With other members of her family she went to Canada in 1842, settling as a teacher of music in Montreal, where she died on 24 March 1859. She wrote verses for the ‘Glasgow Courier’ and ‘Free Press,’ and for the ‘Literary Garland’ and the ‘Transcript.’
Andrew Belfrage Picken (1802–1849), second son of Ebenezer Picken, was born in Edinburgh on 5 Nov. 1802, and some time before 1827 became private secretary to Sir Gregor M'Gregor [q. v.], of Poyais in Central America. After suffering much in connection with m'Gregor's enterprise, Picken returned as supercargo in a vessel sailing between Honduras and Great Britain. Settling in Edinburgh, he endured great poverty, but wrote occasionally for the ‘Caledonian Mercury,’ and played subordinate parts in the theatre. At Edinburgh, in 1828, he published ‘The Bedouins and other Poems.’ The work displays considerable fancy and energy of expression. In 1830 he went to Montreal, where he became artist and teacher of drawing. He died there on 1 July 1849.
[Brown's Paisley Poets, and his Memoirs of Ebenezer Picken, Poet, and Andrew Picken, Novelist, with portraits; Irving's Dict. of Eminent Scotsmen.]
PICKERING, DANBY (fl. 1769), legal writer, son of Danby Pickering of Hatton Garden, Middlesex, was admitted, on 28 June 1737, a student at Gray's Inn, where he was called to the bar on 8 May 1741. He re-edited the original four volumes of ‘Modern Reports’ (1682–1703), with the supplements of 1711, 1713, and 1716, under the title ‘Modern Reports, or Select Cases adjudged in the Courts of King's Bench, Chancery, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, since the Restoration of His Majesty King Charles II to the Fourth of Queen Anne,’ London, 1757, fol. He also edited Sir Henry Finch's ‘Law, or a Discourse thereof in Four Books,’ London, 1759, 8vo. His most important work, however, was the abridgment of the ‘Statute Book,’ entitled ‘The Statutes at Large, from Magna Charta to the end of the Eleventh Parliament of Great Britain,’ Cambridge, 1762–9, 24 vols. 8vo; continued with his name on the title-page to 1807, and thereafter without his name until 1809. The date of his death is uncertain.
[Gray's Inn Reg.; Bridgman's Legal Bibliography; Marvin's Legal Bibliography; Wallace's Reporters.]
PICKERING, ELLEN (d. 1843), novelist, lived in early life at Bath. Her family owned property in the West Indies, but losses compelled their retirement for some years to Hampshire, and Ellen commenced novel-writing about 1825 with a view to a livelihood. She wrote rapidly, acquired some popularity, and earned, it is said, 100l. a year. The most successful of her books was ‘Nan Darrell,’ published in 1839. The heroine is a crazy gipsy, said to be drawn from life. Other editions appeared in 1846, 1853, 1862, and 1865. Miss Pickering died at Bath, on 25 Nov. 1843, of scarlet fever (Annual Register, 1843, p. 315; Gent. Mag. 1844, ii. 216). She did not live to finish her last novel, ‘The Grandfather;’ it was completed by Elizabeth Youatt, and published in 1844. In the year of her death Miss Pickering published ‘Charades for Acting’ and ‘Proverbs for Acting.’
Her other novels are: 1. ‘The Marriage of the Favourite,’ 1826. 2. ‘The Heiress,’ 1833. 3. ‘Agnes Serle,’ 1835. 4. ‘The Merchant's Daughter,’ 1836. 5. ‘The Squire,’ 1837, 1860. 6. ‘The Fright,’ 1839. 7. ‘The Prince (Rupert) and Pedlar, or the Siege of Bristol,’ 1839. 8. ‘The Quiet Husband,’ 1840. 9. ‘Who shall be Heir?’ 1840. 10. ‘The Secret Foe: an historical Novel,’ 1841. 11. ‘The Expectant,’ 1842. 12. ‘Sir Michael Paulet,’ 1842. 13. ‘Friend or Foe,’ 1843. 14. ‘The Grumbler,’ 1843. 15. ‘Kate Walsingham,’ 1848, all in 3 vols. Most of her novels were published separately in the United States.
[Allibone's Dict. of English Lit. ii. 1589; Hale's Woman's Record, p. 884; private information.]
PICKERING, GEORGE (d. 1857), artist, born in Yorkshire, succeeded to the practice of George Cuitt the younger [q. v.] as a drawing-master in Chester. He also painted many pictures in water-colour, exhibiting at the Liverpool Academy, of which he was a non-resident member in 1827. The plates by Edward Francis Finden [q. v.] which illustrate both the first (1829) and second (1831) series of Roby's ‘Traditions of Lancashire’ are after drawings by Pickering, which are remarkable alike for artistic finish and suitability for the purpose of reproduction by the engraver. They are now in the possession of Mrs. Trestrail, formerly Mrs. Roby. He also drew many of the fine landscapes that are engraved in Ormerod's ‘History of Cheshire’ and in Baines's ‘History of the County Palatine of Lancaster.’ In 1836 he had a studio at 53 Bold Street, Liverpool. Some years later he resided at Grange Mount, Birkenhead, where he continued to practise as an artist and teacher of drawing. He died there in March 1857.
[Liverpool Academy Catalogues; information from Mr. Charles Brown of Chester and others, communicated by Mr. C. W. Sutton.]
