Letter in The Western Antiquary 1887
From Robert Dymond F.S.A:
"Samuel Dix, fuller, was a member of the Chamber of Exeter, was sheriff in 1758 and mayor in 1761. His son, William Spicer Dix, born 1729, lived in St. Sidwell's and became owner of a field adjoining Southernhay.
Stimulated by the progress of new buildings there, he advertised in the Exeter papers in January 1796, that he was ready to lease or sell sites for houses to be built on his land, in accordance with a plan and design which he had caused to be prepared. Hence the name of "Dix's Field" still applied to the two rows of brick houses, with their intervening pleasure ground.
Whether Mr. Dix sustained loss in this speculation or in other affairs, I do not know, but a little more than two years later, the Exeter papers reported a meeting of the creditors of William Spicer Dix and his son John, brewers, their brewery being in Exe Lane." |