John Rickman - Definition and Overview

John Rickman (1771-1840) was an English statistician and government official of the early 19th century.

An opponent of the ideas of Thomas Malthus (which alarmed many people with their talk of exponential population growth), he is credited with the idea, in 1798, of conducting a national Census every 10 years, and was responsible for the censuses conducted from 1801 to 1831.

He served as Clerk to the House of Commons from 1814 to 1819 and was a friend of notable figures including poet Robert Southey, essayist Charles Lamb and civil engineer Thomas Telford.

Telford and Rickman were both members of two Commissions established in 1803 - one for the Caledonian Canal through Scotland's Great Glen, and one for Highland Road and Bridges - which administered the rapid expansion of Scotland's infrastructure during the early 1800s.