Author: Dixon, Kennett
Biography:
DIXON, Kennett (1807-54: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 13 July 1807and baptised on 6 Aug. at St. Bartholomew by the Exchange, City of London, the eldest of six children of Kennet(t) Dixon (1782-1814), attorney, and Jane Buckley Dennison (1786-1837), daughter of a surgeon, who had married in 1806. His father had a practice at Angel Court, Throgmorton Street, City of London. Nothing is known of his early education but he was articled to John Gregson, solicitor to the High Court of Chancery, in 1823 for five years and was later recorded as an Attorney on the Rolls (1851 census). With his younger brother, George Read Dixon (q.v.), he published an Annual imitation, The Poetical Souvenir, announced in the newspapers at the end of 1826 as “an elegant Christmas present,” as was traditional for annuals. He married Juliet Sugden (1808-88), the second daughter of Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, barrister and MP, at St. Pancras Old Church on 1 Feb. 1832. At a ball for two hundred people in May 1832 their residence in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, Juliet fled and returned to her father’s house. Kennett Dixon pursued her and created such a disturbance he was arrested and taken to Hatton Garden police station. He was cautioned the following day not to disturb Sir Edward further. In September, having returned to her husband, Juliet gave birth to a still-born daughter and later had three further children who survived into adulthood. They appear to have separated later and he lived with a common-law wife, Elizabeth Hooley (1824-1908), and is recorded in the 1851 census living with her and a natural daughter, Clara, aged one, at Union Street, Shoreditch, East London. Both mother and daughter were recorded as Dixon. His final years were spent as a banker’s clerk. He died on 7 Apr,. 1853 from consumption (phthisis) at 8 Felton Terrace, Hoxton, East London, and was buried at St. John’s, Hoxton. After his death Elizabeth worked as a needlewoman and their daughter emigrated on a free passage to Australia in 1872. His widow Juliet later married his nephew, Rev. John Revell Low, in 1856. (ancestry.co.uk 1 Feb. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 1 Feb. 2024; Morning Post2 Feb. 1832; MA 21 May 1832; Satirist 3 June 1832; GRO death cert.) AA
Other Names:
- Kennet Dixon