John Rickman (parliamentary official) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Rickman
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| Born | 22 August 1771 |
| Died | 11 August 1840 (aged 68) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Guildford Grammar School, Magdalen Hall, Oxford, & Lincoln College, Oxford. |
| Known for | Creating the United Kingdom census |
John Rickman (22 August 1771 – 11 August 1840) was an important English government official and statistician in the early 1800s. A statistician is someone who collects and studies facts and figures, often about people. Rickman is best known for helping to create the first official count of people in Great Britain, called a census.
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John Rickman's Early Life
John Rickman was born in Newburn, a town in Northumberland, England. His father was Reverend Thomas Rickman. John went to school at Guildford Grammar School. Later, he studied at two colleges at Oxford University: Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford. He was good friends with the famous poet Robert Southey.
The Idea for a Census
From 1799 to 1801, John Rickman worked as an editor for a magazine called Commercial, Agricultural, and Manufactures' Magazine. In 1800, he published an article there about how useful it would be to count all the people in the country. He had actually written an earlier version of this idea in 1792.
This idea caught the attention of Charles Abbot, a Member of Parliament (MP). An MP is a person elected to represent an area in the government. Abbot helped turn Rickman's idea into a law.
Making the Census Happen
John Rickman is given credit for writing the first draft of the law that became the Census Act in December 1800. This law made it a requirement to count the population of Great Britain. A census is an official survey that counts how many people live in a country and gathers other information about them.
Rickman was very important in carrying out the first four censuses in Great Britain. He didn't just count people. He also collected and looked at information from parish registers, which were records kept by local churches.
Working in Parliament
In 1802, Charles Abbot became the Speaker of the House of Commons. The Speaker is the person who leads the debates in Parliament. Rickman became Abbot's private secretary and held this job for many years.
Later, in 1814, Rickman became the Second Clerk Assistant in the House of Commons. In this role, he made big changes to how the House of Commons recorded its daily meetings. He helped start publishing the "Votes and Proceedings" of the House of Commons in 1817. These records showed what happened each day in Parliament.
Rickman became the Clerk Assistant in 1820 and stayed in that position until he died. He was a very important part of how Parliament worked behind the scenes.
Other Important Contributions
Besides his work on the census, John Rickman also helped with other big projects. In 1803, he was the secretary for two special groups set up by Parliament. One group worked on building roads and bridges in Scotland. The other group worked on building the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. This canal is a waterway that connects different lochs (lakes) across the country.
Rickman was a close friend of Thomas Telford, a famous civil engineer who worked on both these projects. Rickman even helped publish Telford's life story after he died.
John Rickman also collected many other types of statistics. For example, he gathered information about how money was spent on helping the poor. He also collected data on education and local taxes. In 1815, he was chosen to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very respected group of scientists.
