William Steel Dickson (1744-1824)

Introduction

These notes revisit some of the enquiries that were made, in the 1880s and continuing through the centenary of the 1798 Rebellion, about the family and life of William Steel Dickson. I summarise and try to clarify some aspects that are unsettled or incorrect in the literature: his children, his wife, and his reputed links with Carnmoney neighbours.

Dickson was a Presbyterian minister, outspoken about his own and others' sufferings or perceived injustices, who irritated both his Government and his Church, and was imprisoned and impoverished in consequence. He was arrested in 1798 just as the conflict opened, and though never formally convicted of bearing arms with the rebels he remained under deep suspicion.

He could write, preach, argue, and keep his mouth shut, and – far more important to many – was of “stainless character”. That is a rare arsenal. His prose is entertaining today and no odder than expected from Presbyterian disputants. His sermons show the usual formulaic construction from Biblical texts, with expansions and comments, and many homely or more personal insertions. The rhetoric is serviceable, with flashes of the older rhythms; he can be read aloud to some effect (Never!...Never!), in a strong Scots-Irish accent:

My having been implicated in seditious and treasonable practices must, therefore have been a gratuitous assumption of some bold commentator, or visionary hierophant, who can discover meanings never intended, and in reveries, dreams, and visions, contemplate as realities what never had existence.

In debate or quibbling he had a plain force: I have neither acknowledged, nor denied the charge. [Opinion] owns no influence but that of evidence; and as this may vary, it will continually change (Sermon of June 1781). He could start a Belfast Monthly Magazine letter Be not surprised, or leave Synod on a dramatic cry Farewell for ever. Of the time he was beaten up in Armagh (by Orangemen, as was alleged by others but not by him): Thus far evidence is attainable, - was available from the beginning, - but never looked for. Reading about him we weigh the parallels with today's alleged "generals" or "adjutants", and with "renditions" and incarcerations never justified in court; but also we want to hear more gossip from the family man, and more from his opponent Rev. Robert Black.

Dickson was one of several writers who anticipated Lord Acton’s aphorism:

Power is always intoxicating; and whatever the sources or means of power may be, ambition will endeavour to perpetuate and increase it…An infatuated people throw themselves into the arms of a deliverer, as if he rose superior to human infirmities. But alas! experience soon proves the contrary. He, in turn, is intoxicated with power…All governments tend to despotism; and by degrees, more or less rapid, terminate in it.

And unimprovably:

"O sir," said he, "we have too many publications."

The remaining sections are:

2. Dicksons in Carnmoney

3. Carntall and Greenville - This updates a 2016 article published in North Irish Roots and repeats some of the Carnmoney background.

4. Children and siblings

5. Mrs Dickson

6. Further incidents and questions - This includes a short account of the Clifton Street burial. More detail is in the article Probably Some Reporter, available from NIFHS or me on request.

7. References