Author: DICKSON, Thomas
Biography:
DICKSON, Thomas (1784-1857: Scotland’s People)
He was baptised on 26 Apr. 1784 at Hutton, Berwickshire, Scotland, the son of David Dickson (1748-1830), tenant farmer, and Alison Hare (1759-1819), who had married in Hutton on 28 May 1780. Nothing is known of his education but it was probably local. Around 1810 he moved to Chirnside, Berwickshire, to take up the post of parish schoolmaster which he held for 47 years until his death. In 1836 he made a claim for compensation for ownership of slaves on the Virgin Valley Estate, St. James, Jamaica, but there is no record of his receiving compensation and his involvement is unclear. The most likely explanation is that he had inherited an interest but had no direct involvement. He married Mary Simpson on 28 Sept. 1813 at Chirnside, and they went on to have three sons and four daughters, born 1814-26. His wife may have died before 1841 (she is not recorded in the 1841 census) and he may be the Thomas Dickson who married Mary Smith on 28 Dec. 1843 at Chirnside, in which case she, not Mary Simpson, is the woman recorded in the 1851 census. (Mary Simpson in 1813 was of the parish of Chirnside; Mary Smith in 1843 was of St. Cuthbert’s, Edinburgh; “Mary” in the 1851 census was born in Midlothian.) He died on 31 Mar. 1857 at Chirnside, with his occupation given as schoolteacher of the parish, and his status as “married”--so his wife probably survived him. Paraphrases and Hymns (1834) was rearranged and expanded, with a preface, as Hymns and Paraphrases (1839). Both volumes were printed for the author by Daniel Cameron, of Berwick, Scotland. (Scotland’s People 12 Mar. 2024; ancestry.co.uk 12 Mar. 2024, MM, 119-20; John Holland, The Psalmists of Great Britain (1843), I. 342-3; Berwick Advertiser 29 Mar. 1834; Dundee Courier 8 Apr. 1857; LBS 12 Mar. 2024) AA