Sir Alexander Beaumont Churchill Dixie

• General Notes
  • On the death of the eighth baronet his uncle Captain Alexander Dixie R.N. succeeded to the title at the age of seventy. He had been born in London in 1780. His professional career is described in "O’Byrnes "Naval Biography" and may be summarized by saying that having joined the Navy in 1795. He found himself not surprisingly very fully occupied for the next twenty years. He served in thirteen ships and saw action in several waters, including those of North America. He was twice wounded, once shipwrecked and twice taken prisoner and he assisted at the destruction or capture of twenty-three ships of the line, besides frigates, sloops and privateers. As a midshipman he served in the "Victory" under Captain Hardy from October 1803 until the following April and is recorded to have behaved with sobriety and intelligence and to have been always obedient to command and a most deserving officer. The present baronet has a copy of the order signed "Nelson and Bronte" and countersigned by Hardy on 27th August 1804 appointing Alexander Dixie to command of the "Phoebe" as acting-lieutenant. This 36 gun frigate was present, though not actively engaged, at the battle of Trafalgar and four days after the action, in the face of opposition from gunboats and troops, Dixie with twelve men succeeded in burning two stranded Spanish ships of the line with all their stores and guns.
    
    After 1811 he served in the "Minerva" and the "Armide" and then in the "Plantagenet", 74 guns, on the North American Station. It appears that he was transferred to the "Shannon" frigate under Captain Philip Broke before she fought her famous single-ship action with the "Chesapeake" on 1st July 1813, for he was made acting-captain of the captured American ship on 5th July and sailed her to Halifax. Eleven months later he was promoted to the command of the "Saracen" sloop in which, during a night operation in the following winter, he disabled or destroyed sixteen enemy vessels in Chesapeake Bay.
    
    In 1815, still commanding the "Saracen", Dixie was engaged in landing arms at Dieppe where he succeeded in setting up the white standard of the Bourbons and on 1st July he was instructed to examine all ships sailing from France in case Buonaparte or any of his family should attempt to escape by sea to America. In September, however, the "Saracen" was put out of commission and Commander Dixie became unemployed. He remained on half-pay until he retired with Captain’s rank in 1851. During that period he was a Magistrate in Leicestershire and also appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the county.
    
    In December 1818 Alexander Dixie, then of Orton House near Market Bosworth, married his cousin Rosamond Churchill as explained earlier. She died in 1831, And in 1840, while he was living at Chertsey, Surrey, Dixie married Rebecca Barnham at St. James's Westminster. Lady Rebecca after thirty years of widowhood died at Hounslow in June 1887 at the age of ninety-four. She had had no children but by Sir Alexander's first marriage there were five sons – one of whom, Nelson, died young in 1829 – and three daughters.
    
    The oldest son was christened Alexander Beaumont Churchill and in course succeeded to the title.  The second son, Richard Wolstan married Eliza Gould in 1838 and was the father of Willoughby Wolstan Dixie (see p.63).  Beaumont Joseph, the third son, died in Calcutta aged twenty-four in 1846. By his wife Sarah Ann he had an only child, Mary Ann Rosamond and in the Grant of Administration a step-daughter, Charlotte Ann, is also mentioned. The youngest surviving son, Wolstan Fleetwood Dixie, was born in 1827. The name Fleetwood can be traced to the marriage of Joseph Churchill and Penelope the daughter of Charles Fleetwood in 1702 and recurred at intervals among the Churchills. (see table opposite p.46).  Wolstan Dixie was an M.R.C.S in 1850, an M.D of St. Andrews in 1855 and also an L.S.A in the same year. He practised subsequently in London. On 12th June 1884 he was found dead in his house at 42 Great Castle Street; he had suffered from angina pectoris and died of heart failure.  It seems that he had no children, for there is no record of his marriage.
    
    Sir Alexander's estate according to the Grant of Administration was first valued at under £20,000 and was later resworn at under £30,000. His grave is near the path leading to the south door of Market Bosworth church, the inscription, rather unusually, being on the reverse side of the headstone. A memorial to him can be seen in Cadeby church.
    
    Dick Lawrie adds: On 31st October 1795, aged 16, a short time after joining Captain Roberts on Amazon 36, as a Volunteer 1st class, Alexander was wrecked off Finisterre in a huge storm, and imprisoned for ten months by the French*.  In company with Indefatigable 46, they had caught Les Droits de l'Homme 76 on a lee shore.  The French ship was driven ashore as was Amazon.
    
    After some years, mainly in the West Indies, Dixie joined Hardy as a midshipman, later masters mate on Victory to be posted to Phoebe 36. 
    
    "By the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson KB duke of Bronte on Sicily Knight of the Great Cross of St. Ferdinand and Merit Knight of the Order of the Crescent and of the Illustrious Order of St. Joachim Vice Admiral of the White and Commander in Chief of His Majesty's Ships and Vessels employed and to be employed on the Mediterranean Station.
    
    "Whereas Lieutenant James Wallace Gabriel of His Majesty's ship Phoebe was upon survey held on state of his health yesterday found unfit for his  -------  Majesty's Service in this country and invalided in consequence.
    
