5. Mrs Dickson

Isabella (McMinn) Dickson

In his autobiographical 1812 Narrative Dickson mentions his wife most respectfully, but rarely; neither there nor in any known text does he state her maiden name – she is “Mrs Dickson”.

The attribution of the Gamble name was not new; Desmond Bailie notes in 1976:

Rev. Bailie corrected “W. Gordon” to “A. Gordon” when reissuing this article. Gordon’s Dickson entry for the 1888 DNB appeared after Classon Porter’s 1883 Whig sketch and McKinney’s reply, and evidently – because “Mr A. Hill, Ballyearl” is acknowledged in the DNB – after correspondence with my cousin Alexander, but before Latimer’s Witness article with its “discovery” of the name Gamble. Gordon usually checked his facts, and usually kept relevant notes and correspondence in a tidy file or bundle. He wrote articles on Dickson and over 700 others for the DNB, and there are many such bundles – but no Dickson bundle – in the main Gordon repository, the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Gordon worked for some years in Belfast. A Dickson “bundle” was known at one point to the Presbyterian Historical Society, but is missing.

Alexander was a common factor – writing to both Latimer and Gordon, and one of the Hill/Caruth household very near McKinney – but I do not want to speculate in the absence of more letters and documents. I know of no previous marriage, or proof that Gamble (or Camble, Campbel, Campbell etc.) was Isabella’s middle name or surname. She had family in Scotland; she retreated to Donaghadee (from Portaferry) at Rebellion time. Henry Montgomery suggested that she brought independent means to her marriage: “He was confined for three years, at Fort George, in Scotland, and finally liberated without trial, to witness the wreck of a considerable fortune which he had received with his wife”.

The Narrative says she was "seldom able to dress or undress herself"; Alexander Gordon says that when Dickson came home on his release (January 1802) "His wife had long been a helpless invalid". It is sometimes said that we know almost nothing more of her, but her letters were known to the Presbyterian historians a century ago. Writing to the Portaferry merchant Thomas McKibbin (or McKibben), while Dickson was in jail, she has a pointed energy of expression:

My good Friend

Tho' the present Time, and some Time past has given full proof what is in the Hearts of men, I cou'd not help being a good deal surprized by the content of a Letter which Mary rec^d from William yesterday. First Respecting M^r. Savages carrying off our Cows, & next M^r. Brown attaching the Horses and Furniture. If I am not greatly mistaken, there can be no Rent due to M^r. S. till May. If so the step he has taken is Illegal, as distress cannot be taken before it becomes due…

In the mean Time, I beg to know if you think it will be possible to keep up the Connexion between the Doctor and the Parish, as in case of a dissolution of it, we must be poor indeed, for on that the King's Bounty must also drop. Sure I am, his adherence to his duty amongst you, will entitle him to your constant adherence to him now in his distress – and sure I am that many – a great many among you are unshaken in your attachment to him; some there may be, and no doubt are, who unmindful of past services may be lightly carried away by evil-minded Persons, who may perhaps endeavour to stir up a Party in the Congregation against his Interest, such, I trust, are few, and may be managed by the more sober-minded. This Business, however, shou'd (I suppose) be proposed Publicly to, and settled by the Congregation, but of this you are a competent judge, and therefore to your Prudence and Friendship I commit it.

What my feelings are at present, I forbear attempting to say – no language cou'd describe them. What distresses may be in reserve for me, God only knows, and on him I trust for Fortitude and submission…

Present my......your House, and believe me, as in truth I am, invariably

and affectionately yr Friend

and much obliged

Isabella Dickson

6^th April 1799

Latimer transcribed this letter (shown to him by McKibbin's great-granddaughter, who died in 1911) for the Presbyterian Historical Society Report of 1912. My version above has slightly different tidying of Isabella's punctuation and abbreviations, and a few words from the damaged section between "Resources, which..." and "and believe me...". I read his adherence to his duty amongst you, will entitle him to your constant adherence to him now in his distress, a balanced phrasing of the type she favours, instead of the Report’s "his absence to his duty amongst you".

