Ralph Dixon (1836 - 1916)

Born 4 Jan 1836 in Bishop Auckland, Durham, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Fox) Dixon — married 5 Jun 1858 in Dewsbury,,Yorkshire,England

Descendants

Died 7 Jan 1916 at age 80 in Highfield, Great Ayton, North Riding, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

Biography

Ralph was a Friend (Quaker)

A Biographical sketch of Ralph Dixon, of Great Ayton - 1836-1916^[1]

Ralph Dixon, of Highfield, Great Ayton, died on the first of July, 1916, after only a few days' illness, aged eighty years and a half. He was born 4th January, 1836, at Bishop Auckland, and came with his parents to settle at Great Ayton in 1841, when his father was appointed the first superintendent of the newly-founded North of England Agricultural School there. The mother of Ralph Dixon was Alice Swinburn, who was not originally a Friend; her father was a shipowner of Sunderland, and her great-great-uncle was the Reverend Thomas Stackhouse, M.A., author of the well-known Commentary of the Bible.

Ralph Dixon was educated at Ackworth School, and later went to the Flounders Institute. After being for some years the head teacher and virtual superintendent of Ayton Friends' School, he was appointed superintendent in 1865, on his father retiring in order to go to America. He retired from this post in 1896, but carried on as a gentleman farmer at the School Farm until his death, renting it and employing a hand to live in the premises He continued to live at Chestnut House, which had been built for him adjoining the School premises, until 1898, when the house became the School Sanatorium. He then moved to Raby Cottage, a house built by and belonging to his uncle, Robert Dixon of Meynell Hall, Ingleby.

In the year 1907 he built Highfield, his residence at Great Ayton, and the remaining years of his life and that of his wife were very largely spent in planting and tending the beautiful garden surrounding the house. Like his father, who lived to be ninety-two, he was in full possession of his mental and physical powers until the time of his death, with only the loss of activity due to a short illness.

Ralph Dixon was always a very keen naturalist and wrote a book on shells. As a practical farmer all his life and an instructor of agriculture to his pupils at the School, he made a study of agriculture on scientific lines and was well known as a good and up to date farmer in the district. Like his father he was an expert botanist, and from his "seed room" for many years the village people obtained their vegetable and flower seeds. In his phaeton and pony trap he and his family and friends visited the countryside for many miles round Ayton, the dales and villages of this part of Cleveland, and a great number of their inhabitants being well known to him personally. He held by examination a lecturer's diploma, 19th in honours in the United Kingdom in scientific agriculture, and organized classes for the local farmers whom he instructed for a number of years. He was also associated with Lord de Lisle in farmers' classes at Ingleby, three miles away.

In addition to his scientific interests, the study of language and dialect was a great pleasure to Ralph Dixon. Local dialects interested him as being closer to the Anglo-Saxon than the current English of to day. He had a fair knowledge of French, Latin, and Hebrew, and was especially interested in the Hebrew race through his life-long friendship with his cousin Dr. John Dixon, of the Mildmay Mission to the Jews in London. Furthermore he learnt the Norwegian language, and made a tour in Norway in the latter part of the 60's, having a very rough and adventurous time there visiting the Norwegian Friends then in Stavanger and elsewhere. During part of the time he spent in Norway he was the guest of Asbjorn Kloster, of Stavanger, the founder of the total abstinence movement in Norway who had visited Ayton School for several months in 1850 in order to study English teaching methods and the English language, and had there first heard of total abstinence. Asbjorn Kloster's sons were later educated at Ayton School, and his public statue is to be seen in Stavanger. One of his sons called on Ralph Dixon at Great Ayton a few years before his death.

In 1885 Ralph Dixon visited Hamburg, Hanover and the Rhine, and the Friends in Minden and Piermont ; and in the spring of 1901 he made a second visit to Norway with his eldest daughter and was much interested in remarking the changes which had taken place in more than thirty years.

