Skip to main content

Author: Rickman, Joseph

Biography:

RICKMAN, Joseph (1749-1810: ancestry.com)

His one volume of poems, published in Philadelphia in 1828, is a curious family production. The author is the "late" Joseph Rickman of Lewes, Sussex; the editor identifies himself as Joseph's son William Rickman and dedicates the volume to his (own) former pupils in nine towns or cities spread across six states. The Rickmans were Quakers. Joseph, son of John and Elizabeth (Peters) Rickman and elder brother of Thomas "Clio" Rickman (q.v.), was born in Lewes. He became a surgeon and apothecary who worked mostly in Berkshire, especially Maidenhead. In 1772 he married Sarah Neave of Staines (d 1809) and they had at least two children. In the last three  years of his life, he is said to have become an itinerant street preacher and to have been "bordering on insanity" when he died (GM). He is buried in the Friends' Burial Ground in Dublin. William (1781-1871) emigrated to America in 1805, where he taught mainly in Pennsylvania. In 1830 he published proposals for an education-improvement society (Thoughts on Education) and for improvements in mental-health care (Observations on Insanity) but his life in the US did not go as well as he hoped and he returned to Britain. He died in York and is buried in the Friends' Burial Ground there. (ancestry.com 30 Jul. 2020; findmypast.com 30 Jul. 2020; GM 80 [Dec. 1810] 662)

 

Books written (1):

Philadelphia: printed for the proprietor, 1828