Her first use here of “distress” implies the usually legal (if often heartless and peremptory) seizure of goods in lieu of payments such as rent; her second (now in his distress) carries also the more regular meaning, as does her third (What distresses may be in reserve).

I propose, if able, to be in Portaferry some time soon may suggest she was infirm, if not permanently "helpless", in 1799. Probably she wrote from Donaghadee, and was relying on Portaferry friends and relations to keep her informed.

In Retractations Dickson says of his time in Fort George “I had information principally through Mrs. Dickson”, says that she resided in Donaghadee in 1799 and 1800, and gives an extract from her letter of 3 August 1800, where she mentions a copious correspondence from friends about the Synod debates.

From Donaghadee there was an "expostulatory letter" to the Synod in 1800 ("read from the pulpit by the rev. John Bankhead, their moderator" says the Narrative), and a complaint (reprinted in the Narrative) to Castlereagh on 11 December 1801 about the interception of her letters.

When in some financial and physical trouble, she wrote a letter dated "Thursday's evening" with no month or year, but evidently from their small Roan dwelling, asking James Dunlop (brother of her daughter-in-law) for accommodation in the more spacious Dunlop house. A copy was transcribed by Latimer for the Ulster Journal of Archaeology in 1911. Isabella Dunlop mentioned that James did not agree, so presumably the Dicksons continued to share the Roan house with “Mrs Leslie”, who may be linked with the Leslies and Irelands who still lived in that area three generations later.

After the 1811 assault the “examining” authorities – about whose conduct and motives Dickson is typically, infuriatingly ironic – wanted to meet in camera, whereas Dickson insisted on friends or witnesses as security against future misrepresentation. “Mrs. Dickson” is mentioned again, this time sufficiently alarmed by Dickson’s painful injuries to send to Armagh for medical help.

For her death Gordon gives “Northern Whig, 30 July 1819” as one of his sources, but the Whig did not exist in 1819. Probably the intended reference is to the Belfast News-letter of 30 July 1819, which has “At Smylodge, Mourne, on Thursday, July 15, ISABELLA DICKSON, wife of William Steel Dickson, D.D.”. The Blackwood pedigree in the Linen Hall Library has “BNL” beside Isabella’s death date:

Gordon asks for information in 1887, as McKinney asked in 1883:

The New Monthly Magazine of 1 September 1819 has “Isabella, wife of W. S. Dickson., esq. M.D.” dying at “Smy Lodge, near Mourne”. It has no date of death. Dickson was not medically qualified so never “M.D.”; in 1819 he was “D.D.” (his honorary Glasgow degree) and still “Rev.” (although retired). Confusingly, William Dickson M.D., son of Dr John Dickson of Lisburn, was alive in 1819 and married to an Isabella Steel(e), and their son John Steel(e) Dickson who died in April 1862 was both M.D. and a Presbyterian minister. Thomas Witherow wrote to Classon Porter (in 1880, in a letter held in Belfast Central Library) I suppose you know that Professor Croskery is married to Dr Dickson's grand-daughter. Thomas Croskery’s wife was Mary Emily, the sister of this John Steel Dickson, so that apparently her grandfather was a Dr Dickson, not the Dr Dickson. Without further information we could not know which of these 1819 obituaries (if either) is correct, although we might assume that the News-letter printed its death notice from first-hand information, whereas the NMM was recycling items published elsewhere.

“Smy Lodge” or “Smylodge”, the place of death reported (but queried in the Blackwood pedigree entry), is unknown to the Ulster Place Names Society and to various correspondents. Many possibilities for mistakes in printing and copying arise: Sunnylodge? A lodge or place or farm for berries, sméar lóiste? I owe to Evelyn Barrett the bright suggestion Ivy Lodge. Near Newry and (just) inside Mourne, well placed for a recuperative stay, it was later held by the Swanzys.