John Laurens Bicknell Explained

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

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

• 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

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

Notes and References

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