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. Intense research has not shown us where Isaac originated from, although spurious claims have been made by others who can't back their claims up with any evidence. Why he moved to Harrow-on-the-Hill is unknown.
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 completely 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.
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. But he provided no evidence!!!
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.
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 a little 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 was abolished in England; war of Independence started in New England; etc.
This picture of Isaac of Isaac Dixon 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."
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."
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),
St Nicholas church - above, as Isaac and Ann would have seen it; below s I saw it in 2023.
Above right, where Isaac and Ann would have emerged as the first known Mr and Mrs Dixons.
Isaac's (short) career as an Excise Officer
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."
Julia reported " Unfortunately the records do not appear to refer to Isaac’s initial appointment to the Elham ride – the indexes back to 1786 would have gone back to the time when Isaac was (at the oldest) 16. However the remaining references show that Isaac moved from the Elham ride to the Canterbury 3rd ride in 1799, then on
to the Romney ride in 1803 (which would coincide with his marriage and subsequent move to Romney), and finally his dismissal from the Romney ride and the Excise service in 1806, the reasonsor which can be read in the excerpt.
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Isaac Dixon dismissal from the Excise Service CUST47/450 p 105-6 (1806)
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!!
So we know that Isaac was an excise officer - first in Elham (one of the most beautiful villages in England), then Canterbury and finally in New Romney. In New Romney, Ann had given birth and lost two children who both died on the same day just a few days before Christmas - how heartbreaking. I believe that they died of malaria. "From 1564 the health of the marsh population suffered from malaria, then known as ague or marsh fever, which caused high mortality rates." Wikipedia.
It was a very unhealthy place to live. “Romney Marsh in the 17th and 18th centuries was known for its high prevalence of disease and death. Mortality in the marshes was exceptionally high, with rates of infant mortality some two to three times higher than in neighbouring parishes. The marshes, like many other parts of early modern England, were afflicted with a range of infectious and chronic diseases. Bubonic plague, smallpox and fevers all took their toll. The marshes, moreover, suffered from the additional problem of malaria. Most deaths were caused by malaria. Malaria receded slowly from the marshes and by the mid- 19th century Romney Marsh was one of the healthiest districts of Kent. ”[1] Which is little comfort for Isaac and Ann.[1] Romney Marsh: Environmental Change and Human Occupation in a Coastal Lowland; Eddison, Gardner and Long
Isaac was very busy tracking down smugglers and charging excise duty for the government. It was only a short distance to France and smugglers could earn a lot of money by “wool-running”. Wool-running was the export of wool to France without paying the export duty. It was very profitable for the smugglers, who exchanged the wool for brandy, wine and spirits. A farm labourer at that time could earn about 17 pennies a day (£17 a day in 2022), while a smuggler could earn about ten shillings (£120 a day in 2022).
“The smugglers and lookers of marshland communities were invariably described as mean, stupid, apathetic, caring little whether they lived or died. The parish of St Mary-in-the-Marsh was a typical example inhabited by 'not above 50 persons, all of mean quality, marsh lookers', and at Dymchurch the inhabitants 'are of the lower sort, and, like others dwelling in the rest of the Marsh, are mostly such as are employed in the occupations and management of the level, or a kind of seafaring men, who follow an illicit trade, as well by land as water.” [1]
Isaac was either a customs officer or a riding officer. “The principal duty of the riding officer was to patrol the coast within their predefined riding range to suppress smuggling. Their duties included meeting and corresponding with the other riding officers either in person or by letter and inquiring and learning if there were any smuggled goods upon the coast, or landed. They were to get the best information regarding this booty, and to acquaint the Officers of the Customs all over the shire. The Riding Officer always kept a journal reporting all his activities.” (Wikipedia)
A Riding Officer was paid between £20 - £40 a year (£1700-3500 in 2022) and was forbidden to take fees or gratuities. He was also expected to buy, care for, and accommodate his own horse. He was appointed by a constitution of the Treasury and had a deputation from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise. He took the oaths of office and gave bond and security. He received printed instructions for his conduct with his deputation. He endeavoured to get information as to any illicit practices and makes seizures whenever he could. It was an extremely dangerous job and often resulted in the officer being severely beaten and often murdered. Daniel Carter, a Custom house officer was murdered. “The seven miscreants of the lowest kind were hanged at Chichester 18 Jan 1749. Their dead bodies were hung in chains for the delectation of the fowls of the air at Rake, at Selsey Bill, and at Rook’s Hill near Chichester.”[Memorials of old Kent p 275 ebook)
So the Riding Officer was cold, wet, outgunned and poorly paid and in essence, useless. In his annual report in 1783, Sir William Musgrave, the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, said that Riding Officers were 'of very little service, 'tho' a great Burthen to the Revenue'.
Following Isaac’s nefarious activities at bending the rules of the Excise department we know he was dismissed from the service. In the spring of 1807 there is an advert in the Times of London for the sale of his house which he rented. You can imagine Ann was happy to leave New Romney and head back to Bexley, a much cleaner environment.
And thus a new chapter in the life of Isaac and Ann commences.
