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- Clipped from: https://www.ancestry.com.au/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/22752756/person/340048168205/media/fd08b9ae-aa18-42a2-affc-2c468802f7c7?_phsrc=VVZ4384&usePUBJs=true
Dick
DICK, a surname of great antiquity in Scotland, supposed to be of Danish extraction, and to have had the same origin as the name of Van Dyke, )or lord of the Dykes) in the Netherlands.
The progenitor of the Dicks of Prestonfield in Edinburghshire, was one William de Dyck, who was first magistrate of Edinburgh in 1296, before the institution of the office of lord provost. To this family, who were deeply embarked in commerce, Scotland owes much of the advancement of her foreign and domestic trade during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their immediate ancestor, James Dick, a considerable merchant at Arbroath, lived in the reign of King James the Fifth, and chose that port for his residence, for the convenience of shipping and carrying on a foreign trade. In a charter under the great seal, dated in January 1539, he is designed “merchant burgess” of Arbroath. Contemporary with him was Sir Alexander Dick, archdean of Glasgow, who got a charter under the great seal of the lands of Dillerburn, Doggflatt, &c., in the county of Peebles, 29th September, 1548.
James Dick’s son, Alexander Dick, resided chiefly in the Orkneys, where he had some landed property. He was a person of considerable knowledge and learning, and after the Reformation he was appointed provost of the Cathedral church of Orkney. He died before 1580. His son, John Dick, also a man of abilities, was proprietor of the islands of North Ronaldshay, Ormsay, &c., and carried on, from the Orkneys, a very extensive and advantageous trade with Denmark. Having gone there in command of one of the largest of his own ships, about the time that King James the Sixth went for his queen, in 1590 he returned with the squadron which conducted her majesty to Scotland, and becoming a great favourite with the king, afterwards resided chiefly at Edinburgh.
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