Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Publication Rights/Restrictions on Use

Before publishing quotations or excerpts from any materials, permission must be obtained from the Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books, and the holder of the copyright, if not Swem Library.

Preferred Citation

John Dixon Papers, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Acquisition Information

Purchased: 25 items, 01/01/1928.
Gift: 580 items, ca. 1938.
Gift: 1 item, 04/01/1976.
Gift: 4 items, 02/24/1987.

Biographical Information

John Dixon Jr. was born in 1778 and died September 5, 1830. He married Sally (Sarah) Throckmorton, the daughter of Warner and Julia Throckmorton, in 1795. They had three children: Dr. John Dixon(1812- 1835), Isabella S. Burwell, Harriet Peyton. Dixon remarried Mary T. (?). There was one child from this union Mary E. Dixon.

Family History

John Dixon Jr.'s father was John Dixon (d.1788). He married Elizabeth Peyton, daughter of Sir John Peyton of Isleham, Gloucester County, on February 6, 1773. They had four children: John, Lucy, Seigniora, and Betsy.

John Dixon Jr.'s grandfather was the Rev. John Dixon(d.1777). He married Lucy (?). They had five children: John, William, Thomas, Lucy, Elizabeth

John Dixon Jr.'s great grandfather, John Dixon (d.1758) came to Virginia from Bristol, England in the eighteenth century. He married Lucy Reade(1701-1731), daughter of Mr. Thomas Reade of Gloucester. They had three children: Rev. John Dixon, Roger Dixon, and Thomas Dixon. After the death of his first wife, he remarried Ann (?), of King William County. They had four children: Cornelious, Lyonell, Robert, and Susannah Ann. All the male children from this second union died unmarried.

Additional Genealogical Information

Additional family and genealogical information can be found in the first folder of the first box of the John Dixon Papers, Collection number: Mss. 39.1 D64.

Scope and Content Information

The John Dixon Papers include letters, legal papers, farm and personal accounts, 1760-1829 of John Dixon, Jr. (1777-1830) of "Airville" Gloucester County, Virginia.

Letters include those from Charles H. Braxton of "Oak Spring," Burwell Bassett of Williamsburg, Richard Jones, John Nicholson, John Peyton, and James and Samuel Stubbs of Gloucester County. The collection also includes a letter, 22 October 1827, of Burwell Bassett and a letter, 1826, of John Mercer Patton (1796-1858). These papers contain references to the Whiting family of Williamsburg, Virginia.

Papers relate to settlements of estates which John Dixon administered, while early material include copies of the wills of his great-grandfather John Dixon of Bistol, England, his father John Dixon (d. 1788) of Gloucester County, Virginia, and the settlement of the estate of his mother Elizabeth Peyton Dixon.

Additions to the collection include copies of a 1729 land patent, the 1766 will of Roger Dixon and two genealogies of the family.

Organization

These papers have been organized into six series: 1. Family Papers; 2. Letters Written to John Dixon Jr.; 3. Legal Papers of John Dixon Jr.; 4. Other Papers of John Dixon; 5. Business Papers of John Dixon Jr.; 6. Addition.

Index Terms

Family Names:

• Dixon family.
• Whiting family.

Persons:

• Bassett, Burwell, 1764-1841.
• Dixon, Elizabeth Peyton
• Dixon, John, d. 1788.
• Dixon, William M.
• Patton, John Mercer, 1796-1858.

Geographical Names:

• Gloucester County (Va.)--History--19th century.