Jeremiah Dixon was an English surveyor and astronomer who, working with fellow surveyor Charles Mason, established the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, known since as the Mason and Dixon Line.
Background
Jeremiah Dixon was born on July 27, 1733, in Cockfield, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. He was the fifth child of George Dixon and Mary Hunter. His father was a wealthy Quaker coal mine owner of the Northumberland Landed Gentry. His great grandfather was the theologian Robertus Dixon. His mother came from Newcastle, and was said to have been "the cleverest woman" to ever marry into the Dixon family.
Education
Dixon was educated at John Kipling’s school at Barnard Castle, where he displayed interest in mathematics and astronomy.
Career
An acquaintance with John Bird, an instrument maker in London and a native of Bishop Auckland, led to Dixon’s appointment as assistant to Charles Mason, whom the Royal Society proposed to send to Sumatra to observe the transit of Venus on June 6, 1761. An encounter with a French man-of-war prevented the party from reaching Bencoolen; they observed the transit instead at the Cape of Good Hope, taking so many other measurements that the astronomer royal declared a few years later: “It is probable that the situation of few places is better known.”
In 1763 Mason and Dixon were employed to survey the long-disputed boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. They were engaged in the delicate and laborious task for nearly five years, hiring local surveyors to assist in observations and calculations and local laborers to cut “vistoes” and set boundary stones. At Dixon’s suggestion, and with the approval of the Royal Society, the surveyors calculated the length of a degree of latitude (363,763 feet, or 470 less than the currently accepted figure). The Mason and Dixon survey put a stop at once to quarrels between the two colonies.
He was hardly home when the Royal Society sent him - without Mason - to Hammerfest to observe another transit of Venus on June 3, 1769. While there he prepared “A Chart of the Sea Coast and Islands near the North Cape of Europe.” Thereafter Dixon lived comfortably at Cockfield, only occasionally resuming his profession.
Like his father, Dixon was a member of the Society of Friends.
Membership
Dixon was elected a member of the American Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge (later merged with the American Philosophical Society) in 1768. In 1773, for his outstanding contributions to science, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
American Philosophical Society
,
United States
1768
Royal Society
,
United Kingdom
1773
Personality
Although Dixon was recognized as a Quaker, he was known to break the rules by dressing in a long red coat and occasionally drinking to excess.
A story is told that one day, whilst in America, Dixon came across a slave driver mercilessly beating a poor black woman. Going up to him he said: "Thou must not do that!" He received the curt answer: "You be d...d! Mind your own business." Dixon's reply was: "If thou doesn't desist I'll thrash thee!" Then righteous wrath overcame his Quaker principles. Without more ado he seized the slave-driver's whip and with it gave him the sound thrashing. Dixon kept the whip a trophy and took it back with him to Cockfield, where it was long regarded as a family treasure.
Physical Characteristics:
Dixon was a tall and powerful man, and had an imposing figure.
Steven Maas wrote that Dixon wore military uniform from 1760 until his death consisting of a long red coat and a cocked hat: "Dixon merely adopted as ordinary dress a long red coat and - as so many people of the period did - a cocked hat. This has led historians to assume that he either held commissioned rank or that he wore military uniform without permission. A 'long red coat and cocked hat' had no significance."
Connections
Dixon never married.
Father:
George Fenwick Dixon
Mother:
Mary Hunter
Brother:
George Dixon
Grandfather:
Robertus de Fenwicke Dixon
Brother:
Ralph Dixon
colleague:
John Bird
colleague:
Charles Mason
References
The Life and Times of Jeremiah Dixon
The author of the work is a Quaker who lives near Dixon’s home at Cockfield in County Durham. The work offers unique insights into the life and achievements of "Jerry the Astronomer."
2015
Drawing the Line
Drawing the Line discloses for the first time in 250 years many hitherto unknown surveying methods, revealing how Mason and Dixon succeeded where the best American surveyors of the period failed. In accessible, ordinary language, Danson masterfully throws the first clear light on the surveying of the Mason-Dixon line. Set in the social and historical context of pre-Revolutionary America, this book is a spellbinding account of one of the great and historic achievements of its time.
2000
Mason & Dixon
Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse.