The story of the Dixon siblings and where they came from rests on a very shaky foundation. Most of the story relies on a single quote from Albert Cook Myers, in his seminal work “Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1682-1750” which was published in 1902. In it, Mr. Myers refers to a wedding listed in the Lurgan Monthly Meeting in Co. Armagh, Ireland. A William Dixson married Isabelle Rea. In attendance were both a Henry and a Rose Dixson. Myers then states the following:
This statement is not supported by any source at all. “No doubt” and “it is said” is extremely shaky proof, especially since Myers was publishing this information over two-hundred years after the fact!
And yet, like many things in the genealogy world, it was generally accepted. Since the 1990’s, when genealogy began finding its way online, this story has been copied and pasted until it seems like plain fact.
One other source of information comes from the hand of Thomas Pierson, William Dixon’s eventual brother-in-law. Thomas was eventually the Deputy Surveyor of Penn’s Colony, and his second wife was William’s sister, Rose Dixon. At some point some journal notes from Thomas Pierson surfaced where he indicates he sailed from England (southeast coast) to Marlyand “in company with Wm Dixon.”
From this statement, many early writers assumed that this was the same William from Lurgan and the same William who was later his brother-in-law. But both of these are assumptions!
So far, the main sources that are missing are the following:
- Henry Dixon’s burial location, in either Ireland or Pennsylvania
- Rose Dixon’s burial location, in either Ireland or Pennsylvania
- Birth records for William, Dinah and/or Rose (the sibling)
- Quaker church records for ‘removal’ from Lurgan for any of the siblings
- Quaker church records for ‘arrival’ from Lurgan to one of the Pennsylvania meetings
Keep in mind that there are removal records showing Thomas Pierson’s various trips across the Atlantic. The lack of similar records for any of the Dixon siblings is problematic.
It would be rather coincidental for Thomas Pierson to sail with a William Dixon and then end up marrying a sister of a William Dixon just to have both of these Williams be different, unrelated people. But if these Dixons were from the Bristol, England area, where Thomas originated, that would resolve some of the coincidence.
I have been looking into the origins of the sibling spouses to see if there might be a pattern. So far, the only pattern is that the spouses were Quaker. William’s spouse Ann Gregg was from a different county in Ireland. Rose’s spouse was Thomas Pierson from Bristol, England. Dinah’s spouse Michael Harlan was from Lurgan and his brother Thomas witnessed the marriage of William Dixon and Isabelle Rea.
Now that is also an interesting coincidence, but does not prove prior knowledge or connections from Lurgan.
However, if you continue searching a bit you do find additional ties. Valentine Hollingsworth was once tasked by the Lurgan meeting to speak with Henry Dixon for ‘walking disorderly.’ (this did not refer to drunkenness, but rather doing things outside the Quaker principles) He later was a founder of the Newark Monthly Meeting in what is now northern Delaware. In this meeting both Rose and Dinah Dixon met, were approved for and married their spouses. The fact that the Hollingsworth and Harlan families continued their ties from Lurgan to Newark weighs in favor of the Dixon siblings also having some form of connection to Lurgan as well. The exact genealogical connection still remains unproven, however.
Various Dixon researchers over the years have wrestled with this problem. E. O. Dixon, in 1996, visited Ireland and dug into the records. He proved William and Isabell were older than the immigrant William and still active in Lurgan long after the Dixon siblings showed up in Delaware. This leaves the Dixon siblings completely absent from the Lurgan meeting records. Indeed, absent from any known Quaker meeting records in Ireland!