Charles Dixon (1731-1817) was the son of a bricklayer in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Charles and his wife Susannah Coates emigrated to Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, and eventually settled at Sackville, in what is now New Brunswick, in 1772. They had eight children: Mary, Charles, Susannah, Elizabeth, Ruth, Martha, Edward and William. Charles, who found poor agricultural conditions in the area on his arrival, did much to improve farming practices in the Sackville area and encouraged the drainage of the Tantramar salt marshes. He bought 2,500 acres, some of which he farmed himself and the rest of which he rented to tenants.

Dixon had been converted to Methodism at age 43 and remained a devout believer, providing land for the erection of the first Methodist Church in Sackville. In spite of his religious beliefs and his relatively humble origins, Charles became a slave owner and was purchasing black slaves as late as 1795. He was opposed to the American Revolution but did not want to fight against the rebel elements in Cumberland County, "for Quietness Sake". Although he suffered personal losses when rebel supporters under Jonathan Eddy lay siege to Fort Cumberland, he was opposed to retaliation when British regulars returned.

His loyalty was rewarded by the colonial government, in 1776, when be became a justice of the peace and judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. After New Brunswick became a separate colony in 1784, the new administration made him collector of customs for Sackville. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1785 to 1792. At the county level he served as commissioner of highways, surveyor of highways, assessor, and overseer of the poor.

His eldest son, Charles Dixon, became a Mormon and moved to Kirkland, Ohio in 1837 with his seven youngest children. He died en route to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1854. Charles Dixon, a grandson of the original Charles, remained in New Brunswick and became a shipbuilder in Sackville from 1840 to 1865 in partnership with Mariner Wood.

His second son, Edward (1776-1861 or 1862) farmed the family land for most of his active life. He married Mary Smith, who, like him, was a devout Methodist. Their son James (1819-after 1900) married Eunice Black and had a large family. From 1855 to his retirement in 1881, James, an active Liberal, served as collector of customs as his grandfather had done. He was secretary of the Sackville and Westmorland Agricultural Society and was treasurer of the Sackville Rural Cemetery Company from 1883 to 1887 and possibly later. In the 1880s, James wrote to many of his relatives, assembling information about the history of the family.

Other members of the family were involved in a brewery on Bridge Street and the Enterprise Foundry. Although their ancestor had been one of the first Methodists in the area, some of the later descendants became Baptists.

Sources:
Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. v
I. Allen Jack, Biographical Review