Dixie baronets

The Dixie Baronetcy was created in the Baronetage of England at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 for Sir Wolstan Dixie (1602–1682), a supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War and afterwards. He was descended from a brother of Sir Wolstan Dixie, the sixteenth century Lord Mayor of London who founded the Dixie Professorship of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge. Their home was Bosworth Hall near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. The title became extinct with the death of the thirteenth Baronet, another Sir Wolstan Dixie, in 1975.

The loss of the Bosworth Estate

"Sir (Alexander) Beaumont (Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet)'s temperament was neither rationalistic nor tolerant. Described as "a spendthrift, a hopeless gambler, a heavy drinker" he found it increasingly difficult to face up to his responsibilities as Squire of Bosworth. Lady Florence wrote "For some time past I have been fighting against the terrible consequences of my husband's immense losses on the Turf and at gambling . . It was a great blow to me to find that the last remnant of a once splendid fortune must at once go to pay this debt. Ruin ... Beau ... has been so accustomed to have heaps of money at his command that he cannot understand that it is all gone .... By selling Bosworth and the property these (debts) could be met"[1]

"Machell, from the exigencies of his profession, was unquestionably the ruin of numerous aspiring punters whose interests clashed with his own. Beaumont Dixie, whose inclinations tended towards always backing "Archer's mounts", was a notable example, and any one who witnessed the scene in the paddock after a race where Machell's horse did not win, will not be likely to forget the ruined Baronet wringing his hands in despair, and the irate owner standing over him with "Now, Mr Bastard Beaumont Dixie, I'll teach you to back Archer's mounts"[2] Fred Archer was a champion jockey who mainly rode horses trained by Mathew and George Dawson.

The 11th Baronet sold the estate in 1885.

List of Dixie baronets of Market Bosworth

Arms and motto

Bosworth Hall and Park, c. 1725

References

  1. Foss, Peter J., The History of Market Bosworth (Wymondham, 1983) p. 178
  2. 'One of the Old Brigade' ie Shaw, Donald, London in the Sixties (1908) p. 105
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Debrett, John, Debrett's Baronetage of England, ed. William Courthope (London: Rivington, 7th edition, 1839), pp. 90–92 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 11 March 2008)
  4. Panorama of Bosworth Hall at richard-green.com (accessed 26 March 2008)
  5. Kimber & Johnson, The Baronetage of England (1771) p. 68
  6. Foss, Peter J., The History of Market Bosworth (Wymondham, 1983) p. 87 & pp. 236–237
  7. 1 2 3 Burke online at staleyandco.com (accessed 11 March 2008)
  8. The Illustrated London News 1858 Events of this year in the Illustrated London News online at iln.org.uk (accessed 11 March 2008)
  9. Letter dated November 6, 1858, from John Sloane of Leicester Infirmary to The Medical Times and Gazette, issue dated November 18, 1858, p. 516
  10. The Gentleman's Magazine for 1862, p. 435
  11. London Gazette dated October 15, 1895, page 5642
  12. Supplement to the London Gazette dated 24 March 1915, page 2953
  13. Dixie, Sir (Alexander Archibald Douglas) Wolstan, in Who Was Who 1971–1980 (London, A. & C. Black, 1989 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-3227-5)
  14. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=19760212&id=vogsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=x_oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7167,2953372
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