Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward Dixon span the period 1743-1808, with the heaviest concentration during the years 1750-1775. The collection consists of ledgers, daybooks, rough account books also known as waste books, a journal, blacksmith accounts, a miscellaneous volume containing receipts and two letters, and a mathematics exercise book.
The papers represent the financial transactions of Edward Dixon, prominent citizen and merchant, who operated a store at Port Royal, Virginia. The ledgers include descriptions of goods traded locally and those imported into and exported from the colony and note the prevailing prices of the period. Many of the accounts are maintained in both sterling and Virginia currency and reflect the role of tobacco in the economy. The ledgers also indicate that Dixon acted as agent for a number of foreign trading companies in London, Bristol, and Whitehaven, England, and Glasgow, Scotland. The most extensive account is with John Younger. Factors of other tobacco trading firms, such as Alexander Henderson and Arthur Morson of Glassford and Company, are also cited in the accounts.
The ledgers identify many of Dixon's customers by county of residence and occupation. Some accounts are in the names of single and married women, and a few carry the names of overseers. Among the Virginians listed are Jonathan Boucher, John Boutwell, John Catlett, William Fitzhugh, Robert Gilchrist, James Jameson, Richard Henry Lee, John Micou, Edmund Pendleton, Thomas M. Randolph, William Taliaferro, James Taylor, and John Tennant. Although the volumes contain references to various ships, only the Friendship appears with any regularity.
Some of the ledgers contain accounts which relate to Dixon's personal financial affairs and list entries for his household expenses and accounts with his tenants in Fauquier and Loudoun counties. The ledger for 1747-1756 includes an account with the colonial treasury indicating that Dixon served in the Virginia Assembly during 1752 and 1753. A ledger for 1743-1747 contains a list of his "Negro children at home" and at Elks Run with their birth dates and the names of their mothers. A later list of slaves belonging to the estates of Dixon's sons, Harry and Turner, is found in the volume for 1784-1799.