Isaac Dixon 1770-1843
This was to have been a little pamphlet showing the descent of me - Christopher John Alfred Dixon, and I had intentions to trace both the male line (Dixon) and the female line (Elkington) of my paternal grandparents. It was my grandmother, Gertrude DIXON (nee Elkington) who, years ago, when I was not yet a teenager, kindled my interest in family history. She showed me the deeds to a little cottage in Layer Breton, and although I didn't understand the wording, I was fascinated by the feel of the parchment, the legal jargon and the calligraphy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From then on, I wanted to know where we came from and what our roots were.
I started on the genealogical trail in 1972, when I was working for the National Westminster Bank in London. I was only going to trace the Dixon and Elkington lines. Regarding the Dixon line I progressed fairly quickly to Isaac but thereafter I hit bedrock. Where Isaac came from and what his life was like I haven't been able to find out. However, after making contact with my New Zealand Dixon relatives, more information came to light about Isaac – but not where he came from.
One good thing I discovered early in my search, was how interested people became when I explained my quest, but the best thing of all is when you discover you have distant cousins that you had only heard stories about, or who up to that moment were only rumours. I had lived for some time around the Colchester/Ipswich regions and never known there were at least 50 fairly close relatives in the same area (the DENNIS family). And at least 100 in the Mexborough, South Yorkshire area. And my uncle(s) Dennis living less than 5 miles from the place of my birth!! Having met some of this new family I researched them and solved the mystery of why the name Cheveley still appears in their family. In solving that problem, I stumbled upon a whole new family to research, and although, in the strictest sense I cannot claim them as my own - the fun of research and the sense of bringing our English history to life compelled me to go on. All of this was brought about by my Aunt Phyllis (Burns) introducing me to my uncle(s) Dennis - Cheveley and Patrick & their sister Audrey Davey. I have written family history books on these families.
These families were, without doubt, from that solid backbone of English life - the yeoman stock. In our veins flows the blood of farmers, soldiers, sailors and shopkeepers. We may not have contributed greatly to individual incidents in history, or hobnobbed with kings and queens but our ancestors helped to make Britain great.
To my family I give this booklet. You know now where your roots lie, but it is my fervent hope that one of you, in the future, will continue the research and find what I failed to find.
Good Luck!!
Christopher John Alfred Dixon 2025
Introduction
The story opens in 1770, or thereabouts at the birth of Isaac Dixon in Welling, Kent. It took me 25 years to find where he came from – East Wickham in Kent. Why he moved to Harrow-on-the-Hill is unknown. In East Wickham he was listed as a beer housekeeper. He married Ann Elvee.
Thanks to the internet and DNA testing, I found, to my delight, that I have cousins in New Zealand, the descendants of one of Isaac’s descendants. Their research brought a whole new picture to where Isaac came from
Known facts about Isaac Dixon.
School of thought 1 (mine and the NZ family). All the records (census, marriage and death certificate) suggest he was born in 1770. There is no evidence for anything else …. and I do like evidence.
Isaac had the lease of a substantial piece of property in Rochester, Kent. Where did he get the stake for it? Was it a gift from a relative? We know he was not honest when he was in the Excise because he was fired.
He was a publican/farmer. Selling alcohol runs in the family. Was he related to the Dixon licensed victuallers in the area? I don't believe the conjecture of Richard Ellender.
There are some really silly assumptions some people make about Isaac's family out there in the online trees.
School of thought 2: The NZ branch of the family employed a genealogist by the name of Richard Ellender in 1991 who advised that Isaac was born 1780 and his parents were John Dixon of Staple who married Mary Tyler of Ash in 1777.
Cathy Dixon in NZ did more research and believes that Mary Tyler of Ash in fact married John Burton of Staple (not John Dixon) in 1777. She has seen the Staple parish records and there can be no mistaking that it does read John Burton and they have various children together (none named Isaac).
Richard Ellender (who has passed away), was certain at the time that this John Dixon, who married Mary Tyler of Ash, was the only John Dixon who fathered an Isaac Dixon in the whole second half of the 18th century in a twenty-mile radius around Canterbury. BUT THERE ARE NO RECORDS! They could have been lost of course. He assumed it was the right connection. And we all know what ASSUME stands for. Richard is no longer alive and his claims are unable to be verified. But you will find family trees on the net claiming his findings to be fact.
The following report is from genealogist Julia Henderson of Acorn Family History:
Background and Known Facts
You and others have been researching the background of Isaac Dixon for some years. A genealogical
investigation and report had previously been made by Norse Lore in 1991, which gave a full family
history for Isaac Dixon, stating that he had been born in 1780 and was the son of John Dixon of
Staple and his wife Mary Tyler of Ash. However, there are some doubts about the veracity of this
report and the author has since died leaving no further details.
