~DICKSON SCOTCH-IRISH f'- CONNECTICUT 1719 NOVA SCOTIA 1761 CALIFORNIA 1865 DESCENDANTS OF CHARLES AND AMELIA BISHOP DICKSON OF ONSLO~', NOV A SCOTIA DICKSON Archibald Campbell Davison Foss Henderson McKay Mackenzie Purves Patterson Roach 1953 ✓; ,'.% 1::;, -?;;; ~ ~ 1/ / ). 1/;; ~ { 7, :-::: 7. 1/,~ ~ /, ~ :7,~ 11 ~ 1~ ~ % ~ ~ I }'>itk:S:01J bt ~~rJJbt9,9 et DJ1Jvtrtsk J£ttiS:&t Arms used by Robert Dickson, created Baronet in 1694. DICKSON de SORNBEGG et d' INVERESK ECOSSE ARMS: Silver shield, three stars of red. Chief of red, three gold bezants. (From New York Library) CREST: Scotch. A hart couchant, gardant, proper attired or., within two branches of laurel in orle, vert. (FAIRBBAIRNS BOOK of CRESTS). MOTTO: CUBO SED CURO (I lie down but keep on guard). For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the procedure of obtaining permission to use the family Coat-of-Arms, it is ,necessary to make application to the Royal College of Arms, London, England, submitting proof of lineage presented by a genealogist to whom the applicant is known. If consent is given, only male descendants in the direct line from the ancestor to whom the Arms were granted can use the crest and motto. (In the olden days only the fighting men used these emblems for identification.) A woman to whom the right is granted uses only the shield in a lozenge. A small oil painting of the Coat-of-Arms provides an attractive addition to your living room, and shows the family to which you belong. Olivia Dickson, 1783-1872 See Chart 9 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Pages Letter to relatives from Emily McKay Dewey ............ 3-5 Dedication ................................................... 7 ''How to live forever'' by Gen. Lucius D. Clay ............................ 6 Origin of "Dickson" name, Scotland................................... 8-9 Early Dickson dates ............................................ 10 Dicksons in Connecticut, 1719 .....•.......•....•......••....••.•.... 12 Index of family charts . .. 25-27 Items of interest opposite family charts ....•........................... Ballad "Puritan Planters'' by Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton. 22-24 Dicksons in Nova Scotia, 1761, and how our ancestors lived nearly 200 years ago . 27-50 Truro and Onslow Townships . 51-53 Historic map of Nova Scotia ........................................ End Leaf Sketches Major Thomas Dixson. .... 169-172 The Dickson Twins - Mary and Olivia . 67-70 David Henderson McKay . • . • . 94-96 The way one family lived in the 1890 1s. • . .... 98-104 The Purves family at the ''Hermitage'', No. Sydney, C. B................... 152-153 List of illustrations . ..... , ....................................... Olivia Dickson Archibald Henderson ............................... 130 Amelia Henderson Purves McKinlay ............................... 130 David Burnyeat Henderson...................................... 65 David Henderson McKay ....................................... 92 Martha Dickson Archibald McKay ................................. 93 McKay family group . ......................................... 97 Emily McKay Beal Dewey ...................................... 134 John and Sarah Amelia Roach .................................... 75 Melvil Dewey -bronze plate in Lake Placid Club Chapel ................... 136 Dickson Coat-of-Arms . • . • . ... Front In appreciation . .......................................... 173 Two blank pages for future vital statistics. ........... 175-176 Where to obtain additional copies of this book ...................... 177 3 Lake Placid Club Essex County, New York 1953 My dear Relatives: A letter may explain how and why this Dickson Family Tree with bits of history came into being. After Mother 1s death in 1930 I felt many of the younger generation should know something of the family. They are widely scattered from Hawaii, California, many states in the United States, Canada, Nova Scotia, and England. I wrote to "my uncles, my cousins, and my aunts" in California and Hawaii and received encouraging answers, all of which were filed away for 20 years until 1950, when I found myself with time to tackle the work. But how to start was the question. Robert and Lavinia (DeWolf) Dickson 1s family Bible, sent to me by Mary Davison Kennedy of Wallace N.S., yielded the names and birth dates of their ten children; also of William and Rebecca (Dickie) Dickson 1s six children, all of whom were born in the original Onslow homestead, built by Charles Dickson in 1772. My mother, Martha Archibald Dickson, was the youngest daughter of William, a granddaughter of Robert. She married my father, David Henderson McKay, of Boston, Mass. He was a grandson of Olivia Dickson Archibald Henderson, a sister of Robert, so tha:t on both sides of my family we stem from the Dicksons. A double reason for me to pay loving tribute to my father and mother, a most devoted couple and wonderful parents. The family story, passed down thru the years, was that the