John Rickman

Who was John Rickman?

John Rickman was an English government official and statistician of the early nineteenth century.

He was born in Newburn, Northumberland, son of the Rev Thomas Rickman and educated at Guildford Grammar School, Magdalen Hall, Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford. The poet Robert Southey was one of his friends.

From 1799 to 1801 he edited the Commercial, Agricultural, and Manufactures' Magazine which published his article 'On ascertaining the population' in 1800. An earlier version of this paper entitled 'Thoughts on the Utility and Facility of a general enumeration of the People of the British Empire' was brought to the attention of Charles Abbot. Shortly after, in 1800, Abbot appointed Rickman his Private Secretary.

Rickman is credited with drafting the first bill which became the 1800 Census Act, the full title of which was An Act for taking an Account of the Population of Great Britain, and of the Increase or Diminution thereof, which became law in December 1800. Rickman was instrumental in carrying out the first four censuses of Great Britain, including not only a population count, but also the collection and analysis of parish register returns.