William Dickinson I

Slave-owner in Jamaica, MP for Great Marlow (1768-1774), Rye (1777-1790) and Somerset (1796-1806), husband of Philippa Fuller, son-in-law of Stephen Fuller (q.v.) and father of William Dickinson II (q.v.).

1. Will of William Dickinson of Kingweston Somerset proved 16/06/1806. In the will he recited his marriage settlement with Philippa Fuller under which he had pledged to place £11,000 in trust for her [in the event never paid], left her a annuity of £1470 p.a., left his daughter Frances Dickinson £5000 and left the residue including unspecified property in Jamaica to his son William Dickinson II, 'recommending him howsoever not to sell my moiety of the Flat Holmes Island Light house in the Bristol Channel.

2. 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, father of William Dickinson I and 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. .

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/dickinson-william-i-1745-1806 [accessed 29/12/2015].

1. PROB 11/1444/174.

2. 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.

We are grateful to Ruth Hecht for her assistance with compiling this entry.