Author: Hicklin, John
Biography:
HICKLIN, John (1805-77: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 15 Mar. 1805 at St. Mary’s Nottingham, the son of James Hickling [sic] and his wife Elizabeth, whose maiden name is not known. He was educated locally and then apprenticed to Messrs Cheetham, hosiery manufacturers. With patronage and encouragement, he was advised to go to university with a view to entering the church and was prepared by the Rev. W. J. Butler, Rector of St. Nicholas, Nottingham. In 1828 he went up to St. John’s, Cambridge, but suffered from ill health just as the Nottingham poet Henry Kirke White (q.v.) had done earlier, and did not complete his studies but returned to Nottingham. He married Elizabeth Barker on 1 May 1832 at St. John the Baptist, Beeston. They went on to have five daughters, all born in Nottingham. In the early 1830s he worked first as a printer, stationer, and bookseller, operating from 14 Long Row, before taking over joint-proprietorship and editorship in 1832 of the Nottingham Journal which became a leading a High Church/Tory newspaper. He continued to edit it until its closure in late 1842. He then left Nottingham and moved to Chester where he became editor of the Chester Courant. The 1851 Census describes him as a newspaper editor, aged 46, living at Curzon Park. By 1861 he had moved back to the Midlands and is recorded as Distributor of Stamps for Derbyshire. He worked briefly as an editor at the Carlisle Patriot before attempting to set up another High Church/Tory newspaper at Plymouth. He moved finally to Torquay where he is recorded as living at 13 Belgrave Terrace, as Secretary to the Devon Church Institution. He died at 3 Abbey Crescent, Torquay, on 13 Jan. 1877. In addition to the works listed here, he wrote a number of guide books for the expanding tourist market: Excursions in North Wales (1847) The Hand-Book of Llandudno (1856), Bemrose's Guide to Derbyshire (1869). He also wrote histories of Nottingham Castle (1836), Beeston Castle (1845), and Chester Cathedral (1846). His life of Robin Hood prefixed to J. M. Gutch’s Robin Hood. A Collection of Poems, Songs, and Ballads (1866) consolidated the myth and his The “Ladies of Llangollen,” As Sketched By Many Hands (1847) is still a useful collection of sources on the celebrated friendship of Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby (for whom see ODNB). (ancestry.co.uk 24 Dec. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 24 Dec. 2021; William Howie Wylie, Old and New Nottingham [1853], 234-5; Nottingham Review 4 May 1832; Nottingham Journal 14 Oct. 1836; Morning Post 16 Jan. 1877; Nottinghamshire Guardian 19 Jan. 1877; GRO) AA