There is said to have been a Dixon family bible in existence which stated that Isaac Dixon was born in
1781 and that his father was John Dixon, a yeoman from outside Canterbury, named by his father
after a close Jewish friend of his who had later let him down over a £1500 bill. Isaac was said to have
attended Haberdasher Aske school.
Generation 1: Isaac Dixon
The story opens in 1770, or thereabouts at the birth of Isaac DIXON. There is some speculation as to his actual birth date, bS as we have seen.
We know nothing of Isaac in his formative years - from when he would have joined the workforce to his entry into the excise service. What was happening in these days? King George III was on the throne. Captain Cook discovered and claimed Australia. slavery wad abolished in England; war of Independence started in New England; etc.
This picture of Isaac of Isaac Dixon (Dixon0001) has been in the possession of the Hawke's Bay NZ Dixon family (who emigrated to NZ in 1890). They were told it was of Isaac as a young man. I sent a digital copy to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2016 and this is the reply: "Based on your attached image, it appears to be a photographic portrait from the mid to late nineteenth-century, and not a photograph of a painting. However, that is just from looking at the .jpeg file, and it is hard to make any confident assertions without physically witnessing the object." The original photo is out there somewhere - we hope
Isaac’s first appearance in the records is when he was issued a license to sell beers and spirits. I had some research done a few years ago by Gillian Rickard - she checked the Registers of Alehouse Recognizances for Kent and discovered Isaac was a licensed alehouse keeper from September 1798 to 1816. So he was 28 when he became a publican. Did his license cover the pub that he later held the license - the Guy Earl of Warwick pub in Bexley, Kent?
I am grateful to Penny Duggan Secretary, Bexley Historical Society who stated in 2016 that "the present Guy Earl of Warwick was built in 1926. The old pub, which was demolished, stood west of the present building on part of the site of John Newton Court (housing). Licences for it can be traced back to 1730. The pub was enlarged in 1792. Adjacent to this pub was the equally ancient Hope Lodge which became a private school. When that moved, around 1800, the buildings and pleasure gardens were merged with the pub."
Letter from Penny Duggan; Bexley Historical Society 2016
Isaac Dixon married Ann Elvy on the 8 November 1803 at St Nicholas Church, Rochester, Kent. Ann was the daughter of Robert Elvee and Jane Cook. Robert was a Freeman of Rochester and we know that Ann had a sister, Mary Eliza Elvee bc 1788. Ann Elvee was baptised 7 March 1781 in Chatham, Kent. Interesting that they were both literate.
Why did they get married by license instead of in a church? "There have always been some people who want to marry in a hurry or in private. The church allowed them to avoid the delay and publicity of calling banns on three successive Sundays by providing, for a fee, a marriage license. The information given in order to obtain the license may include detail not available elsewhere. The centrally filed record may lead directly to the place of marriage and may survive when the marriage record itself has been lost.” Source Family Search.
A trip was made to the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone where the Rochester diocese marriage licence bonds are kept, and a copy of the marriage licence bond was obtained after browsing through the microfilm of the marriage licence bonds for that period. Although the marriage licence bond gave the fictional John Doe as a bondsman (this was a common practice and nothing to be concerned with – it simply avoided having to find a second bondsman), and did not give the name of Isaac’s father (the bondsman was sometimes one of the parents),
After their marriage Isaac and Ann moved to Elham in Kent. Julia uncovered the fact that Isaac was employed as an excise officer. There's quite a lot of information about the role of an excise officer and it can be found in this e-book "The excise officer's manual, and improved gauger : being a compendious introduction to the business of charging and collecting the duties of excise" by Joseph Bateman.
Julia further reported "The fact that Isaac ran the pub is perhaps not coincidental when viewed in the light of what I discovered today on my trip to The National Archives. I was able to follow Isaac's career as an Excise Officer through the records - unfortunately I did not find his original appointment, but I found that before he was in Canterbury he was working in the Elham area, Elham being a village between Canterbury and Folkestone. From Canterbury he transferred to the Romney area, the dates coinciding with his marriage and his move to that area."
His career with the Excise came to an unfortunate end in 1806 when he was discharged for malpractice to do with encouraging those on his 'round' to order alcoholic liquor from a particular dealer. This, together with him having been given notice to quit, was presumably the reason for his move away from Romney to Bexley.”
Research from Julia of Acorn Family History Research.
So Isaac was fired!!
St Nicholas Rochester