William Dickson

  General Notes:

GEN: See Historical Document. NOTE Served in Revolutionary War.\0=\0:The Dickson family is a branch of the Keith Clan o NOTE f the Highlands of Scotland. Richard,\0=\0:a younger son of an Earl of Keith, Marsha NOTE ll of Scotland, went in about the seventh century to the lowlands, near Berwick, NOTE where he was known as Dick and where he achieved notoriety as a warrior. His so NOTE n, known as Dick's son. performed such valiant services for his king that he was NOTE knighted, whereupon he took the name of Dickson. A John Dickson was living in t NOTE he early part of the eighteenth century at Downpatrick, County Down, Ireland, wh NOTE o married a Gault of the Parish of Kilragh, County Antrim, Ireland, and to them NOTE was born a son, named William.\0=\0:The Rev. Samuel Dunlop persuaded seven families NOTE to remove in 1741 from Londonderry NH to Cherry Valley, NY, and after he built a NOTE log house and grew a crop he returned to Ireland and married Elizabeth Gault. W NOTE hen Rev. Dunlop and his bride returned to Cherry Valley, NY, early in 1742 they NOTE were accompanied by her brother, William Gault and his family, and by her thirte NOTE en-year-old nephew, William Dickson. The latter lived with the Rev. Dunlop, by w NOTE hom he was educated, Until he married Elizabeth Campbell and settled on his farm NOTE at the then south end of the settlement.\0=\0:The stone foundation of his first hou NOTE se. in which Elizabeth was scalped and killed, still exists on the east side of NOTE the highway, opposite the house he built after his return to Cherry Valley in 17 NOTE 83, and which house is occupied by Mr. P. C. McCarthey. Elizabeth was the daugh NOTE ter of James Campbell and his first wife, Jane Humphrey. It is probable that Ja NOTE mes Campbell was a member of the party that came from the north of Ireland to Bo NOTE ston, Mass. in 1718 and which settled at Londonderry, N. H., the following year. NOTE In the spring of 1741, James Campbell, David Ramsey, Patrick Davidson and four NOTE other families, totaling about 30 persons, removed from Londonderry, N. H., goin NOTE g by water from Portsmouth, NH to Albany NY, and thence overland to Cherry Valle NOTE y under the guidance of Rev. Samuel Dunlop.\0=\0:The sloop on which the party , asce NOTE nded the Hudson River from New York City to Albany was owned by Hendrick Myndert NOTE se Roseboom, a merchant at Albany. The original deed to the land purchased by NOTE William Dickson, dated March 19, 1755, is in\0=\0:the possession of Mr. Lewis Haight NOTE Kirby, Kalamazoo, Michigan, one of his descendants. This land was part of the L NOTE indesay patent. By an endorsement on this deed, dated April 28, 1794, William an NOTE d Jeane Dickson sold lot 86 to his son Samuel for 600 pounds. By a deed dated Ju NOTE ly 4, 1793, William, and Jeane sold for 140 pounds, for love and as part of his NOTE estate Lot 28 in Cherry Valley to his son William junior, but reserved the right NOTE during his life to enter the land it anytime and to take so much of the annual NOTE produce as he required for his support. He was named one of the executors in the NOTE will of James Willson, dated Feb. 3, 1794, and filed Jan 20, 1796, but did not NOTE qualify as he probably died in 1795. William Harper and Jellis Fonda, judges of\0= NOTE \0:Montgomery Co., NY, certified July 21, 1789 that William Dickson and his sons, NOTE William Jr., and Samuel and 28 other inhabitants were forced by the war to quit NOTE their farms and discharged them from the payment of all past and all future rent NOTE s. Indians withdrew, with their captives, about two miles south of the settlem NOTE ent on the\0=\0:evening of the massacre. The children who were at home appear to hav NOTE e been Rosanna, Samuel, John, and Janet. Sawyer also states that at the time of NOTE the massacre most of the male inhabitants of Cherry Valley who were over sixteen NOTE years of age were serving in the army at distant points.\0=\0:Col. William Harper i NOTE n a letter to Governor Clinton, dated Dec. 2, 1778, reported that\0=\0:the wife of W NOTE illiam Dickson had been killed and that his house and barn had been burned by th NOTE e Indians.\0=\0:After the massacre of Cherry Valley, NY, on Nov. 11, 1778, William D NOTE ickson took his motherless children to the Mohawk Valley and appears to have liv NOTE ed at Fort Hunter. The ravages of the Mohawk Valley by Tories and British in 179 NOTE 0 disclosed that Valley was no longer a safe place and he sought refuge in or ne NOTE ar Philipstown, now Nassau, in Rensselear Co., NY, until his return to Cherry Va NOTE lley in 1783 after peace with England was agreed upon.\0=\0:The new house he built i NOTE s still standing and is owned by Mr. P. C. McCarthey.\0=\0:William Dickson and his s NOTE ons Benjamin and James signed a petition dated Feb. 23,\0=\0:1778, asking that range NOTE rs under competent officers be assigned to guard Cherry Valley. Four lists of t NOTE he suffers of the Cherry Valley massacre contain his name as the head of a famil NOTE y namely:-The list dated Schenectady NY, Nov. 26, 1778, states his family consis NOTE ted of 8 persons; the list dated March 29, 1779, give his family as 9 persons of NOTE whom 3 could not support themselves; the list dated April 13, 1779, gave his fa NOTE mily as 9 persons; the list of sufferers in the Canajoharie district, dated Apri NOTE l 30, 1779, gave his family as 9 persons of whom 4 were not able to work.\0=\0:While NOTE his family was living at Philipstown, NY, his sons Benjamin and James married\0=\0: NOTE and lived with him. He is listed in the census of 1790 with a family of 3 males NOTE over 16, (himself and his sons Samuel and John) and 2 females (his daughter Jane NOTE t and his second wife) .\0=\0:The Dickson lineage has been traced to Count Teon desc NOTE endent of Bali Mawr, King of all England and Wales. To the year 558 A.D.\0=\0:****** NOTE **************************\0=\0:HISTORY of DELAWARE COUNTY.\0=\0:by Jay Gould - 1856\0=\0:Th NOTE e following year, 1741, the Rev. Samuel Dunlop, who had been prevailed upon by t NOTE he generous proprietor of the patent to settle in Cherry Valley, induced several NOTE families among his acquaintances and friends to locate there also. Among these NOTE are the names David Ramsay, William Galt, James Campbell, and William Dickson, f NOTE rom Londonderry, New Hampshire, to which place they had emigrated from the north NOTE of Ireland, some years previously. These pioneers were peculiarly calculated to NOTE become the founders of a flourishing settlement - energetic, hardy, inured to t NOTE oil, and susceptible of endurance. But in their new homes they experienced many NOTE privations unlooked for and unprepared for, the story of which deterred many oth NOTE ers from following them, and hence, during the ten subsequent years only one or NOTE two families came into the valley, and the little germ of a settlement struggled NOTE on alone.\0=\0:

William married Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of James Campbell and Jane Humphrey, on 20 Nov 1752 in Cherry Valley, New York. (Elizabeth Campbell was born in Feb 1730 in Londonderry, Ireland and died on 11 Nov 1778 in Cherry Valley, New York, Massacred By Indians.)