Dixie baronets

The Dixie Baronetcy was created in the Baronetage of England at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 for Sir Wolstan Dixie (1602–1682), a supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War and afterwards. He was descended from a brother of Sir Wolstan Dixie, the sixteenth century Lord Mayor of London who founded the Dixie Professorship of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge. Their home was Bosworth Hall near Market Bosworth in Leicestershire. The title became extinct with the death of the thirteenth Baronet, another Sir Wolstan Dixie, in 1975.

"Sir (Alexander) Beaumont (Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet)'s temperament was neither rationalistic nor tolerant. Described as "a spendthrift, a hopeless gambler, a heavy drinker" he found it increasingly difficult to face up to his responsibilities as Squire of Bosworth. Lady Florence wrote "For some time past I have been fighting against the terrible consequences of my husband's immense losses on the Turf and at gambling . . It was a great blow to me to find that the last remnant of a once splendid fortune must at once go to pay this debt. Ruin ... Beau ... has been so accustomed to have heaps of money at his command that he cannot understand that it is all gone .... By selling Bosworth and the property these (debts) could be met"

"Machell, from the exigencies of his profession, was unquestionably the ruin of numerous aspiring punters whose interests clashed with his own. Beaumont Dixie, whose inclinations tended towards always backing "Archer's mounts", was a notable example, and any one who witnessed the scene in the paddock after a race where Machell's horse did not win, will not be likely to forget the ruined Baronet wringing his hands in despair, and the irate owner standing over him with "Now, Mr Bastard Beaumont Dixie, I'll teach you to back Archer's mounts" Fred Archer was a champion jockey who mainly rode horses trained by Mathew and George Dawson.

The 11th Baronet sold the estate in 1885.

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