Isaac and Ann Dixon move back to Bexley
Isaac held a 21-year lease for the Guy, Earl of Warwick in Welling - now Bexley Heath. And he had held that license since 1798. The Guy, Earl of Warwick was a popular coaching inn on the old Roman road to Canterbury. But towards the end of 1815, things were not going so well for Isaac - he was going bankrupt. His name appears in the press fairly frequently.
Was Isaac a bad publican or were there other factors at work? 200 years ago, our ancestors experienced a year without a summer. They had their own climate change disaster. 1816 became the year without a summer for millions of people in parts of North America and Europe, leading to failed crops and near-famine conditions. While they didn't know the chill's cause at the time, scientists and historians now know that the biggest volcanic eruption in human history, on the other side of the world — Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815 — spewed millions of tons of dust, ash and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, temporarily changing the world's climate and dropping global temperatures by as much as 3 degrees. The gloom spread to the literary world, too: that foul, frigid year inspired the plot of Mary Shelly's epic horror novel Frankenstein. Crops failed, so Isaac would have been unable to obtain barley for the beer, the country relied on farm workers and most of them were out of work.
" The Commissioners in a Commission of Bankruptcy bearing date the 30th day of May 1816, awarded and issued forth against Isaac Dixon, of Welling, Kent, in the Parish of Bexley in the County of Kent, Innkeeper, Dealer and Chapman". "The Commissioners in a Commission of Bankruptcy bearing date the 30th day of May 1816, awarded and issued forth against Isaac Dixon, of Welling, Kent, in the Parish of Bexley in the County of Kent, Innkeeper, Dealer and Chapman, intend to meet on the 18th of April next, at Eleven of the Clock in the Forenoon at Guildhall, London, to make a Dividend of the Estate and Effects of the said Bankrupt; when and where the Creditors, who have not already proved their Debts, are to come prepared to prove the same, or they will be excluded the Benefit of the said Dividend. And all Claims not then proved will be disallowed."[Times of London May 1816]
The Times of London 10 Aug 1816 describes it quite comprehensively. I have reproduced the article below – seems the journalist wasn’t keen on full stops: "Welling, Kent – To Brewers, Stage-coach and post-masters – By T STRONG, on the Premises, on Thursday, Aug 22, at two precisely, by order of the Assignees of Mr Isaac Dixon, the valuable LEASE, for 21 years from Michaelmas 1816 of that old-established, well-known, and accustomed INN the Guy Earl of Warwick, situate at Welling, only 10 miles from London, on the high road to Dover, the first regular stage from London and a number of stage-coaches change horses daily, excellent stabling, yard, extensive and beautiful gardens stocked with abundance of the choicest fruit trees, fish-pond stored with fish, and several enclosures of exceeding rich land, containing, more or less, the whole lying within a ring fence, and taken as a whole, has scarcely its parallel. At the same time will be sold, the Lease, 4 years of which will be unexpired at Michaelmas next, of a large yard, stabling for 20 horses, barn and granary, and 2 acres of good land, subject to a very low rent, opposite the above; also the Lease for a term of years, at a low rent, of 11 acres, more or less, of very rich land, lately cultivated and improved at an immense expense, situate on the high road, about a quarter of a mile from the foregoing: the growing crops of what, potato, barley and oats, all very fine, will be sold at the same time. Particulars, with conditions, 7 days prior at the Halt Moon, Borough; Green Man, Barnet; White Hart, Romford; Bell, Bromsley; Oak, Sevenoaks; Bell, Maidstone; Bull, Shooters-Hill; Prince of Orange, Gravesend; George and Bull, Dartford; Crown Inn, Rochester; Rose, Sittingbourne; Kings Head, Canterbury; Ship, Dover; all the Inns in the neighbourhood; of Thomas Flexney, Esq, solicitor, 6 Grays Inn-square; Thomas Walker, Esq, solicitor, Dartford; and of the Auctioneer, Kent Fire-Office, Welling.The Times further reported 16 August 1816 ... "The creditors who have proved their debts under a commission of bankrupt awarded and issued forth against ISAAC DIXON of Welling, in the county of Kent, innkeeper, dealer and chapman, are requested to meet the Assignees of the said Bankrupt’s Estate and Effects, on Wednesday the 21st of August instant, at 12 at noon precisely, at the Guy Earl of Warwick, at Welling aforesaid to take into consideration the most advantageous manner of selling and disposing of the lease of the said public house called the Guy Earl of Warwick, and the Premises held therewith, and lately in the occupation of the bankrupt; also to authorise the Assignees to carry into effect any contract or agreement for that purpose, and upon other special affairs.”
Isaac and Ann move to Harrow-on-the-Hill
In 1816 he and most of the family moved from one side of London to the other - a huge move from Bexley in Kent to Harrow-on-the-Hill in Middlesex. The mystery is what attracted him to live in Harrow?.
œThe Times 1818 also tells us that he had a partnership with Robert Dixon up to this time. We also know from the Times of 10 December 1818 that he is described as a farmer.The family moved into the newly built house in off West Street. This became known as the Victoria Dairy. When Isaac lived here there weren't as may houses and I’m sure thus was a detached house. Victoria Street was built about 1860. We know he kept a cart and at least 2 horses and had at least two cows that grazed down at the bottom of West Street before the enclosures took place. I imagine there would have been enough space around the house for the cart and the animals.
