John Dickerson was born in Virginia in about 1720. A resident of Granville County, North Carolina, he served as a local magistrate and performed the marriage ceremony between Rachel Pettiford and Valentine Locus in November 1774. During the American Revolution, he served as a captain of the North Carolina Light Dragoons from 1776 to 1777 and later was a colonel of the Granville County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia in 1780. He died in Granville County in 1802.