Captain William Dixey1

b. say 1607, d. 1690

7th great-grandfather of Ruth Minerva Fairfield.
9th great-grandfather of Laura Jane Munson.
Family Background:
Fairfield and Allied Families
Appears on charts:
Pedigree for Ruth Minerva Fairfield
     Captain William Dixey was born say 1607 in England (age 22 in 1629).1 He married Ann or Hannah by 1636 (and probably by 1634 if she was the mother of all his children). He died in 1690 in Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts.1
     
     Captain William Dixey came to America in 1629 when he was 22 years old, as one of the servants of Mr. Isaac Johnson, the associate of Winthrop and Saltonstall, who, in Capt. Dixey's own language, "wrote to the Honoured Governor Mr. Endicott... for a place to sett down in." Mr. Johnson, who did not set sail until 1630, sent his men and cattle ahead of him, and, the Governor giving them leave to settle where they would, they went to Saugus (Lynn), where, after a cordial reception from Sagamore James and his tribe, they cut grass for their cattle, keeping them upon the peninsula of Nahant.2 In another deposition, made when he was an old man, Capt. Dixey gave details of the relations between the local Indians and the new colony as follows:
when wee came to dwell heare the Indians bid us welcome, & shewed themselves very glad that wee came to dwell among them, & I understood they had kindly entertained the English that came hither before wee came, & the English & the Indians had a feild in comon fenced in together, & the Indians fled to shelter themselves under the English ofttimes, saying they were afraid of theire enemy Indians in the contry; in p'ticular I remember somtime after wee arrived the Agawam Indians complained to Mr. Endicott that they were afraid of other indians caled as I take it Tarrateens: Hugh Browne was sent with others in a boat to Agawam for the Indianes reliefe, & at other times we gave our neighbour Indians protection from theire Inemy Indians.3
Mr. Johnson, who arrived in June, 1630, on the Arbella, died the following September, and presumably William Dixey was then thrown on his own resources.

     He settled in Salem, eventually but perhaps not immediately, making his home on "Cape Ann side," later to be called Beverly, and was made a proprietor in 1634. He was called sergeant as early as 1636 and his rise in military rank was continuous. In 1645 when the Salem military company was formed he was made its ensign, holding that rank until 1662 when he was confirmed as lieutenant of the foot company then formed on "Cape Ann side," and some time before 1677 he was made its captain. The ferry between Salem and "Cape Ann side" was put in his charge in 1639, and although he was among the petitioners for permission to settle at Jeffrey's Creek in 1640, he was living on Bass River and keeping the ferry as late as 1645.

     Capt. Dixey shared in the various early land grants. His family in 1637 consisted of five persons, and, as he and his wife had only one child at that time, the two unexplained persons may possibly have been relatives who resided with him. He served on the Grand Jury in 1645, 1659, 1661, 1668 and 1669, and on the Trial Jury in 1647, 1649, 1650, 1651, 1653, 1655, 1656, 1664, 1666 and 1677. In this latter year he administered the oath of fidelity to the male inhabitants of Manchester.

     Although "Cape Ann side" had exercised many of the functions of a separate community for some years, it was not until 1667 that its church became independent of Salem and 1668 that it was politically established as Beverly. Capt. Dixey and his wife were among the petitioners for the new parish, each being third on the respective lists of men and women.1

     At Salem Quarterly Court in June 1676, reference was made to an agreement reached 28: 6: 1665 ( 28 August 1665) by the following inhabitants of the field on Cape Ann side (Beverly): William dickse, Samuel Corning, Josiah Roots, sr., Thomas Pickton, John Galley, henery Bayley, John lovet, jr., Thomas Tuck, Richard Stackhouse, hugh Woodbury by William dixey, William hoare by John Galleys, Richard haines, Thomas Chub, John Stone (or his son John Stone), and Raph Ellingwood.4

     In his will, dated 21 February 1684/85 and proved 24 June 1690, Captain William Dixey calls himself "of Beverly, yeoman", "aged & infirm in body," and makes the following bequests: to five daughters Mary Woodbury, Anna Judkin, Abigail Stone, Elizabeth Morgan, and Sarah Gale, all his lands equally divided, "only if daughter Judkin sells it shall be sold unto no other person but Sara Hayward" who was to inherit it at daughter Judkin's death; to three daughters Abigail Stone, Elizabeth Morgan and Sarah Gale, all the household goods; to two grandchildren Elizabeth Dixey and Sarah Dixey, when they come of age £60 and 60 cords of wood due me from "my son Sam[ue]ll Morgan"; to daughters Stone and Gale each a cow; to grandson Jonathan Stone one horse, etc; to daughter Morgan one mare; to grandson Dixie Woodbury one mare; to grandchildren Anna Stone, Anna Gale, Anna Morgan each an ewe; to son-in-law Edmund Gale "my musket"; to Jonathan Stone "my carbine"; loving sons John Stone and Edmund Gale, executors; loving friends Sgt. John Hill and Lt. John Dodge overseers; codicil of 11 August 1688 makes John Stone sole executor.5 His inventory, taken 2 June 1690, showed an estate of £113 16s., and John Stone a creditor for diet and "tendance" at £31 10s.6,7

Children of Captain William Dixey and Ann or Hannah (—?—) (Dixey)

Citations

  1. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), Vol. 1, 420, 421, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  2. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 420, citing Records and Files, etc., VII: 127, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  3. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 420, citing Essex Deeds, 5: 107, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  4. [S855] George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, 9 vols. (Salem: Essex Institute, 1911-1973). Transcribed and Abstracted from the Original Manuscript by Harriet S. Tapley, VI: 147.
  5. [S848] "William Dixey", citing Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1636-1686, 9 volumes (Salem 1911-1975), 49: 42, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, online http://www.newenglandancestors.org/, printout dated 2005. Previously published in hard copy (Boston: NEHGS, 1995).
  6. [S848] TGMB William Dixey, online, citing Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1636-1686, 9 volumes (Salem 1911-1975), 49: 43.
  7. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 421, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  8. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 422, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  9. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 422, 423, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  10. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 423, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  11. [S846] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Dixey, of Beverly," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. 1, 424, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).