    "You are therefore hereby required and directed to repair immediately on board His Majesty's said ship Phoebe and take upon you the Charge and do the Duty of Acting Lieutenant in the Room of the said Lieutenant James Wallace Gabriel accordingly being obedient to all such Orders and Directions as you shall from time to time receive from the Captain of the said Ship or of any other superior Officer for his Majesty's Service and for doing this shall be your order. Given on board His Majesty's Ship Victory August 1804 the 27th Signed Nelson & Bronte"
    
    "To Mr. Alexander Dixie His Majesty's Ship Victory hereby appointed Acting Lieutenant of His Majesty's Ship Phoebe in the  -------------- of ---------James Wallace ----invalided. By comm. of the Vice Admiral J N Scott
                                    W H Hardy Captain
                                              (a true copy)"
    
    "These are to certify the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy that Mr. Alexander Dixie served as Midshipman of His Majesty's Ship Victory under my Command from the 7 day of October 1803 to the first day of April 1804 then Masters Mate to the date hereafter during which time he behaved with diligence and sobriety and was always obedient to Command and is a most deserving officer.
    
    Given under my hand onboard HMS Victory indecipherable day of August 1804. W H Hardy (Captain).
    
    During the battle that followed Phoebe served as a signal frigate in Nelson's column. It was after the battle, in the huge and terrible storm that followed, that Phoebe and Dixie played their part, so well portrayed by Tim Clayton in his readable and exciting "Trafalgar, the men the battle the storm". During those four terrible days she was a very busy bee indeed; running messages and seeking out information for Admiral Collingwood; taking Bahama in tow and losing her; towing Fougueux and losing her having taken off some forty off her crew to safety; taking in tow and saving Swiftsure, and coming to the aid of Aigle, in which his Royal Marine brother, Richard was to serve some five years later. In his own words, in a letter to his sister the following year, complaining of his lot, he wrote "Should I be fortunate in having your joint interest and approbation in this Instance I will immediately apply for an appointment. I think I can make Intrest (sic) enough myself for Active Service – Twelve months only having elapsed since the Battle of Trafalgar, Burning the El Rayo of 100 Guns, the Neptuno of 84, under the batterys of St. Luccar (Westward of Cadiz), which service I effectively accomplished, in Fourteen hours without anything to Eat or Drink."   " … in the event of our Country being blest with Peace, while I am still on the list of Lieutenants, my Half-pay would only afford three shillings and sixpence per Day – which would be a very small acknowledgement for fourteen years of servitude of my Prime days".
    
    Tim Clayton disagrees with the name of one of the ships; "Dixie thought he had set Neptuno on fire, but Neptuno was wrecked within Cadiz Bay and I'm pretty sure that the ship he set fire to was Monarca. The Diary of the Cadiz watchtower, of which there is a copy in the naval museum in Madrid, gives the location of the wrecks of French and Spanish ships and says that these hit the long sandy beach called Arenas Gordas north of San Lucar". Dixie's share of prize, including parliamentary, money was £226.11.5d, or some £10,000 in today's money.
    
    On 12th January 1806 Lt. Alexander Dixie RN was discharged from Phoebe, reason; lunacy. In 1811 he was re-employed. In 1814 he took temporary command of Chesapeake after she had been taken by Shannon, taking her into Halifax. He then assumed the captaincy of Saracen 18 and bashed the Yanks about a bit in Chesapeake Bay. According to O'Byrne "In that vessel, while in the Chesapeake during a night in the ensuing winter, he effected the capture and destruction, by slipping from his anchorage, of 16 of the enemy’s vessels. Being ordered off the coast of France in 1815, for the interception of Buonaparte, we find him employed in landing arms at Dieppe, where he succeeded in establishing the White flag. Since 9 Sept. in the latter year, in which Saracen was put out of commission, Commander Dixie has been unable to procure employment". An aspect of the man is revealed in Theodore Roosevelt's book on the War of 1812, when he wrote;" On 30th October 1814 party of British sailors from HMS Saracen landed at the chapel at St. Inigoes, looted and vandalised it. The officer in charge explained to the complaining monk (? member of the church) "Sir, I did not come for plunder – I came for stock, but I cannot command these men. They are nothing but real ruffians." A few days later another officer came ashore under a flag of truce, bringing with him some of the stolen items, and a letter from Capt. Dixie, "Such proceedings being unauthorised by me, I have taken the earliest opportunity of causing restitution to be made of the property so taken".
    
    For all this his boat did come in. He inherited a huge sum from an aged cousin. Later he inherited a large house, now the Bosworth Hall hotel and over 5,000 acres of prime Leicestershire countryside, was appointed deputy Lord Lieutenant of Sussex and of Leicestershire, as well as a J.P. No doubt, to his pride, he became a half-pay captain at the same time. It took him fifty-five years, the Amazon clasp and the Trafalgar medal, imprisonment, two wreckings and two wounds to achieve his captaincy.

Details of Alexander's family with Lady Rosamund Mary Churchill