son his successor. The publication in 1864–5 of two pamphlets entitled ‘Dhar not restored’ roused in Calcutta a feeling of great indignation against the writer, Dickinson, who was stigmatised as a ‘needy adventurer.’
On the death of his father in 1869 Dickinson, who inherited a large fortune, was much occupied in the management of his property, and being in weak health he gave a less close attention to the business of the society than he had done. Still, he kept alive to the last his interest in India, corresponding with Holkar, maharajah of Indore, with great regularity. He indignantly repelled the accusation made against Holkar in the affair of Colonel Durand [see Durand, Sir Henry Marion].
In 1872 Dickinson was deeply grieved by the death of his youngest son, and in 1875 felt still more deeply the loss of his wife, whom he did not long survive. On 23 Nov. 1876 he was found dead in his study, at 1 Upper Grosvenor Street, London. From the papers lying on the table it was evident that he had been engaged in writing a reply to Holkar's assailants, which was afterwards completed and published by his friend Major Evans Bell under the title of ‘Last Counsels of an Unknown Counsellor.’
The published works of Dickinson, chiefly in pamphlet form, are as follows: 1. ‘India, its Government under Bureaucracy,’ London, 1852, 8vo. 2. ‘The Famine in the North-West Provinces of India,’ London, 1861, 8vo. 3. ‘Reply to the Indigo Planters' pamphlet entitled “Brahmins and Pariahs,” published by the Indigo manufacturers of Bengal,’ London, 1861, 8vo. 4. ‘A Letter to Lord Stanley on the Policy of the Secretary of State for India,’ London, 1863, 8vo. 5. ‘Dhar not restored,’ 1864. 6. ‘Sequel to “Dhar not restored,” and a Proposal to extend the Principle of Restoration,’ London, 1865, 8vo. 7. ‘A Scheme for the Establishment of Efficient Militia Reserves,’ London, 1871, 8vo. 8. ‘Last Counsels of an Unknown Counsellor,’ edited by E. Bell, London, 1877, 8vo, of which a special edition, with portrait, was published in 1883, 8vo.
[Memoir by Major Evans Bell prefixed to Last Counsels of an Unknown Counsellor.]
DICKINSON, JOSEPH, M.D. (d. 1865), botanist, took the degree of M.B. at Dublin 1837, and proceeded M.A. and M.D. in 1843, taking also an ad eundem degree at Cambridge. About 1839 he became physician to the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and subsequently also to the Fever Hospital, Workhouse, and South Dispensary. He lectured on medicine and on botany at the Liverpool School of Medicine, and in 1851 published a small ‘Flora of Liverpool,’ to which a supplement was issued in 1855. He served as president of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, and was a fellow of the Royal and Linnean Societies, and of the Royal College of Physicians. He died at Bedford Street South, Liverpool, in July 1865.
[Medical Directory, 1864; local press; Flora of Liverpool.]
DICKINSON, WILLIAM (1756–1822), topographer and legal writer, whose original name was William Dickinson Rastall, was the only son of Dr. William Rastall, vicar-general of the church of Southwell. He was born in 1756, and became a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1777, M.A. in 1780 (Graduati Cantabrigienses, ed. 1856, p. 316). On leaving the university he devoted himself to the study of the law. In 1795, at the request of Mrs. Henrietta Dickinson of Eastward Hoo, he assumed the name of Dickinson only. His residence was at Muskham Grange, near Newark, and he was a justice of the peace for the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln, Middlesex, Surrey, and Sussex. He died in Cumberland Place, New Road, London, on 9 Oct. 1822. By his wife Harriet, daughter of John Kenrick of Bletchingley, Surrey, he had a numerous family.
His works are: 1. ‘History of the Antiquities of the Town and Church of Southwell, in the County of Nottingham,’ London, 1787, 4to; second edition, improved, 1801–3, to which he added a supplement in 1819, and prefixed to which is his portrait, engraved by Holl, from a painting by Sherlock. 2. ‘The History and Antiquities of the Town of Newark, in the County of Nottingham (the Sidnacester of the Romans), interpersed with Biographical Sketches,’ two parts, Newark, 1806, 1819, 4to. These histories of Southwell and Newark form four parts of a work which he entitled: ‘Antiquities, Historical, Architectural, Chorographical, and Itinerary, in Nottinghamshire and the adjacent Counties,’ 2 vols. Newark, 1801–19, 4to. 3. ‘A Practical Guide to the Quarter and other Sessions of the Peace,’ London, 1815, 8vo; 6th edition, with great additions by Thomas Noon Talfourd and R. P. Tyrwhitt, London, 1845, 8vo. 4. ‘The Justice Law of the last five years, from 1813 to 1817,’ London, 1818, 8vo. 5. ‘A Practical Exposition of the Law relative to the Office and Duties of a Justice of the Peace,’ 2nd edition, 3 vols. London, 1822, 8vo.
