Thomas Williams Bicknell's 1913 genealogy Book
PREFACE
Human life is like unto a mountain stream that flows
from
unknown springs to uncharted seas. An individual life has its
known entrance and exit. Not so with a family. It was never
born; it will never die. So complete and wonderful is a family,
that the term is hard to comprehend or to define. The strains
of blood in the veins of a twentieth century Bicknell are as
numerous as the sands of the shore or the multitude of the
stars. To find your Adam and Eve Bicknell would be a search
as hopeless as for the Holy Grail. A family genealogy is a bit
of the infinite in terms of the finite; a sample of creative energy,
working through men and women, who, for a few centuries,
bear the Bicknell name. What name we bore two thousand
years ago, no man knows. What name we shall bear two thou-
sand years hence is beyond our ken. What we do know, is this,
that a common name, peculiar physical, mental and spiritual
characteristics unite a few thousands in relations of mutual
acquaintance, fellowship, brotherhood, love. The family, called
your name, is one of the units of a national, a world 1ife; the
ends it serves are to cement a c1oser brotherhood and to foster
true sympathy, co-operation and faith. A family
genealogy
gives identity and personality to scattered forces and makes the
interlinking of lives more real, natural and helpful. The Bicknell
genealogy is a grouping of a body of men, women and children,
a section of world workers, who should make good as
Beacon lights on the Beacon Hills of life for the races of men.
This book is the growth of many years. Prior to 1860, I
knew no Bicknells outside my own Barrington (R. I.) family.
In 1810, I had become acquainted with Lovell Bicknell, of Wey-
mouth, and Quincy Bicknell, of Hingham, Mass., learning from
them that Weymouth was the home town of the family. In
1875, I took up my residence in Boston, Mass., and there became
acquainted with several more of our family, notably, William
E., Alfred, Quincy, Zachariah and Robert. In 1879, the Bick-
nell family Association was formed at the house of William
E. Bicknell, 43 Somerset Street, Boston. There were seventeen
Bicknells present, and fetters were read from twelve of our fam-
ily absent. So little did we know of the origin of the family
or of its founder in America, Zachary Bicknell, that the circular
issued in calling the first meeting, had this opening sentence:
"The Bicknells in the United States are all supposed to be de-
scendants of Zachary Bicknell, an English naval officer, who
came to this country in 1635, and died in Weymouth in 1636
leaving a son John, the ancestor of a large and very respectable
posterity." As I suggested a getting together of the family and
my name stands first in the call, it is pretty certain that I wrote
that woefully inaccurate statement as to our very humble and
untitled progenitor. I suppose my expert knowledge ot Zach-
ary's traditional naval career led to my choice as President of
the Association, while the recognition of the fact that we were
need of more careful study of the family history and genealogy,
as kept me at the head of the Association till now.
By great good fortune, Quincy Bicknell, of Hingham, Mass.,
was chosen historian, and as he was then writing the genealogy
of the Tower family, he had unusual qualifications and facilities
for gathering the facts of our family life. The value of his serv-
ices in collecting and collating material is beyond estimation, and
his chirography is so fine that I shall have the thousand pages
of Mss., which he made, bound and preserved as a fitting mem-
orial of his industry, fidelity and beautiful penmanship, most of
the Mss. he collected having been transcribed by him from his
careful notation.
At Mr. Quincy Bicknell's death, the Mss. he had prepared
were committed to my care, as President of the Association.
I had already collected a large amount of material, I at once
proceeded to edit the whole, connect, so far as possible, unclas-
sified families, collect all new data possible, and edit the whole
for publication. Finding the desire very
general that the
genealogical matter should be published, and that I should assume
the work, I found one of our own family, Mr. William N.
Bicknell, a printer, of Cincinnati, Ohio, prepared and qualified
for the task. I made a contract with the Higbee-Bicknell Publish-
ing and Printing Co., to print the volume. Mr. W. N. Bicknell
has had the supervision of the printing and issuance of the book
and whatever material excellence it possesses should be credited
to that firm. It is a great satisfaction to me to know that from
start to finish, this History and Genealogy is wholly a Bicknell
product.
So many have assisted that it seems invidious to name a few,
if not all, and yet I am sure it will awaken no jealous thougths
if I name of American Bicknells; Miss M. Maude Bicknell, and
Dr. Emma V. P. B. Culbertson, of Boston ; Rev. Geo. W. Bick·
nell, D. D., of Cambridge; Miss Mary Ellen Clarke, of Lynn;
Hon. Ellery Bicknell Crane, of Worcester, Mass.; Miss Ada B,
Bicknell, of Potsdam, New York; Mrs. John R. Bicknell, of
Skowhegan, Me.; Mr. George A. Bicknell, New York, N. Y.;
Hon. Warren Bicknell, Cleveland, Q.; Mrs. Ernest P. Bicknell,
Washington, D. C.; Dr. Robert C. Bicknell and Miss Harriet M.
Grange, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Mrs. Electa B. Grange, Napanee,
Canada; Mrs. Emeline L. Bicknell, Pomeroy, O.; Miss Fannie E,
Bicknell and Mr. Dana E. Bicknell, Chicago, Ill.; Mrs. Frederick
T. Bicknell, Los Angeles, Cal., and many others.
The chief English contributor has been Mr. A. Sidney Bicknell,
of London, England. He made a long and faithful study of
the English Bicknells, and his wealth and scholarship enabled him
to gather a vast amount of valuable material, which I trust will
be printed for the use of Bicknells the world over. Mr. Bick-
nell's family had its origin in Somesetshire about tlie middle of
the Eighteenth century, and is an integral part of the Paveley
descent.
This history and genealogy is not complete. I doubt if it
could be made comptete in an exact sense. Many families have
been lost to our view. The labor of years is wrapped up in this
volume. To make a volume that would include the direct and
collateral lines from Zachary Bicknell would occupy a score of
years more. The best we can do has been done, in that by this
volume it is thought that every person in America, of Bicknell
descent, can, by its aid, trace out his ancestral lines to an Eng-
lish origin in the distant past.
This volume is the key to the future study of the family.
Many errors as to names and dates will appear. Errors of omis-
sion and commission will be noted ; they must be expected. All that
the editor can claim is this, that he has used the material obtained
from hundreds of sources, often after much solicitation and long
delays, in such form as will enable every Bicknell of Zachary's
descent to construct and fill out his own family tree. To this
end, a few blank pages are left in the back part of the book for
the filling up of unfilled records, and the addition of births, mar-
riages and deaths. The family genealogy will take the place
Of the Family Bible for family records, thereby giving it greater
permanent value.
A genealogy is a memorial of lasting value, far more perma-
nent and intelligent than tombstones, and yet I have found it
difficult to show to some members of the family the importance
of a pictorial family representation in this volume. Hundreds
of dollars are spent in headstones and monuments, in cemeteries,
most of which are neglected in the second generation and are
destroyed before the life of the fifth. The pictures in this vol-
ume tell more than the printed page, and will long survive all
other material records. They insure a limited immortality of
remembrance, so cherished a desire of the human spirit.
The history and genealogy of the Bicknell family are begun
in this volume; they will be completed in the lives and records
of the present and succeeding generations.
May the future of the family be as clean, as pure, as noble,
a honorable as the past, and may the future Bicknell historian
have as pleasant a task as has been mine in the work I have done
in and for the Bicknell family, since the formation of the Bick-
nell Family Association, in Boston, in December, 1879.
THOMAS WILLIAMS BICKNELL.
Providence, R. I., 1913.
