Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dixon, Robert

by Thompson Cooper

DIXON, ROBERT, D.D. (d. 1688), royalist divine, was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1634-5 and M.A. in 1638. He was ordained on 21 Sept. 1639, and afterwards, it would seem, obtained h benefice in Kent. In 1644, as he was passing through the Crown yard in Rochester, on his return from preaching a funeral sermon at Gravesend, he was taken prisoner and conveyed to Knole House, near Sevenoaks, and subsequently to Leeds Castle, Kent, where he was kept in close confinement for about fourteen months, on account of his refusal to take the solemn league and covenant. After regaining his liberty he was presented in 1647 to the rectory of Tunstall, Kent, from which, however, he was sequestered on account of his adherence to the royalist cause. On the return of Charles II he was restored to his living and instituted to a prebend in the church of Rochester (23 July 1660)). He was created D.D. at Cambridge, per literas regiasy in 1668. In 1676 he resigned the rectory of Tunstall to his son, Robert Dixon, M. A., and afterwards he was presented to the vicarage of St. Nicholas, Rochester. He died in May 1688. His portrait has been engraved by J. Collins, from a painting by W. Reader.

He wrote:

1. 'The Doctrine of Faith, Justification, and Assurance humbly endeavoured to be farther cleared towards the satisfaction and comfort of all free unbiassed spirits. With an appendix for Peace,' London, 1668, 4to.
2. 'The Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity described and delineatea,' London, 1674, 12mo.
3. 'The Nature of the two Testaments; or the Disposition of the Will and Estate of God to Mankind for Holiness and Happiness by Jesus Christ, concerning things to be done by Men, and things to be had of God, contained in His two great Testaments of the Law and the Gospel; demon; strating the high spirit and state of the Gospel above the Law,' 2 vols. London, 1670, folio.

In 1683 there appeared an eccentric volume I of verse entitled 'Canidia, or the Witches, of Rhapsody in five parts, by R. D.' Bibliographers ascribe this crazy work to a Robert Dixon, and it has been suggested that the divine was its author. The character of the, book—a formless satire on existing society—does not support this suggestion, although no: other Robert Dixon besides the divine and 'his son of this date is known (cf. Cobser, Collectanea),

[Rowe-Mores's Hist. of Tunstall, in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, pp. 56–8; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 231; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (1824), iii. 326; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, No. 15144; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 583; Addit. MS. 5867, f. 27 b; Hasted's Kent (1782), ii. 527, 583; information from the Rev. H. R. Luard, D.D.]

T. C.