Author: Dickson, Stephen
Biography:
DICKSON, Stephen (1761-1799: Wheelcock)
Dickson graduated with a BA from Trinity College Dublin in 1781 and with an MD in 1793. He married Frances Wheeler at St. Bride's, Dublin, on 15 Feb. 1785; they had one son, Richard Wheeler Dickson, who was baptised at St. Bride's on 22 July 1788. Dickson taught medicine as Professor of Physics at TCD from 1792 to 1798, publishing in both his areas of professional interest--science and education--in the same period. But he was also politically active and, having been implicated in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, he left for America. He spent less than six months in Quebec City, under surveillance as "a noted Irish patriot": his poem on the union of taste and science, an allegorical compliment to the Governor of Quebec and his wife, appears to have been an effort to calm fears about his intentions. He also published a pamphlet proposing a college in Quebec to teach liberal arts and science. He left Quebec for Boston en route to England about March 1799, however, leaving behind personal property and a substantial library to be sold at auction. He travelled as far as Charleston SC, where he gave a series of lectures on chemistry, but he died there in a yellow fever epidemic along with his wife and their 10-year-old son. (Harriet Wheelcock, "What Happened to Dr. Dickson, First Librarian of Dun's Library?" heritage.rcpi.ie; Tremaine; ancestry.com 5 Sept. 2018; irishgenealogy.ie 27 Aug. 2025; information from SR) HJ