Location: Ireland
Surnames/tags: Dixon Quakers
This space page is for research on the origins of Henry Dixon of Lurgan, Armagh, Ireland.
Various Dixons appear in the records of Armagh dating to the 1670s.
The 1664 Hearth Tax Rolls for Armagh also show a John Dixon and William Dixon. Marriage records from the Quaker meeting at Lurgan show a “Will Dixon and Antho. Dixon” as witnesses at the marriage of Valentine Hollingsworth and Ann Calvert on the 12th day of the 4th month in 1672.
In 1664 Hollingsworth is listed in BalleMcCrannell Townland, a short distance from Drumlisnegrilly Townland. Valentine Hollingsworth was to later settle in Delaware in 1682 in the same locality where our Dixon ancestors settled on coming to America. Records from 1676 show a Thomas Dixson and Henry Dixson.
In the 1680s, a William Dixson is mentioned various times. While these various Dixons were likely related to our Dixon ancestors, that relationship, if any, is not presently known. Records from Lurgan Quaker meetings show our Henry Dixson and Rose Dixson appearing as witnesses to the marriage of William Dixson and Isabelle Rea at the home of Roger Webb on the 5th day of the 4th month, 1683. In those records the family name is spelled “Dixson”. Herbert Standing in his work “Delaware Quaker Record: New Castle County”, states that Henry and Rose were members of the Lurgan Meeting in Armagh. Lurgan is located east of Portadown, a few miles northeast of Drumlisnegrilly. Lurgan was the site for the establishment of the first Quaker meeting in Ireland in 1654, initiated by the well known Quaker William Edmondson, the acknowledged pioneer of Irish Quakerism. He gathered a few like-minded individuals to worship in his house. Five miles to the west regular meetings were first held later in the same year in the home of Margery Atkinson near the ancient church of Kilmore. Soon after a permanent meeting was formed in the townland of Ballyhagan.
Ulster was largely settled by immigrants from Northern England and the Scottish borders region. Research has shown that the bulk of the settlers were from the Scottish lowlands. Various researchers have supposed that Henry was a descendant of the Scottish Clan Dixson, a lowland Clan originally centered near Berwick in Scotland. In fact, it seems likely that Henry and Rose were instead from the North of England though. The town of Lurgan owes its existence and much of its success to the Brownlow family. During the plantation of Ulster by James I, John Brownlow of Nottingham England offered himself as an undertaker of lands in O'Neilland, stating that he was worth £150 per annum and that he wanted 2,000 acres. He was granted the middle proportion of Doughcarron containing 1,500 acres at a total rent of £8 to hold forever on May 29th 1610. His son William was also granted 1,000 acres in the Manor of Ballynamoney on June 18th, 1610. This portion lay on the southern shore of Lough Neagh, stretching from the upper Bann eastward to Doughcarron and southward to John Machett's part of Kerhonan. By 1611, the Brownlows were residing in the district and started to build two bawns having brought six carpenters, one mason, a tailor and workmen. In 1619, a fair town had arisen on Doughcarron consisting of forty two houses, with paved streets, two water-mills, and a windmill. John Brownlow died about 1616 and his son William was re-granted the lands at Ballynamoney and Doughcarron by letters patent under Seal of Charles II to form Manor of Brownlows Derry on June 29th 1629. In this grant is found the first mention of the name Lurgan. It states that Sir William Brownlow was empowered to hold a weekly market on Friday and two annual fairs in “Lurganballyvacken, alias Ballylurgan”. When he came of age in 1660 William’s grandson Arthur Chamberlain, assumed the name of Brownlow and inherited his grandfather's estate. Under his supervision Lurgan began to grow and prosper. Building was encouraged by giving tenants renewable leases and stipulating that one or more houses of 20 to 30 feet in length, 18 to 20 feet high were to be erected on the front of their own tenements. From this stipulation Lurgan began to grow and to take the shape which its main street retains today. Arthur took a deep interest in the welfare of his tenants by introducing linen weaving to them and buying their produce at a loss to himself. Thus he laid the foundation of the linen industry in this district and by 1675 there was a market house established around which linen was sold. In 1708, Lurgan was described by Thomas Molyneux as a town which has the greatest mart of Linen Manufacture in the North, being almost entirely peopled by linen weavers. The majority were immigrants from the North of England and they brought with them skills that were valued by the ambitious and enterprising landlord, Arthur Chamberlain Brownlow. He readily accepted as tenants weavers and tanners who were likely to develop the economic potential of his lands. Many lived in the area between Portadown and Lurgan in the parish of Seagoe. In his 1708 Will, our ancestor William Dixon styled himself a “Weaver” so it seems likely that his father Henry Dixon before him at Lurgan Ireland was a weaver as well. Crawford’s 2005 volume “The Impact of the Domestic Linen Industry in Ulster” states:
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“Genealogical evidence can establish that the weaving industry was established in Lisburn and Lurgan by men from the north of England who flocked into Ulster in the decades following the troubles of the 1640’s. The most reliable genealogical records for the indentification of their origins are the 17th century Quaker family records which apparently only survive for Lurgan and Ballyhagen meetings but not for Lisburn. The Lurgan records note the origins of twenty families who emigrated to Ulster: one is from Scotland; nine from Yorkshire; four from Cumberland; two from Lancashire; two from Northumberland; and one each from Westmorland and Durham.”
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- Records from 1664 show a hearth tax roll described as “The returne of all fire hearths and stones in the County of Ardmagh as the same was made and returned at the general sessions of the peace holden at Armagh for the County aforesaid the 10th day of January 1664 before Sr. George Aheson, Sir Toby Points Knt., William Draper Esq. and other his maties Justices of the Peace of said County”. In the parish of Seagoe, in Drumlisnegrilly Townland it lists Henry Dixon, with one hearth assessed at 2 shillings. A “townland” was a smaller unit of a parish, and Drumlisnegrilly comprised about 68 acres, lying about two and a quarter miles southeast of the town of Portadown. Henry and Rose are known from colonial Quaker records to have been the parents of at least three children; a son William, and daughters Dinah and Rose. Records from the Quaker Meeting at Lurgan record: “At our particular mens meeting att Thomas Calvarts the 29th of 10th Mo 1676.
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