John Dixwell

Background

Dixwell was born c. 1607 in England. He was the son of William Dixwell of Coton Hall, near Rugby, Warwickshire, and his wife, Elizabeth Brent.  He was the brother of Mark Dixwell of Folkestone, Kent.

Career

Upon the death of Mark Dixwell, who had inherited the estates of Sir Basil Dixwell, John Dixwell became the guardian of his brother's children and managed their landed estates in Kent. During the Civil Wars he served on various committees appointed by Parliament to raise forces and to levy assessments in that county.  In 1646 he was elected to Parliament from Dover. He was a member of the High Court of Justice erected to try Charles I, was present when sentence was given, and signed the death warrant.

On June 27, 1650, he was commissioned colonelof Troop F, in Kent.  In 1652 Dixwell became governor of Dover Castle and, on the outbreak of war with the Dutch, was entrusted to guard the seacoast of Kent.  He was a member of Cromwell's Parliaments of 1654 and 1656, and was named a commissioner for Kent in ordinances of August 28, 1654, for ejecting scandalous, ignorant, and indifferent ministers and schoolmasters, and of June 9, 1657, to levy an assessment for three months.

On the restoration of the Long Parliament in 1659 Dixwell took his seat for Dover and on May 14 and on December 31, 1659, was again elected a member of the Council of State.  Following the Restoration, he was excepted from the Act of Pardon and Oblivion and fled to Hanau, Germany. From Hanau he migrated - just when is not known - to New England.  He was first mentioned as being in America in February 1664/5, when he visited his fellow regicides, Edward Whalley and William Goffe, at Hadley in the Colony of Massachusetts Bay.  Soon after this he settled at New Haven, where he assumed the name of James Davids.

On December 29, 1685, James Davids, alias John Dixwell, was admitted to the church at New Haven. On March 18, 1689, Dixwell died at New Haven and was there buried.

Achievements

• Dixwell is best known as the man who fought for the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War, and was one of the Commissioners who sat in judgement on King Charles I and condemned him to death.

Connections

Dixwell was married twice: to Mrs. Joanna Ling on November 3, 1673, and to Bathsheba Howe on October 23, 1677. From the second marriage there were three children. Before his death he had conveyed to his wife and son his estates in Kent, and in September 1693 his widow was taking steps to recover Dixwell's property.

In 1710 Dixwell's son visited England in an attempt to recover his father's property but was unsuccessful.

Father:

William Dixwell

Mother:

Elizabeth Brent

Spouse:

Bathsheba Howe

Spouse:

Joanna Ling

Brother:

Mark Dixwell

References

• Cobbett's Parliamentary History of England: From the Norman Conquest, in 1066 to the Year 1803. Comprising the period from the tenth of May 1782, to the first of December 1783
• The Imprisonment & Death of King Charles I, Related by One of His Judges: Being Extracts From the Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, the Regicide, With a ... Relating to the Trial of the King (1882)
• A true copy of the journal of the High Court of Justice, for the tryal of K. Charles I. as it was read in the House of Commons, and attested under the hand of Phelps, clerk to that infamous court
• The Life of John Milton: Narrated in Connexion with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of His Time, Volume 1