John Dickey, merchant of Glasgow, inherited his father's tenement on Bridge Street. He sold the property. He was apparently wiped out by the "Great Fire" of June 22, 1601.

In 1619, John Dickey is found with other Scottish tenants at Dunboy, in the precinct of Portlaugh, County Donegal, Ireland. He was a tenant of John Cunningham, who had received a patent to 1,000 acres at Dunboy. This patent was given pursuant to the British Government's deliberate policy of colonization of Ulster (Northern Ireland) by Scots. The better part of Ulster was assigned to British "undertakers," and the native Irish driven off their lands. The lowland Scots were brought to Ulster as tenants of the undertakers. They soon built fortified towns and developed farms in the Irish countryside. John Dickey is listed as able bodied with arms, in the muster roll for Dunboy in 1627. He was on a jury at Dunboy, September 19, 1629.

He is shown as being of Ballykelly, County Londonderry, August 11, 1637, when he rented two townlands from John Hamilton. He was on a jury there September 7, 1637. He soon was a freeholder of 60 acres at Ballymena, which acreage he purchased from Sir William Stewart on Ju1y 6, 1640. On this manor, he built a house in 1640, which existed until it was burned in 1713.

In 1641, the native Irish rose against the British Government and colonists. The Irish in County Antrim, on the west side of the Bann, killed every Englishman and Scotsman on whom they could lay their hands. John Dickey may have been killed in this massacre, although it is likely that he died shortly before the rebellion began.