Caleb Dickinson of Pickwick Lodge

Son of Vickris Dickinson (q.v.). In Jamaica 1762-1787 managing the family property; he had at least six natural children there, of whom Edward and Thomas are mentioned in his will. This 'outside' family does not appear on many family genealogies.

1. Born 27/10/1740 to Vickris and Martha (Reeve) Dickinson. Martha died in 1741 and Vickris remarried in 1746 to Elizabeth Marchant.

2. Caleb Dickinson had five illegitimate children with Mary Thompson, all baptised in St Elizabeth, Jamaica: Mary (born 1772), Francis (1773), William (1775), Catherine (1778), Thomas (1781). He had another child, also named Thomas, with [blank] Long, born and baptised in 1787 in St Elizabeth.

3. At some point between 1787 and 1789, Dickinson returned to England to live at this father's property Pickwick Lodge at Corsham, Wiltshire. Presumably he brought his youngest child Thomas and his mother (surname Long) back to England with him, as he had three more illegitimate children baptised in Corsham: Elizabeth (1789), John (1792) and Edward (1794).

4. Lucy Long died in 1800. In her will she named Caleb Dickinson as her executor. Only two of her children (Thomas and Elizabeth) appear in her will. She also named her mother as Anna Maria Long and her sister as Judy Lavington. This suggests she was the Lucy Long baptised in Corsham in 1762, daughter of William and Anna Maria Long.

5. At some point, John (baptised in Corsham, 1792) must have travelled to Jamaica, presumably the learn the family business. John Dickinson, son of Caleb Dickinson esq of Barton estate and Magotty Pen and of Pickwick Lodge, died at Middlesex Pen in St.Elizabeth, 31/07/1817. He would have been in his mid- to late-twenties at the time of his death.

6. Will of Caleb Dickinson of Pickwick Lodge Corsham proved 20/04/1820. Under the will he left his estate in trust for his grandson Francis Dickinson, with remainder to his second grandson Douglas John Dickinson, then to his grand-daughters Frances Elizabeth and Maria Sophia Dickinson, and failing them to his son Edward Dickinson, to whom he also left £6000. He left £12000 to Frances Elizabeth, Maria Sophia and Douglas John Dickinson, whom he described as the children of his late son Thomas. He left his daughter in law Frances Ann Twysden [?] Dickinson his household goods. His residuary legatee was to be his eldest grandson or failing grandsons grand-daughter.

Jean Manco for David Streatfeild-Jones, The History of the Manor Queen Charlton (2012), http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/WAM/doc/BackGround%20Papers-684399.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=684399&location=VOLUME3&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1&appid=1001 [accessed 10/01/2016]

1. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837 [database online].

2. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

3. Ancestry.com, Wiltshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Another possibility is that Thomas, his son with [blank] Long, was baptised in absentia. Caleb Dickinson was at Pickwick Lodge in 1783, see letters at the Somerset Heritage Centre, DD/DN.

4. Will of Lucy Long, PROB 11/1345/92.

5. Royal Gazette (Jamaica) 09/08/1817.

6. PROB 11/1628/325.

We are grateful to Sandra Adams for her assistance with compiling this entry.