John Laurens Bicknell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Bicknell, 1845 lithograph

John Laurens Bicknell (c.1786 – 3 August 1845[1]) was an English solicitor and author.[2] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1821.[3]

Life[edit]

He was the son of John Bicknell and his wife Sabrina Sidney.[4] His name commemorated John Laurens, his father's friend, who died in 1782.[5] He was educated at Charles Burney's school, where his mother worked, having been left little to live on when his father died in 1787.[2][4]

In a successful legal career, Bicknell became solicitor to the Admiralty.[6] He was Sir John Soane's solicitor from 1828, and an original trustee of the Soane Museum.[7] He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and died at Dover on 3 August 1845, aged 59.[8]

Works[edit]

  • A Brief Vindication of the legality of the late proceedings against George Wilson, the Blackheath Pedestrian (1815), on George Wilson the racewalker[9]
  • The Modern Church; a satirical poem (1820)[10]
  • Original Miscellanies, in prose and verse (1820)[11]
  • Psalms, selected for the service of the Church (2nd edition 1822)[12]
  • Reform in Parliament. a Letter to the Right Hon. George Tierney Suggesting a Practical and Constitutional Mode of Securing Purity of Election (1823)[13]
  • The Trial: a Serious Drama, by William Shakspeare and John Milton (undated)[14]

Family[edit]

Bicknell married in 1809 Jane Willmott, eldest daughter of Thomas Willmott, at Shoreham, Kent.[15]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Wendy Moore (2013). How to Create the Perfect Wife. Basic Books. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-465-06574-5.
  2. ^ a b James Marshall Osborn; René Wellek; Álvaro Ribeiro (1979). Evidence in Literary Scholarship: Essays in memory of James Marshall Osborn. Clarendon Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-19-812612-6.
  3. ^ William White (1913). Notes & Queries. Oxford University Press. p. 470.
  4. ^ a b Martin Gayford (25 February 2009). Constable In Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 60–1. ISBN 978-0-14-191267-7.
  5. ^ Wendy Moore (7 February 2013). How to Create the Perfect Wife. Orion. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-297-86379-3.
  6. ^ Martin Gayford (25 February 2009). Constable in Love: Love, Landscape, Money and the Making of a Great Painter. Penguin Books Limited. p. 337. ISBN 978-0-14-191267-7.
  7. ^ Gillian Darley (1999). John Soane: An Accidental Romantic. Yale University Press. p. 305. ISBN 978-0-300-08695-9.
  8. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. W. Pickering. 1845. p. 323.
  9. ^ The Antijacobin Review and True Churchman's Magazine. C. Cradock. 1815. p. 567.
  10. ^ John Laurens Bicknell (1820). The Modern Church; a satirical poem.
  11. ^ John Laurens Bicknell (1820). Original Miscellanies, in prose and verse. T. Cadell & W. Davies.
  12. ^ John Laurens Bicknell (1822). Psalms, selected for the service of the Church.
  13. ^ Catalogue of the Printed Books in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. W. Blackwood and sons. 1867. p. 514.
  14. ^ The Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature: Containing an Account of Rare, Curious, and Useful Books, Published in Or Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, from the Invention of Printing... George Bell & Sons. 1863. p. 2333.
  15. ^ John Aikin (1809). The Athenaeum: A Magazine of Literary and Miscellaneous Information. Longmans, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. p. 178.