EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
DICKENSON, Henry
Abt 1752 - 1837 (85 years) Has no ancestors but 18 descendants in this family tree.
Abt 1775 - Yes, date unknown (~ 60 years)-
Name DICKENSON, Henry Birth Abt 1752 Gender Male Death 7 Sep 1837 Walsall, Staffordshire 
Burial 12 Sep 1837 Ashted, Warwickshire, England Person ID I2336 Edgoose Last Modified 2 Feb 2026
Family 1 NEAL, Rosabella, b. Abt 1775 d. Yes, date unknown (Age ~ 60 years) Marriage 13 Aug 1799 Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire Children 1. DICKENSON, Henry, b. 1802 d. 29 Oct 1876, Lahaina, Hawaii (Age 74 years)2. DICKENSON, Rosabella, b. Abt 1803 d. 1847, Walsall Registration District, Staffordshire (Age 44 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]3. DICKENSON, John, b. 1805, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England d. 23 Aug 1894, Cypress Grove, South Bridgewater, Tasmania, Australia (Age 89 years)4. DICKENSON, Eleanor, b. 14 Feb 1813, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England d. 2 Dec 1891, Honolulo, Honolulo County, Hawaii, USA (Age 78 years) [Father: natural] [Mother: natural]Family ID F1114 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
Family 2 Marriage 13 Aug 1799 Aston Juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire Family ID F1115 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Jan 2026
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Notes
HENRY DICKENSON 1752-1837
Henry DICKINSON [sic] married Rosabella NEAL at Aston juxta Birmingham, Warwickshire, on 13 August 1799.
(FamilySearch)
He died At Walsall, Staffordshire, on 7 September 1837 aged 85.
(GRO September Q 1837 Walsall 17 169)
(Admon. 1838)
Henry DICKENSON was buried at St. James the Less, Ashtead, Warwickshire, on 12 September 1837 aged 85.
(NBI)
NOTES & QUERIES:
An e-mail from tc0511172@yahoo.com:
"I wanted to write you an update about Frank Dickenson.
Through conversing with you those few times I have learned a valuable lesson. I am now more careful with my information and make sure its rooted in fact verses speculation. As it turns out, I now have more information about my line of Dickensonnns than my grandmother's book ever had. As you told me might have be the case, the familial link I proposed to you was nothing more than conjecture. The "Frank" Dickenson (Born Francis Dickenson) in the 1900 census whom I initially reached out to you about was NOT the Frank, son of Charlotte Rowley and John Dickenson. Evidence and sources say that he was actually a son of Henry Dickenson, Sr. and Marry Anne Caroline Rowley. Many reputable online sources only list the first 4 children that were born in Hobart, not even my Walter Dickenson or the 4 other children born after reaching Hawaii.
To that, I would like to ask you to indulge me. I am having an issue reconciling newly discovered information with the attribution of John Henry Dickenson as being Henry/Mary Rowley's son. Your information says that John Henry was born September 11, 1848 and he married Elizabeth Amelia Beresford, living a full life; born in and then dying in Hobart ,Tasmania in 1930 at age 81. I don't dispute that a John Henry did most of that.
At the risk of falling into my old bad habit; just yesterday I discovered a monument I estimate as having been erected in 1858 or 1859 and then added on to in 1860. It is located in a Lahaina, Hawaii cemetery dedicated to the memory of 3 sons ooof Henry and Mary who passed away at young ages. It does lists a John "the second son" but doesn't list a middle name. It is logical to infer that this John went with his parents from Hobart to Hawaii. On the monument, it states this John died on June 26, 1858 "aged 9 years, 10 months". (I was able to learn he died from "a malignant sore throat" which likely meant Diphtheria. This comes from a slightly surprising source to me, since it seems far removed from a readership that this infoormation would matter to: Sacramento Daily Union Volume 13, Number 2005, Saturday August 29, 1857). The math from his death places his birth August 26, 1848, which is not so far off from Sep 11, 1848... assuming they just rounded up the months to an even 10.
It is my opinion that the John Henry Dickenson attributed to Henry and Mary is actually the son of your Charlotte Rowley and John Dickenson, also born in 1848 in Walsall, England then having came to Hobart later with his parents where he married, lived and died. I defer to your expertise in determining if this assumption is correct.
My ultimate goal in assembling all this information is to use it in order to learn more about Henry Dickenson and Rosabella Neal of England who are our common ancestors. I hope to use it to trace the line further back from them, as it is now they are the end of the line for me.
As a thank you for your indulgence I would like to offer you what I have discovered, should any of the information be of interest to you. Henry Dickenson, Sr. was born about 1802 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. Mary Ann Caroline Rowley-Dickenson died February 25, 1899 in Lahaina, Maui County, Hawaii.
The following is what I feel to be a (mostly, if not) complete list of their children:
Rosa Dickenson b. 20 Sep 1842 d. 31 Jan 1907
Caroline Dickenson b. 29 Apr 1844 d. 03 Sep 1924
Henry Dickenson, Jr. b. 24 Jan 1846 d. 17 Feb 1907
John Dickenson b. 11 Sep 1848 d. 26 Jul 1858 *Specific cause of death unknown.
Walter Seaborn Dickenson b. 10 Jul 1850 d. 22 Sep 1905
Francis "Frank" Dickenson b. 1853 d. 07 Jan 1929
Frederick DickensonMarch b. 1855 d. 23 Jul 1857 *Died from a "malignant sore throat". Likely Diphtheria.
Arthur Dickenson b. 05 Apr 1859 d. 30 Mar 1860 *Died of "water on the brain". Likely Hydrocephalus, which could indicate a premature or difficult pregnancy.
Ellen Melbourne Dickenson b. 20 Jul 1862 d. Before 1940
Here is a brief summary I have put together of the exploits of Henry Dickenson, Sr.:
Henry's sister Eleanor married John Thomas Waterhouse, who would become Henry's future business associate. John and Eleanor went to Hobart, Tasmania arriving February 1, 1839. In 1841/42 Henry followed his sister and brother-in-law to Hobao set up a branch of the family's Ironmongery business, Dickenson Brothers. Assets were transferred in December 1849 and the business went belly up by 1851.
Prior to beginning one of the first sugar plantations in Lahaina in 1859, Henry was described as a store owner. Success of his Lahaina Sugar Company in Hanaka
o
o encouraged the Pioneer Mill Company to establish a second sugar plantation in. It sat on vast acreages to the south. In 1863 the Lahaina Sugar Company went bankrupt and was sold off to the Pioneer Mill Company. Henry was described as being a District Magistrate in 1869 and Dickenson Street in the historic district of Lahaina is named after him.
In 1874, a lot was purchased from Henry on the corner of Prison and Front Streets for $600 and a new Holy Innocents Church and St. Cross School were built there. The church was consecrated on January 1, 1875. When there were no clergy, Henrdd the services at the chapel of St. Cross School. In 1927 an new church was built one block South. The stained glass windows above the altar in the current Holy Innocents Church were a memorial to Dickenson gifted by an early parishioner. The windows are all that remain from the former church on Front Street. The triptych portrays the baptism, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ."
(An email dated 06.02.2018 from tc05111782@yahoo.com)
(revised 07.02.2018)