Louis Philippe and the Dixons
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Louis Philippe and the Dixons
| Janet0284 (View posts) | Posted: 9 Jan 2003 4:33PM GMT |
Classification: Query
Surnames: Capet, Dixon, Don Carlos, Carlos
From The Family of Dr. James Overton of Nashville (1785-1865): Some Ancestors, Contemporaneous Kin, and Descendents, 1609-1976, pg. 28
Tilman Dixon was one of the earliest pioneers of Middle Tennessee. In 1786 he came up the Cumberland with a Captain Walton "to select and locate the lands awarded them by the State of North Carolina for military services." He located at Dixon Springs, according to Goodspeed, on some of "the best agricultural land" and in one of "the most thickly settled areas of the county." The tax rolls for 1787 show that he owned 10,599 acres of land. He was one of the eight justices of the peace who met 16 Dec. 1799 and organized the court of pleas and quarter sessions. Other county officers were elected by the court on the following day, and Smith came into being as a political entity. Dixon was one of the local tax assessors for 1800, and until June 1802 the court of pleas and quarter sessions was held in his house, which was also a licensed tavern.
This arrangement adds credence to an account, recognized in at least two printed sources, of the visit to the Dixons by the Bourbon princes Louis Philippe and his brothers the Duc de Montpensier and the Comte de Beaujolais. These descendants of Philip of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, were upon the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 considered by most to be the heirs to the throne of France should the monarchy be restored. (Louis Philippe eventually became king of the French and reigned from 1830 to 1848.) In 1796 they were exiled by the Directory and came to the United States. Following an itinerary drawn up by President Washington, they undertook a tour of the country, arriving in Tennessee on 30 April 1797. They traveled west through the wilderness and came, about the eighth or ninth of May, to Dixon Springs and "had coffee and two beds for four--themselves and their servant, Baudoin--at the home of Maj. Tilman Dixon." According to Worth S. Ray, oral tradition has that one of the noblemen objected to sharing a bed with one of Dixon boys and reminded his host that he was a "prince of the blood." Dixon's reply was something like "Yes, and you'll be sleeping with a prince of the blood when you sleep with one of my boys."
Does anyone know what he might have meant by his last statement to the nobility?
Tilman Dixon was one of the earliest pioneers of Middle Tennessee. In 1786 he came up the Cumberland with a Captain Walton "to select and locate the lands awarded them by the State of North Carolina for military services." He located at Dixon Springs, according to Goodspeed, on some of "the best agricultural land" and in one of "the most thickly settled areas of the county." The tax rolls for 1787 show that he owned 10,599 acres of land. He was one of the eight justices of the peace who met 16 Dec. 1799 and organized the court of pleas and quarter sessions. Other county officers were elected by the court on the following day, and Smith came into being as a political entity. Dixon was one of the local tax assessors for 1800, and until June 1802 the court of pleas and quarter sessions was held in his house, which was also a licensed tavern.
This arrangement adds credence to an account, recognized in at least two printed sources, of the visit to the Dixons by the Bourbon princes Louis Philippe and his brothers the Duc de Montpensier and the Comte de Beaujolais. These descendants of Philip of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV, were upon the execution of Louis XVI in 1793 considered by most to be the heirs to the throne of France should the monarchy be restored. (Louis Philippe eventually became king of the French and reigned from 1830 to 1848.) In 1796 they were exiled by the Directory and came to the United States. Following an itinerary drawn up by President Washington, they undertook a tour of the country, arriving in Tennessee on 30 April 1797. They traveled west through the wilderness and came, about the eighth or ninth of May, to Dixon Springs and "had coffee and two beds for four--themselves and their servant, Baudoin--at the home of Maj. Tilman Dixon." According to Worth S. Ray, oral tradition has that one of the noblemen objected to sharing a bed with one of Dixon boys and reminded his host that he was a "prince of the blood." Dixon's reply was something like "Yes, and you'll be sleeping with a prince of the blood when you sleep with one of my boys."
Does anyone know what he might have meant by his last statement to the nobility?