Samuel Dickenson was a clergyman and botanist.

He was educated at St John's College

St John's College, Cambridge

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....

, Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, where he was a contemporary of Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...

. He succeeded his father John Dickenson as Rector of St. Mary's

St Mary's Church, Blymhill

St. Mary's Church, Blymhill is an Anglican church in the village of Blymhill, Staffordshire, England . The building, which is a Grade I listed building, was constructed in the 14th century and restored and extended in the 18th and 19th centuries...

, Blymhill

Blymhill

Blymhill is a village in Staffordshire, England....

 and remained in the position from 9 January 1777 until his death, aged 90, in 1823.

Dickenson contributed to various botanical and historical works and was tutor to Thomas Beddoes

Thomas Beddoes

Thomas Beddoes , English physician and scientific writer, was born at Shifnal in Shropshire. He was a reforming practitioner and teacher of medicine, and an associate of leading scientific figures. Beddoes was a friend of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and, according to E. S...

 and Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin (1758–1778)

Charles Darwin was the oldest son of Erasmus Darwin and Mary Howard , and was the uncle of the famous naturalist Charles Robert Darwin...

 (uncle of the famous naturalist Charles Robert Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

). He accompanied the 8 year old Darwin on an excursion to France, collecting plants, between October 1766 and March 1767.

The inscription on his memorial in St. Mary's reads:

Revd. Samuel Dickenson during 46 years Rector of this place his character was adorned with many virtues, his mind richly stored with learning divine and humane, he was remarkably upright in his dealings & strictly temperate in his mode of living, in simplicity & godly sincerity. He had his conversation in the world.