commanding the Hampshire and Berkeley regiments at the capture of Cornwallis, and at the battle of Germantown, while serving as captain, was taken prisoner. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of levies, in 1 79 1, commanded the left wing of St. Clair's army at its defeat by the Miami Indians on November 4. 1791, being severely wounded, narrowly escaping death, and was subse-

quently appointed major-general of \*irgin!a militia. He was frequently chosen as a member of the Virginia legislature, and in the convention of 1788 voted for the Federal constitution. He died in Jefferson county, Virginia, November 26, 1801.

Dickins, John, born in London, England. August 24, 1747; he acquired an excellent education, being a student for a portion of the time at Eton, and prior to the revolu- tionary war he emigrated to the Xew World, locating in Virginia, where he united with the Methodist church in the year 1774, and two years later preached there as an evan- gelist, was admitted into the itinerant min- istry in 1777, and labored in North Carolina. In 1780 he suggested to Bishop Asbury the plan of Cokesbury College, Xew Abingdon, Maryland, the first Methodist academic in- stitution in this country. During the years 1783-85-86-89, he resided in Xew York City, then removed to the city of Philadelphia, where he published a ^lethodist hymn-book, printing the greater part of it with his own hands, and shortly afterward the conference assumed the publication, and appointed him book-steward, and in this office he founded the Methodist book concern. He issued the "Arminian Magazine" in Philadelphia in [789-90, and the "Methodist Magazine" trom 1797 until his death, which occurred in Philadelphia, September 27, 1798. Mr. Dick- ins was the first American preacher to re- ceive Thomas Coke and approve his scheme for organizing the Methodist denomination, and he was a member of the **Christmas con- ference" of 1784, and suggested the name adopted. Mr. Dickins was a powerful preacher and one of the best scholars of his
 * Methodist Episcopal Church" which it

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