Dixon, Sir Daniel (1844–1907), 1st baronet, timber merchant, shipowner, and politician, was born 28 March 1844, the third son in the family of four sons and two daughters of Thomas Dixon (1805–68), a merchant and shipowner at Larne, Co. Antrim, and his wife, Sarah (d. 1873), daughter of Archibald McCambridge of Mullarts, Cushendall. Thomas's father, also Thomas (1770–1849), was of Bun-na-Mairge, Ballycastle. After studying at the RBAI, Daniel Dixon joined his father's timber and shipping firm, Thomas Dixon & Sons, soon becoming a partner (1864). At the time of his death it was said to be the largest firm of timber importers in Ireland, and its operations put Dixon in control of the large mercantile fleet of the Lord Line. He also had interests in many other companies, including the Ulster Marine Insurance Co. and the Belfast and County Down Railway. He was a member of the Belfast harbour board (from 1890) and served as its chairman in 1904–7. Another interest was development of working-class housing.
Dixon was elected to Belfast borough council for Dock ward (1872), and was alderman (1881) and mayor (1892) of Belfast. While mayor he was created a knight and his office was raised to a lord mayoralty. He was elected lord mayor in 1893 but later quarrelled with colleagues over labour questions and resigned his municipal offices. He did not reenter local politics until 1901, when again he was elected for Dock ward and straightway lord mayor, to which high office he was four times reelected (1902, 1903, 1905, and 1906). Dixon was made a member of the Irish privy council in 1902 and created baronet on 7 October 1903. Prominent in Belfast civic life, he was active on committees organising the erection of a new City Hall, Purdysburn Hospital, and St Anne's cathedral. But his entry into parliamentary politics at the Belfast North by-election (1905) was marked by acrimony. As unionist candidate in a working-class constituency Dixon, who had successfully sued the local Labour Chronicle for libel (it had accused him of selling land to the corporation at an inflated price), was opposed by a prominent trade unionist, William Walker (qv), whom he defeated by 4,440 votes to 3,966. At the general election in January 1906, after another hard-fought campaign, he polled 4,907 votes to Walker's 4,616.
Sir Daniel Dixon inherited (apparently) a house, Glenville, at Cushendall, Co. Antrim, and purchased another at Ballymenoch, near Holywood, Co. Down, as well as an estate at Ravensdale, Co. Louth. He died 10 March 1907 at Holywood. On 21 August 1867 he married Eliza or Lizzie Agnew, daughter of James Agnew of Belfast, who died in the following year after bearing him a son, Thomas James (1868–1950), who succeeded as 2nd baronet and was a member of the Northern Ireland senate. On 16 August 1870 Dixon married Annie Shaw (d. 1918), daughter of James Shaw (d. 1907) of Belfast, with whom he had five daughters and four sons, one of whom, Herbert Dixon (qv), the only son to marry, was ennobled as Baron Glentoran (8 July 1939) and succeeded as 3rd baronet on the death of his half-brother (10 May 1950). There is a bronze statue of Daniel Dixon by Sir Hamo Thorneycroft in the grounds of Belfast City Hall.