Dickerson was born on April 17, 1770, in Hanover Neck, Province of New Jersey, British America.

[2] Dickerson was educated by private tutors,[2] received an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1789 from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and read law in 1793.

[1] He was a private in the New Jersey Detached Militia, Second Regiment of Cavalry in 1794,[1] during the Whiskey Rebellion.

[1] Dickerson was elected as a Democratic-Republican (later Crawford Republican and Jacksonian Democrat) from New Jersey to the United States Senate in 1816.

[2] He was immediately reelected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Senator Ephraim Bateman and served from January 30, 1829, to March 3, 1833.

President Andrew Jackson initially appointed him as minister to Russia which Dickerson had accepted only to find out upon his arrival to Washington D.C. that Jackson instead decided to make him the 10th United States Secretary of the Navy in 1834.

[3] During the 1820s, he was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions.