Rickman, THOMAS

Rickman, THOMAS, an English architect, was born at Maidenhead in Berkshire in 1776. He was undecided as to a calling, being in succession chemist, grocer, corn-factor, and insurance agent. But he seems to have always had a love for architecture, and to have studied it carefully. Having sent in a design for a church that proved successful in a government competition, he settled at Birmingham as an architect. He designed a great number of Gothic churches and chapels—e.g. in Birmingham, Hampton Lucy, Bristol, Preston, Carlisle, &c., many country-houses, and the New Buildings of St John's College, Cambridge. He died in March 1841. His Attempt to discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England from the Conquest to the Reformation (1817; 6th ed. by J. H. Parker, 1862) is still a standard authority.