of having written urging O'Rourke to rebel, and saying that his rising against Sir Richard Bingham [q. v.], the president of Connaught, would not be ill taken by the lord deputy (Perrot). Dillon was in 1591 one of the commissioners appointed to restore peace after Rourke's rebellion, but, partly owing to his differences with Bingham, little was effected. In November 1592 William Nugent [q. v.], who had recovered some of his influence, brought various charges against Dillon, accusing him of corruption and cruelty in connection with the suppression of his own rebellion, and of complicity in O'Rourke's. There is no doubt that Dillon had been guilty of grave misdemeanours, but the government hesitated to punish one who had done good service to the crown at the instigation of an ex-rebel like Nugent. Dillon was committed to prison, removed from the privy council, and in October 1593 made to resign the chief-justiceship. Further the government refused to go; in May 1593 Dillon was restored to his place in the council, perpetual obstacles were placed in the way of his trial (the journal of the commissioners appointed for the trial is calendared in Carew MS. iii. 62), and on 22 Nov. 1593 the lord-chancellor declared him to be innocent of the charges brought against him. On 23 Sept. 1594, the day of his successor's death, Fenton wrote to Burghley that Dillon was to be restored to the chief-justiceship, and this decision was confirmed by patent of 15 March 1594-5. He retained this dignity until his death on 15 July 1597; he was buried in Tara church. His will is given in Lodge's 'Peerage of Ireland' (ed Archdall, iv. 145-6). He married, first, Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Allen of Kilheel (his only son by whom predeceased him unmarried); and secondly, Catherine (d. 1615), daughter of Sir William Sarsfield of Lucan, by whom he had issue five sons and nine daughters.
[Cal. State Papers, Ireland, 1509-98; Cal. Carew MSS.; Cal. Fiants, Ireland, Elizabeth; Lascelles's Liber Mun. Hib.; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland; Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, iv. 144-7; Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors.]
DIMOCK, JAMES FRANCIS (1810–1876), divine and historical scholar, son of John Giles Dimock, rector of Uppingham, Rutlandshire, was born at Stonhouse, Gloucestershire, on 22 Nov. 1810. He was educated at Uppingham School under Dr. Buckland, was admitted pensioner of St. John's College, Cambridge, on 21 Feb. 1829, and was elected Bell's scholar in 1830. He graduated B.A. as twenty-ninth wrangler in 1833, and M.A. in 1837. Having been ordained deacon and priest by the bishop of Lincoln, he was in 1846 appointed minor canon of Southwell; he gave up the canonry on his appointment as rector of Barnborough, near Doncaster, in 1863. In 1869 he was made prebendary of Lincoln, and he held the prebend with his rectory until his death at Barnborough on 21 April 1876 (Guardian, 26 April 1876, p. 544).
Dimock was deeply interested in ecclesiastical and mediaeval history; his earliest work was 'Illustrations of the Collegiate Church of Southwell,' London, 1854, 8vo. In 1860 he published at Lincoln an edition of the 'Metrical Life of St. Hugh,' and in 1864 he edited for the Rolls Series the. 'Magna Vita S. Hugonis, Episcopi Lincolniensis,' 1864. He also published 'The Thirty-nine Articles … explained, proved, and compared with her other authorized formularies,' London, 1843, 1845, 2 vols. 8vo; but his most important work was his edition of part of the works of Giraldus Cambrensis for the Rolls Series; the first four volumes were edited by J. S. Brewer, and vols. v-vii., which appeared between 1867 and 1877, by Dimock; the edition was completed with an eighth volume by Mr. G. F. Warner.
[Graduati Cantabr. 1800-84; Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1876; Boase's Mod. Engl. Brit. Biogr.; Freeman's William Eufus, ii. 585; Stubbs's Lectures on Mediaeval Hist., ed. 1887, p. 431; Dimock's works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; information from R. F. Scott, esq., of St. John's College, Cambridge.]
DIXON, GEORGE (1820–1898), educational reformer, born on 1 July 1820 at Gomersal, near Bradford in Yorkshire, was the son of Abraham Dixon of Whitehaven. Soon after his birth his father removed to Leeds, and on 26 Jan. 1829 he entered Leeds grammar school. About the age of seventeen he spent a year in France, studying the language. In 1838 he came to Birmingham and entered the house of Rabone Brothers & Co., foreign merchants. In 1844 he was made a partner, and ultimately on the retirement of his brother Abraham he became head of the firm. In connection with the business of the house he resided for three years in Australia.
After his return he threw himself into municipal affairs. He was an active member of the Birmingham and Edgbaston Debating Society, in which almost all local politicians learned and practised the art of speaking. He embarked in several undertakings with a view to improving the condition of the people. Mainly owing to his efforts Aston Hall and park were secured for the town
