[1] He was born the son of John Dixie, a yeoman farmer of Catworth, Huntingdonshire and educated at Gray's Inn from 1595.
In 1594 he inherited an estate at Market Bosworth from his great-uncle the first Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, who had endowed the Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge University.
[2] He was knighted by James I of England in 1604 as Sir Wolstan Dixie of Appleby Magna.
In 1608 he moved to Market Bosworth and commenced work on the original manor house and a grammar school.
[2] His son, the then elderly Sir Wolstan Dixie, 1st Baronet, was also appointed High Sheriff of Leicestershire for 1660 and created the first of a line of the Dixie baronets by Charles II of England when the King returned from exile in France.