Philip Dickinson was born on 22 May 1770, Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut. He was married on 19 May 1791, Lebanon?, Connecticut, to Phebe Hutchinson, daughter of Ezra Hutchinson and Elizabeth Chapman. Philip Dickinson appears at Sharon, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the Censuses of 1800 (p. 180), 1810, and 1820.

In the War of 1812 (apparently when the capture of Washington D.C. was eminent), Philip enlisted as a Private in Captain Stiles Company of the Marine Artillery (this fact appears on his tombstone). In 1824, he conveyed property to his son-in-law, Noah Calkins, and it was probably soon after that when he moved to join his sons Ezra and Elisha at Johnston, Trumbull County, Ohio, where he built a log house on property between their farms. He moved to Fowler, Ohio, with his son Elisha in the 1840s, and he died at the house of Elisha on 15 April 1859. Both Philip and wife Phebe were buried in the Fowler Cemetery.

His FIndagrave profile has a picture of his gravestone (which also records his War of 1812 military service): https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/80962194