He was the son of
John Bicknell and his wife
Sabrina Sidney.[4] His name commemorated
John Laurens, his father's friend, who died in 1782.[5] He was educated at
Charles Burney's school, where his mother worked, having been left little to live on when his father died in 1787.[2][4]
In a successful legal career, Bicknell became solicitor to the Admiralty.[6] He was
Sir John Soane's solicitor from 1828, and an original trustee of the
Soane Museum.[7] He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the
Society of Antiquaries of London, and died at
Dover on 3 August 1845, aged 59.[8]
Works
A Brief Vindication of the legality of the late proceedings against George Wilson, the Blackheath Pedestrian (1815), on
George Wilson the racewalker[9]
Original Miscellanies, in prose and verse (1820)[11]
Psalms, selected for the service of the Church (2nd edition 1822)[12]
Reform in Parliament. a Letter to the Right Hon. George Tierney Suggesting a Practical and Constitutional Mode of Securing Purity of Election (1823)[13]
The Trial: a Serious Drama, by William Shakspeare and John Milton (undated)[14]
Family
Bicknell married in 1809 Jane Willmott, eldest daughter of Thomas Willmott, at
Shoreham, Kent.[15]