Dickey Family

The Dickey family were living near Glasgow, Scotland as early as the 1400s. The earliest ancestor I know of is Robert Dickey. He married Elizabeth Auchincloss and in 1536. Robert was a skinner or a dealer in hides. His son John Dickey was more interested in producing leather footwear.

Robert's great-grandson John Dickey and his wife Agnes McIlvaine migrated to Ireland about 1600 settling County Antrim, North Ireland. In 1640 he purchased land in Ballymena, County Antrim. This area was inhabited by other Scotch tenants. John's oldest son, William moved to Belfast, County Antrium by 1656 and his other children returned to Scotland.

William Dickey married Sarah McMurtry. William was a linen draper. The linen manufacture is carried on very extensively in this county.

William's son Thomas Dickey was born in 1658 in Muckamore, County Antrim, Ireland and married Jane Awl.

Several members of the Dickey family, including Thomas' son George Dickey immigrated to America. George and his brother William warranted land in Sadsbury Township. George had a warrant for 200 acres dated 12 Feb. 1733/34, but he apparently sold his rights and within a few years moved several miles west into Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. William stayed and acquired land and built mills.

Our line continues through George Dickey's son Captain John Dickey. He was also born in Muckamore, County Antrim, Ireland and immigrated to America with his parents. John married Rachel Tanner in Pennsylvania. They came down the "Great Road" from Pennsylvania through the valley of Virginia to Bladen County, which later became Anson and Rowan and now is Iredell County, North Carolina. This is a distance of 435 miles.

In 1754 John was granted 200 acres in Anson County on the south side of Fairforrest on Sugar Creek. In 1759 he obtained another 543 acres of land in Rowan County. Other deeds are also recorded for him. John Dickey was a silversmith by trade and a Presbyterian.

Captain John Dickey served in the North Carolina militia during the War for American Independence. He fought in the Battle of Ramsours Mill, the Battle of Camden and the Battle of King's Mountain. Historians consider the Battle of Kings Mountain to be the "turning point in the South" for America's ultimate victory.

The Draper Manuscripts, 26 Sept. 1844, in the deposition of John Cochran mentions John Dickey. These are excerpts from the paper: "The said JOHN DICKEY was engaged as a volunteer in various services pretty much during the whole of the war from first to last and was accounted to several in his neighborhood as a brave captain of the Revolution up to the time of his death which took place about the year 1808 in the spring. That said Dickey was about 50 years of age or upwards of fifty when he quit the service, that he, the said Dickey & Elizabeth Leazy(sic) were married in the fall or winter of 1793 and that they lived together as man & wife up to the period of said Dickey's death. That he was ruling elder in the Presbyterian church for a long time before and up to the time of his death." Elizabeth was his second wife.

Captain John Dickey died in 1808 and his will is recorded In Book 1, page 30 of Iredell Co, North Carolina.

Our line follows Captain John's son Samuel. Samuel was born in Iredell County, North Carolina where he married Rebecca Patterson. He moved from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1805. He first settled in Roane County and later moved to McMinn County.

It continues with his son James Madison Dickey who was born in North Carolina in 1795. He later moved to Knox County, Tennessee where he married Polly Douglas. Their first child, William Houston Dickey was born here in 1823. In 1826 the family is found on the tax list in Roane County, Tennessee.

By 1850 the Dickey Family had moved to East Chickamauga, Walker, Georgia. Here William Houston Dickey married Rachel Telitha Lively. Soon afterward the Dickey and Lively families moved to Texas.

In 1853 William Houston Dickey received a 3rd Class Pre-emption grant from the state of Texas. He settled on waters of San Pedro Bayou in Houston County in east Texas. Many generations of Dickeys have lived in this area.

Allied Families

Awl
Brown
Douglas
Dunnam
Lively
McMurtry
McNeelly
Patterson
Sproul
Tanner