of the Caledonian Canal through Scotland's Great Glen. The civil engineer Thomas Telford was amongst the commissioners on both these Commissions: John Rickman was a close friend of Telford, and was his executor, as well as the editor of Telford's autobiography. Besides Rickman's work on the census, he also collected and mustered other statistics. Between 1816 and 1836 he abstracted the poor rate returns for the Poor Law Committee; later he produced returns on Education for Lord John Russell's Education Committee and in 1839 he compiled a return of Local Taxation. In April 1815 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The subtitle to Orlo William's biography of Rickman: Lamb's Friend the Census Taker under-emphasises his extensive parliamentary work. References Biography W. C. Rickman, Biographical memoir of John Rickman, esq., F. R. S., &c. &c. (London, privately published, 1841). Orlo Williams, Life and Letters of John Rickman (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1912). Parliamentary Archives, Rickman Papers 1771 births 1840 deaths People from Tyne and Wear English statisticians Officers of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Alumni of Magdalen Hall, Oxford Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Royal Grammar School, Guildford People from Northumberland (before 1974)