He was appointed a Minister of the Society of Friends in early life, this being an honorary recognition accorded to those members of the Society who speak frequently and acceptably in their meetings. He frequently exercised his gift in this respect within the boundaries of Guisborough Monthly Meeting, but he was of a retiring disposition, and never felt called upon to seek a wider field, except at Hawes and in Wensleydale.

Ralph Dixon's faith was simple and evangelical, but of the quiet old-fashioned type. His natural trend was more practical and scientific than literary or critical, and while he was among the first in the district to take up and practise successfully photography, the magic-lantern, acetylene gas, and new farm instruments and methods, the application of scientific theories to religious questions did not trouble him as it has troubled so many Friends during the last generation. To him an intelligent acceptance of the Bible, read in accordance with the quiet doctrines of evangelical Quakerism, sufficed; but he was very liberal minded with regard to others and laid most stress on the virtue of their lives and the genuineness of. their convictions. He abhorred hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness and pride, but freely recognised opinions different from, his own.

His sermons were usually expositions of biblical passages with the object of showing the infinity of God's love for us, of pointing out the simplicity of the way of salvation, and of exhorting us all to live honourably before men and God. They were not so personally Striking or dramatic, nor were they so embellished with literary references or historical examples as are the addresses of some Quaker ministers, nor did they enter the realms of Mysticism or Higher Criticism; but they were simple, straightforward and humble, and revealed an extremely intimate acquaintance with the Bible, a broad appreciation of Nature and of Humanity, familiarity with the experiences of the early Quakers and of missionaries and philanthropists, and the general information at the disposal of a well-informed mind.

Although possessing much of the vigour and enthusiasm and progressiveness of his father, he had not his self-assertion. He was reserved, reticent, and shy, and did not seek new friends, or accept public positions. He was not a ready conversationalist, but had the courage to speak where he felt it necessary. He was nevertheless always very ready to organise meetings or entertainments for those whom he felt he could help in Ayton and the neighbouring villages, and many much appreciated magic lantern shows, temperance meetings, bible-meetings, pleasant Sunday afternoon meetings, social teas, excursions, farmers' classes, mothers' meetings, &c., owed their conception and management to him and his wife. At these times he could be thoroughly comfortable, and enjoyed himself as much as anyone. He was so essentially humble that no one could ever feel "patronised," and this was no doubt the reason why he was so much respected by the country people although he was not rich and gave away little of a material nature.

The heavy responsibilities which he took on becoming superintendent of a large boarding-school when only twenty-nine years of age no doubt produced a certain sternness in the interest of discipline, but those who knew him at all well in later life knew how extraordinarily warm-hearted, generous, affectionate and forgiving he really was, although always in the most secret and quiet way possible. He valued his honour and good name very considerably, but he seemed to have no worldly pride whatever and would show no increased respect or deference to people of wealth or social position, in fact, his manner was probably less gracious to peer, baronet, or wealthy Quaker than to a farmer or tradesman. He enjoyed telling stories and anecdotes of his earlier days and experiences to his children and grandchildren and was often humorous and always most matter of fact in his conversation.

In politics he was a Liberal of the old school and not at all in agreement with socialistic tendencies, but he was never a keen politician. He hated all war and preparations for war and did all he could for the cause of peace. While deeply lamenting the present war he took no extreme pacifist view and thought that young men ought to help their country in non-combatant ways. It is interesting; to remember that his grandfather and namesake was fighting. a hundred years ago in Spain against the French, and that now one of his grandsons is fighting in this war on the same side as our former hereditary enemy.

When it is recollected that Ralph Dixon was superintendent of Ayton School for over thirty years, and that his father and he together were consecutively in charge for considerably over half-a-century, it is more easy to realise how his name and memory are inseparably connected with it in the minds of hundreds of his old scholars. His father presumably sat in the ministers' gallery of Ayton Meeting on becoming superintendent in 1841, and either father or son sat there without any break for exactly seventy-five years.

