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Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1747 – October 23, 1806), self-styled Lord Timothy Dexter, was an American businessman noted for his eccentric behavior and writings.

He became wealthy through marriage and a series of improbably successful investments and spent his fortune lavishly. Though barely educated or literate, Dexter considered himself "the greatest philosopher in the known world", and authored a book, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, which espouses his views on various topics and became notorious for its unusual misspellings and grammatical errors.

Dexter was born in Malden in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was from a poor family of Irish and English descent who had moved to the New World the century before. Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia. Dexter bought a large house in Newburyport from merchant Nathaniel Tracy and tried to emulate Tracy's prominent mansion. Dexter also bought an estate in Chester, New Hampshire. There, Dexter recommended people call him the Earl of Chester. In one episode, Dexter faked his own death to see how people would react, and about 3,000 people attended Dexter's mock wake. When Dexter did not see his wife cry, he revealed the hoax and after the ceremony beat her with his cane for not sufficiently mourning his death. Dexter became a well-known eccentric figure in the town, known for his desire for high office. Dexter is said to have been content with and proud of his position, despite the fact that there were no deer in the Newburyport area.

At age 50, Dexter authored the book A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, also known as Plain Truth in a Homespun Dress, in which he complained about politicians, the clergy, and his wife. Dexter initially distributed his book for free, but it became popular and was reprinted eight times. In the second edition, Dexter responded to complaints about the book's lack of punctuation by adding an extra page of 11 lines of punctuation marks with the instruction that printers and readers could insert them wherever needed—or, in his words, "thay may peper and solt it as they plese".

Dexter attempted to burnish his own legacy by enlisting the efforts of Jonathan Plummer, a fish merchant and amateur poet, who extolled his patron in verse: The Massachusetts Probate Office valued his estate at $35,027.39 (roughly equivalent to $803,517 in 2024) at the time of Dexter's death in 1806. After his death, Dexter's Newburyport house had its household furniture, gilt balls, and much of the garden statuary auctioned off on May 12, 1807. The Great September Gale of 1815 toppled most of the remaining statues, and the survivors were sold at another auction; some ended up being burned for firewood. Ultimately, fewer than six of the original forty statues survived to the present day, being rediscovered during the Great Depression as a result of a Works Progress Administration survey; the most prominent one being that of William Pitt, restored by the Smithsonian Institution. The Timothy Dexter House was briefly converted into an inn shortly after Dexter's widow Elizabeth died in 1809, followed by a succession of private owners. In 1984, William Quill, a Newburyport local raised on Johnston St, purchased the house for $200,000 and restored it. The Timothy Dexter House remains the Quill family's private residence to this day. After Dexter's death, a street that intersects the High St corner where the Timothy Dexter House is located was named "Dexter Ln" in his honor. The Dexter Lane Project, a 16-unit affordable housing development, is currently planned to be built at 14 Dexter Ln.

The Official Virtual Seat on the "Noue Systom of Knollege & Lite" Assigned the Notable and Most Noble Lord Timothy Dexter NPR's "Weekend Edition": The 'Literary' Legacy of Lord Timothy Dexter

Quick Facts

• After Dexter's death, a street that intersects the High St corner where the Timothy Dexter House is located was named "Dexter Ln" in his honor.
• Though barely educated or literate, Dexter considered himself "the greatest philosopher in the known world", and authored a book, A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, which espouses his views on various topics and became notorious for its unusual misspellings and grammatical errors.
• The Timothy Dexter House was briefly converted into an inn shortly after Dexter's widow Elizabeth died in 1809, followed by a succession of private owners.
• The Timothy Dexter House remains the Quill family's private residence to this day.
• NPR's "Weekend Edition": The 'Literary' Legacy of Lord Timothy Dexter

Source material: Wikipedia - "Timothy Dexter". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.