William Dickinson II

William Dickinson II (1771-1837), MP for Ilchester 1796-1802, Lostwithiel 1802-6, Somerset 1806-31. Son of William Dickinson I (q.v., MP, 1745-1806) and Philippa daughter of Stephen Fuller of Jamaica. Awarded compensation with Ezekiel and Jeremiah Harman for St Elizabeth claim nos. 5, 368 and 395.

1. Captain Francis Dickinson (1632-1704) was granted 6000 acres in Jamaica by Charles II as a reward for his actions of 1655 when Jamaica was taken from the Spaniards. His estates were inherited by his son Caleb (1670-1728) who married Sarah Vickris of Chew Magna; the couple had three sons, Ezekiel (1711-1788, grandfather of Jeremiah and Ezekiel Harman), Caleb (1716-1783, grandfather of William Dickinson II) and Vickris (1718-1797, grandfather of Frances Dickinson q.v.). The Dickinson family papers are kept at the Somerset Record Office and include records of the management of the family's Jamaican estates.

2. The Dickinsons were a Quaker family, but William Dickinson was not.

3. William Dickinson was christened at St. Marylebone Church on 21 November 1771, and buried in Naples.

4. William Dickinson II was an 'agricultural improver' at Kingweston, an estate purchased by his grandfather Caleb Dickinson. He also remodelled c. 1824 Kingweston House, the house built by his father in the 1780s.

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/dickinson-william-1771-1837

1. Walter Minchinton, Jamaica Plantation Records from the Dickinson Papers 1675-1849 in Somerset Record Office and Wiltshire & Swindon Record Office: Introduction to the microfilm collection (East Ardsley, Wakefield, Microform Academic Publishers Limited, 1978), available at http://www.microform.co.uk/guides/R96977.pdf [accessed 11/03/2013]. Somerset Record Office, DD/DN.

2. Email from Sandra Adams dated 11/03/2013. See separate entries for Jeremiah and Ezekiel Harman for their Quaker baptisms.

3. "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JWZP-QG6 : accessed 30 July 2015), Will Dickinson, 21 Nov 1771; citing , reference ; FHL microfilm 580,904, 580,905; Somerset - Kingweston, All Saints Church, Floor Slab in Chancel, also on brass plate. - Somerset Memorial Inscriptions: Transcribed by Somerset and Dorset Family History Society on Findmypast.co.uk.

4. Mary Siraut, 'The Dickinsons: Agricultural Improvers?', an attachment to http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/explore/items/kingweston-house [accessed 29/12/2015].

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

We are also grateful to David Collins for his assistance in compiling this entry.