Henry Hickman 1629-1692

Henry HICKMAN 1629-1692

Biographical Note

Born at Old Swinford, Worcestershire, son of Richard Hickman, a clothier. BA St Catherine's College, Cambridge 1648, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford 1649, MA 1650, BD 1658. Vicar of Brackley, Northamptonshire 1654, rector of St Aldate's, Oxford 1658; ejected 1662. He moved to the Netherlands, where he was an assistant preacher at the English church in Leiden in 1664. He returned to London later that decade, where he began a lengthy lawsuit against his aunt, and married Joanna, daughter of William Strode (1589?-1666, of Barrington, a presbyterian former MP for whom he had been a tutor). Hickman returned to Leiden as pastor of the English church there in 1674; he was entered as a medical student at the University of Leiden the following year. He published numerous works of theological controversy, defending his presbyterian position and attacking Anglican orthodoxy.

Books

Hickman is credited with founding a library at the Grammar School in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, ca.1665 (the school dates back to 1430). The size of his library is not known, but his will made specific mention of his "whole library", of books in both the Netherlands and England, stipulating that it should pass only to descendants of himself and his wife.

Characteristic Markings

None of Hickman's books have been identified.

Sources

• Matthews, A. G. Calamy revised. Oxford, 1934.
• Wright, Stephen. "Hickman, Henry (bap. 1629, d. 1692), clergyman, ejected minister and religious controversialist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.