A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hickman, John
HICKMAN. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 19; h-p., 24.)
John Hickman, born in Jan. 1787, at Islington, co. Middlesex, is son (and one of 11 children) of the late Geo. Hickman, Esq., a gentleman who originally possessed considerable landed property, but afterwards endured great losses.
This officer (having cut and run from the merchant service, after three years of wearisome employment in it) entered the Navy, in March, 1804, on board the Deptford tender, Lieut.-Commander Geo. Antram, lying in the river Thames. Becoming Midshipman, in April, 1805, of the Ramillies 74, Capts. Fras. Pickmore and Robt. Yarker, he witnessed, 13 March, 1806, the capture of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, besides aiding in the boats at the cutting-out, in the course of the same year, of a schooner protected by a battery at Martinique, and serving on shore, in Dec. 1807, at the reduction of the Danish West India islands. Towards the close of 1808 he sailed in the Cornelia 36, Capt. Henry Folkes Edgell, for the East Indies, where, in 1810, he joined the Russell 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Wm. O’Brien Drury, and became Acting-Lieutenant of the Emma armed ship, Capt. Benj. Street. In 1811, having been slightly wounded in the arm during the operations connected with the capture of Ile de Bourbon and the Isle of France, at the latter of which he was the officer who landed and first hoisted the British colours on Fort Cannonier, Mr. Hickman returned home on board the Entreprenante brig, Capt. Edw. Brazier. Being, however, unable to procure his commission, he was under the necessity of again going afloat as Midshipman, in which capacity, and that of Master’s Mate, he was for a further period of 17 months borne on the books of the Onyx sloop, Capt. Hamilton, Thunder bomb, Capt. Watkin Owen Pell, and Revenge 74, flag-ship of Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge. As a reward for the services he had during that period rendered in command of a gun-boat at the defence of Cadiz, he was then advanced to the rank of Lieutenant by commission dated 21 Nov. 1812. He continued off Cadiz, in the Stately 64, Capt. Philip Chas. Butler Bateman, until May, 1813; between which period and Aug. 1814, we find him serving with the flotilla in the North Sea, and attached to the Illustrious 74, and Redwing 18, Capts. Alex. Skene, and Sir John Gordon Sinclair, on the Portsmouth and Mediterranean stations. He next, from 5 April to 12 Aug. 1815, held command of a gun-boat in the Downs; and he was afterwards appointed – 10 Oct. 1829, to the Coast Blockade, in which service, with his name on the books of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye, he continued until March, 1831 – 12 July, 1832, to the Ordinary at Sheerness, where he remained until 2 Aug. 1835 – and 9 March, 1843, to the Victory 104, bearing the flag at Portsmouth of Rear-Admiral Hyde Parker. Since the summer of 1846 he has been again on half-pay.
While in the Coast Blockade in 1831 Lieut. Hickman’s exertions in extinguishing a fire which had broken out in a rick-yard proved so valuable that they were reported to the Admiralty. He married, in 1814, Miss Mary Boyle Holt, of Islington, by whom he has issue two sons (William and George, both Clerks in the R.N.) and two daughters. Agents – Coplands and Burnett.