He was born on 30 March 1754 the third son of Rev David Dickson of Kilbucho, minister of Newlands.

He was educated at West Linton parish school, then in Peebles, He studied at Glasgow University and finished his theological training at Divinity Hall in Edinburgh.

In 1792 he began assisting Rev Thomas Snell Jones at Lady Glenorchy's Church in Edinburgh but when no senior position arose he moved in October 1795 to the adjacent Canongate Chapel of Ease on New Street, an "overflow" church for Canongate Kirk required due the rapidly expanding population in the city.

He moved briefly to the nearby Trinity College Church to the west in 1799 before settling in the New (West) Kirk in St Giles in November 1801: one of four parishes then contained in St Giles Cathedral, and one of the most important charges in Scotland.

[3] He is buried in a vault in the graveyard of St Cuthbert's Church, Edinburgh, where his son was minister.