The life of a head master of a Quaker boarding school is not usually filled with incident sufficiently important to warrant narration in a biographical sketch. The careful guardianship of the youth of both sexes and the judicious supervision of their education require a man of honour and wisdom, of discretion and energy, and of intelligence and adapt ability. These qualities were displayed in no small degree by Ralph Dixon during the thirty years of his Superintendence. The work which he thus accomplished is of great importance to the nation, and the recognition accorded to men who hold such positions seems hardly proportionate. But Ralph Dixon certainly did not seek public recognition; he merely sought to do his duty.

One or two incidents with regard to his school life may be mentioned. The school swimming bath was originally a linseed vat in what is now the Station Road; when this had to be given up the scholars bathed in the open river for a time, but Ralph Dixon was anxious to convert some old tan pits in the School garden into a proper bath. Some difficulty was experienced, so he and the older boys made the present swimming bath and laid the cement with their own hands. Contrary to the expectation of the School Committee he was able to collect sufficient money to erect the gymnasium and lecture hall to commemorate the school jubilee. His father, George Dixon, had started the school museum with curios obtained by his friend Isaac Sharp in Greenland, Labrador, and other parts of the world, and Ralph Dixon was much interested in adding to it. Besides his keen interest in botany, he interested the scholars in astronomy, and persuaded Joseph Pease, M.P. for Darlington, to present the School with a valuable telescope.

The principal patrons of the School with whom he came into contact were Thomas Richardson of Cleveland Lodge, Great Ayton, and of Richardson, Overend and Gurney, bankers of London, the founder of the School; John and Henry Richardson of Langbaurgh Hall, Great Ayton; Edward Pease of Darlington, founder of the first railway, John Pease of Cleveland Lodge and of Darlington ; his son Joseph Pease, his grandson Sir Joseph Whitwell Pease, Bart, of Hutton Hall, and his great-grandson Sir Alfred E. Pease, Bart., of Pinchingthorpe House; and Jonathan Backhouse Hodgkin of Cleveland Lodge and of Darlington. The scholars have filled many useful positions in all parts of the world and space does not permit of naming any here. Further information may be obtained from the History of Ayton School published in the year 1891 and written by Ralph Dixon and his father.

Ralph was born on 4 January 1836 in Bishop Auckland, Durham, England. He was the son of George Dixon and Alice (Swinburn) Dixon.^[2]. In the 1851 census Ralph (age 15) was living in Great Ayton, Yorkshire, England.^[2] He's also recorded at Great Ayton in the census records of 1861 ^[3], 1871 ^[4], 1881 ^[5], 1891 ^[6] and 1901 ^[7].

Research Notes

Sources

1. ↑ From Ayton Old Scholars website archives, unreferenced, but apparently written shortly after his death, possibly by his grandson Bernard Thistlethwaite who was keen on family history. (It was www.aytonoldscholars.org/archives/archives_staff/archives_staff_ralph_dixon - retrieved 6/3/2012 - but the web site no longer exists in Jan 2022)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} 1851 Census: 1851 England Census Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc. Citing: Class: HO107; Piece: 2376; Folio: 162; Page: 4; GSU roll: 87665 Ancestry Record 8860 #11227438 (accessed 19 March 2021)
3. ↑ 1861 Census: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1861. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Re Data Changed: Date: 14 Apr 2014 Time: 20:05:27 Class: RG9; Piece: 3658; Folio: 6; Page: 5; GSU roll: 543168.
4. ↑ 1871 Census: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Class: RG10; Piece: 4860; Folio: 6; Page: 6; GSU roll: 849466.
5. ↑ 1881 Census: 1881 British Isles Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Class: RG11; Piece: 4865; Folio: 29; Page: 10; GSU roll: 1342171.
6. ↑ 1891 Census: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Class: RG12; Piece: 4022; Folio 111; Page 12; GSU roll: 6099132.
7. ↑ 1901 Census: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives, 1901. Data imaged from th Data Changed: Date: 14 Apr 2014 Time: 20:22:49 Class: RG13; Piece: 4591; Folio: 119; Page: 29.

Acknowledgements

• Dixon-3749 was created by Steven Ringer through the import of Ancestors of Gulielma Clark & Walter John Ringer.ged on Apr 16, 2014.