Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Dixon, William Hepworth
DIXON, WILLIAM HEPWORTH (1821–1879), historian and traveller, was born on 30 June 1821, at Great Ancoats in Manchester. He came of an old puritan family, the Dixons of Heaton Royds in Lancashire. His father was Abner Dixon of Holmfirth and Kirkburton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, his mother being Mary Cryer. His boyhood was passed in the hill country of Over Darwen, under the tuition of his grand-uncle, Michael Beswick. As a lad he became clerk to a merchant named Thompson at Manchester. Before he was of age he wrote a five-act tragedy called ‘The Azamoglan,’ which was even privately printed. In 1842–3 he wrote articles signed W. H. D. in the ‘North of England Magazine.’ In December 1843 he first wrote under his own name in Douglas Jerrold's ‘Illuminated Magazine.’ Early in 1846 he decided to attempt a literary career. He was for two months editor of the ‘Cheltenham Journal.’ While at Cheltenham he won two principal essay prizes in Madden's ‘Prize Essay Magazine.’ In the summer of 1846, on the strong recommendation of Douglas Jerrold, he moved to London. He soon entered at the Inner Temple, but was not called to the bar until 1 May 1854. He never practised. He became contributor to the ‘Athenæum’ and the ‘Daily News.’ In the latter he published a series of startling papers on ‘The Literature of the Lower Orders,’ which probably suggested Henry Mayhew's ‘London Labour and the London Poor.’ Another series of articles, descriptive of the ‘London Prisons,’ led to his first work, ‘John Howard and the Prison World of Europe,’ which appeared in 1849, and though declined by many publishers passed through three editions. In 1850 Dixon brought out a volume descriptive of ‘The London Prisons.’ At about the same time he was appointed a deputy-commissioner of the first great international exhibition, and helped to start more than one hundred out of three hundred committees then formed. His ‘Life of William Penn’ was published in 1851; in a supplementary chapter ‘Macaulay's charges against Penn,’ eight in number, were elaborately answered [see Penn, William]. Macaulay never took any notice of these criticisms, though a copy of Dixon's book was found close by him at his death.
During a panic in 1851 Dixon brought out an anonymous pamphlet, ‘The French in England, or Both Sides of the Question on Both Sides of the Channel,’ arguing against the possibility of a French invasion. In 1852 Dixon published a life of ‘Robert Blake, Admiral and General at Sea, based on Family and State Papers’ [see Blake, Robert]. It was more successful with the public than with serious historians. After a long tour in Europe he became, in January 1853, editor of the ‘Athenæum,’ to which he had been a contributor for some years. In 1854 Dixon began his researches in regard to Francis Bacon, lord Verulam. He procured, through the intervention of Lord Stanley and Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, leave to inspect the ‘State Papers,’ which had been hitherto jealously guarded from the general view by successive secretaries of state. He published four articles criticising Campbell's ‘Life of Bacon’ in the ‘Athenæum’ for January 1860. These were enlarged and republished as ‘The Personal History of Lord Bacon from Unpublished Papers’ in 1861. He published separately as a pamphlet in 1861 ‘A Statement of the Facts in regard to Lord Bacon's Confession,’ and a more elaborate volume called ‘The Story of Lord Bacon's Life,’ 1862. Dixon's books upon Bacon obtained wide popularity both at home and abroad, but have not been highly valued by subsequent investigators (see Spedding's remarks in Bacon, i. 386). Some of his papers in the ‘Athenæum’ led to the publication of the ‘Auckland Memoirs’ and of ‘Court and Society,’ edited by the Duke of Manchester. To the last he contributed a memoir of Queen Catherine. In 1861 Dixon travelled in Portugal, Spain, and Morocco, and edited the ‘Memoirs of Lady Morgan,’ who had appointed him her literary executor. In 1863 Dixon travelled in the East, and on his return helped to found the Palestine Exploration Fund. Dixon was an active member of the executive committee, and eventually became chairman. In 1865 he published ‘The Holy Land,’ a picturesque handbook to Palestine. In 1866 Dixon travelled through the United States, going as far westward as the Great Salt Lake City. During this tour he discovered a valuable collection of state papers, originally Irish, belonging to the national archives of England, in the Public Library at Philadelphia. They had been missing since the time of James II, and upon Dixon's suggestion were restored to the British government. With them was found the original manuscript of the Marquis of Clanricarde's ‘Memoirs’ from 23 Oct. 1641 to 30 Aug. 1643, which were long supposed to have been destroyed, and of which especial mention had been made in Mr. Hardy's ‘Report on the Carte and Carew Papers.’ In 1867 Dixon published his ‘New America.’ It passed through eight editions in England, three in America, and several in France, Russia, Holland, Italy, and Germany. In the autumn of that year he travelled through the Baltic provinces. In 1868 he published two supplementary volumes entitled ‘Spiritual Wives.’ He was accused of indecency, and brought an action for libel against the ‘Pall Mall Gazette,’ which made the charge in a review of ‘Free Russia.’ He obtained a verdict for one farthing (29 Nov. 1872). His previous success had led him into grave error, though no man could be freer from immoral intention. At the general election of 1868 Dixon declined an invitation to stand for Marylebone. He shrank from abandoning his career as a man of letters, although he frequently addressed political meetings. In 1869 he brought out the first two volumes of ‘Her Majesty's Tower,’ which he completed two years afterwards by the publication of the third and fourth volumes. In August 1869 he resigned the editorship of the ‘Athenæum.’ Soon afterwards he was appointed justice of the peace for Middlesex and Westminster, and in the latter part of 1869 travelled for some months in the north, and gave an account of his journey in ‘Free Russia,’ 1870. During that year he was elected a member of the London School Board. In direct opposition to Lord Sandon he succeeded in carrying a resolution which thenceforth established drill in all rate-paid schools in the metropolis. During the first three years of the School Board's existence Dixon's labours were really enormous. The year 1871 was passed by him for the most part in Switzerland, and early in 1872 he published ‘The Switzers.’ Shortly afterwards he was sent to Spain upon a financial mission by a council of foreign bondholders. On 4 Oct. 1872 he was created a knight commander of the Crown by the Kaiser Wilhelm. While in Spain Dixon wrote the chief part of his ‘History of Two Queens,’ i.e. Catherine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn. The work expanded into four volumes, the first half of which was published in 1873, containing the life of Catherine of Arragon, and the second half in 1874, containing the life of Anne Boleyn. Before starting upon his next journey he began a movement for opening the Tower of London free of charge to the public. To this proposal the prime minister, Mr. Disraeli, at once assented, and on public holidays Dixon personally conducted crowds of working men through the building. In the September of 1874 he travelled through Canada and the United States. In March 1875 he gave the results in ‘The White Conquest.’ In the latter part of 1875 he travelled once more in Italy and Germany. During the following year he wrote in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ ‘The Way to Egypt,’ as well as two other papers in which he recommended the government to purchase from Turkey its Egyptian suzerainty. In 1877 he published his first romance, in 3 vols., ‘Diana, Lady Lyle.’ Another work of fiction followed it in 1878, in ‘Ruby Grey,’ in 3 vols. In 1878 appeared the first two volumes of his four-volumed work, ‘Royal Windsor.’ Before the close of 1878 he visited the island of Cyprus. There a fall from his horse broke his shoulder-bone, and he was thenceforth more or less of an invalid. ‘British Cyprus’ was published in 1879. His health was further injured by the loss of most of his savings, imprudently invested in Turkish stock. On 2 Oct. 1874 his house near Regent's Park, 6 St. James's Terrace, was completely wrecked by an explosion of gunpowder on the Regent's Canal. He was saddened by the death of his eldest daughter and the sudden death at Dublin, on 20 Oct. 1879, of his eldest son, William Jerrold Dixon. He was revising the proof sheets of the concluding volumes of ‘Royal Windsor,’ and on Friday, 26 Dec. 1879, made a great effort to finish the work. He died in his bed on the following morning from an apoplectic seizure. On 2 Jan. 1880 he was buried in Highgate cemetery. If occasionally deficient in tact, he was looked upon by those who knew him best as faultless in temper. His sympathies were with the people, and he took a leading part in establishing the Shaftesbury Park and other centres of improved dwellings for the labouring classes. Although a student of state papers and other original authorities, Dixon was no scholar. He was always lively as a writer, and therefore popular, but inaccuracies and misconceptions abound in his work. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, of the Society of Antiquaries, of the Pennsylvania Society, and of several other learned associations [A memoir by the present writer appeared in the Illustrated Review, 11 Sept. 1873, vi. 226–228. See also Portraits of Distinguished London Men, pt. i.; In Memoriam Hepworth Dixon, 1878; Times, 29 and 31 Dec. 1879; Daily Telegraph, same dates; Men of the Time, 10th edit. 1879, pp. 321, 322; Athenæum 3 Jan. 1880, pp. 19, 20; Annual Register for 1879, p. 236.]