Dicksons were Scotch-Irish Protestants from North Ireland who settled in Connecticut. In the Ingersoll Genealogy a record was found of a marriage of Major Charles Dickson of Colchester, Conn., to Miriam Ingersoll. Uncle Robert Dickson, whose mother was a Miller, loaned me a copy of Uncle Tommy Miller•s remarkable book, "The Historical and Genealogical Record of the First Settlers of Colchester County, Nova Scotia". In it is a chapter on Charles Dickson who settled in Onslow in 1772 when he married Amelia Bishop. But I gleaned DO news of the Connecticut settlers. On a chance I wrote a friend in Hartford, Conn., asking about the Connecticut Historical Society, and mentioned the names Dickson, DeWolf, Dickie and Bishop. My friend was a member of the Connecticut Historical Society, took my letter to Mr. Thompson P. Harlow, Librarian, who wrote me at length about the various families, quoting Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton•s "History of King 1s County". This was all Nova Scotia data, but I determined then to 4 get a copy if possible. It was out of print. I contacted different firms in all the big cities in the United States, Canada and Nova Scotia. Fortunately Mr. M.P. Boone, Librarian of Acadia University had an extra copy which he loaned me. Two years later the "Seven Book Hunters" of New York wrote me a copy had turned up. Did I want it? Yes! Dr. Eaton wrote an excellent sketch of the Dickson family. Three brothers, Major Charles, Lieutenant Thomas, and William were grantees in King 1s County in 1761. There was also a Charles "Jr.", supposed to be Major Charles• son, but Major Charles was not married till 1747. Young Charles was born in 1746. Both the historians, Dr. Eaton and Nicholas Longworth, Q.C. who wrote a history of Onslow, still thought he was Major Charles' son. If Charles, "Jr." was my great-great-grandfather I wanted to know about his parentage. So back again to the Connecticut State Library where, after much correspondence, they turned up a copy of old William Dixson 1s will, in which he named all his heirs. Charles, "Jr." was the son of Robert Dixson, and Abigail Harris, born in Middletown, Conn. in 1746, a nephew of Major Charles, who was made his guardian, and called "Jr." as the younger of the two Charles. At this point a professional genealogist was needed. Mr. H. Herbert Wood, a Fellow of the American Genealogical Society was highly recommended. He gathered all the Connecticut vital records. The various charts will give details. So you may know of my many contacts with relatives over the years, starting in childhood when Mother took us to Nova Scotia to visit, the names of relatives and friends became familiar. When I was seven years old, we called one day at the old Dickson homestead in Onslow. Grandfather had sold the place some years before. I was taken on a tour of inspection of this simple old farm house. For seventy years I have carried a scar on my hand where I squeezed it in the old iron pump! When young girls, Plum and I spent several long, never-to-be-forgotten summer holidays with our Purves cousins at North Sydney, Cape Breton, and visited in Truro and Halifax. In 1893 visited all the California relatives, and again in 1936, including a trip to Hawaii. Saw Cousin Abby Purves and Fif in Camberley, England, in 1924. Made a motor trip to Nova Scotia in 1940 with three carloads of cousins from Hawaii and California. Harry Foss wanted his children to know Nova Scotia. On that trip we spent quite a time in the old Island Cemetery where some of our ancestors are buried. 5 Our cousin, Lovat Dickson of London, England, sent me the early Scottish and Irish information. The Connecticut vital statistics, on file at the Connecticut State Library, were taken from court, church, land and cemetery records. I have studied maps, read histories, used old Family Bible records, quoted from Thomas Miller and Eaton 1s histories, written over seven hundred letters obtaining first hand vital statistics from various living descendants, and obtained early records from Onslow and Truru Town books started in 1761. Some of you will wonder why this or that ancestor or family connection has not been included. Some I tried in vain to find, without success. Some few were not interested enough to cooperate. You will find a few 1952 items, births and deaths, but I hoped to be able to have this printed in 1951. No doubt you will find some errors. Most heartily do I thank all of you who have cooperated to make this book possible. Cordially yours Emily McKay Dewey 6 HOW TO LIVE FOREVER by General Lucius D. Clay Former U. S. Military Governor in Germany "If a man leaves children behind him, it is as if he did not die." -Moroccan Proverb No one ever achieves all his hopes and aspirations. No one is ever sure, in looking back, that he has played his full part in making a better world. But as we live again in our children and our children's children, we do not need to be afraid. For we can touch the future with our children's hands.