Hick was the eldest son of Benjamin Hick (1790–1842), a civil and mechanical engineer[5] responsible for improvements to the steam-engine,[6] and his wife Elizabeth Routledge (1783–1826), daughter of William Routledge of Elvington Yorkshire.[2] Elizabeth's brother and Hick's uncle, Joshua Routledge (1773–1829) also an engineer living in Bolton, designed the Engineer's Improved Slide Rule and patented improvements to the Rotary steam engine.[7][8][9][10]
In 1839, age 23, while working for B. Hick and Son, John Hick Jr as he was referred to at the time, was awarded the silver medal by the Society of Arts for his novel invention of an expanding mandrel for turning lathes, it was an adaptation of a principle developed by Marc Brunel for pulleyblock manufacture at Portsmouth and received the praise of three eminent engineers; Bryan Donkin, Joshua Field and John Rennie.[19]
During 1842, Hick was awarded a second silver medal by the Society of Arts for his invention of an Elliptograph; conceived in 1840,[20] the device provided a simple and accurate solution for the drawing ellipsoid forms of various proportions. Hick received further praise from James Nasmyth, William Fairbairn, Joseph Whitworth, and amongst others, Charles Holtzapffel, Chairman of the Committee of Mechanics. Models of both devices were placed in the Society's repository.[19][21]
Hick contributed a paper to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1849 on a friction clutchfor connecting and disconnecting the driving power with shafts and machinery.[13] A B. Hick and Son, 1:12 scalepatent modelofdisconnecting apparatus, for screw propellers, c. 1855 is held in the Science Museummarine engines collection.[22]
While the family business of Benjamin Hick and Son displayed machinery[44][45][46] and engineering models in the Crystal Palace,[47][48] John Hick also sat as a United Kingdom Juror with the notable figures of Wilhelm Engerth, William Fairbairn, John Farey, Henry Maudslay (1822–1899), grandson of Henry Maudslay,[49]Rev. Henry Moseley and Robert Napier for Class V. Machines for Direct Use, Including Carriages, Railway and Marine Mechanism.[50][51] Condition 6. of the Exhibition's Decisions Regarding Juries restricted jurors from competing for prizes in the class to which they were appointed; prizes could not be awarded to the individual or the companies the Juror represented.[52]
In 1860, partners in B. Hick and Son, John Hick and William Hargreaves joined Thomas Lever Rushton's brother-in-law Henry Sharp as partners in Sharp and Eckersley, formerly Rushton and Eckersley before Rushton's retirement from the firm in 1859. The three partners Sharp, Hick and Hargreaves formed the Bolton Iron & Steel Company;[42][43] situated next door to Rothwell's Union Foundry (on the site of Bolton's old bus station) the company supplied basic metals required by the major manufacturers in the area.[66]Bessemersteel making began about 1860[67] – four six-ton Bessemer converters were installed during the 1860s,[68] and experiments with the Sieman's open-hearth process began in 1867.[69]Rolling, casting and forging equipment was installed, its products included steel deck beams for ships and sheet metal for shovels,[70] during 1865 Bolton Iron & Steel cast the largest anvil block made in England, weighing 210 tons. By 1869 the company was making open hearth steel and manufacturing steam hammers to the design of Francis Webb.[69][71] Hick's nephew[63] became a shareholder following incorporation on 9 June 1876.[72]
About 1861 society painter Francis Grant produced portraits of John Hick and his wife Margaret, both works eventually hung together in the family home at Mytton Hall.[6] Hick was an associate of Bolton engineer, artist and photographer Reuben Mitchell (1812–1895), and pursued his own interest in photography,[73][74] he was also a supporter of the artists Copley Fielding, William Powell Frith, Patrick Nasmyth, Samuel Prout, Edward Matthew Ward and others;[6] the engineer and artist James Nasmyth described John Hick as an "excellent friend".[75]
In 1867, Hick first published a paper, reprinted from The Engineer, 1 June 1866, Experiments on the Friction of the Leather Collars in Hydraulic Presses, that expanded on the work of Dr William Rankine, describing an important series of experiments carried out using a joint invention of Hick and Robert Lüthy (1840–1883),[82]aSwiss engineer employed by Hick, and inventor of a hydraulic cotton packing press. Hick's father was the inventor of the self tightening collar, used universally in hydraulic presses.[83][84][85][86]
On17 November 1868 Hick was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton.[2] After election and to avoid a conflict of interest, he immediately resigned his position within Hick, Hargreaves and Co.,[2] the firm were already in possession of government contracts,[12][13] and withdrew from the Bolton Iron and Steel Company.[87] During this period he stayed in St James's, Piccadilly, his first wife and daughters remaining at 'Hill Top', Belmont[2][88] an extensive late 18th century manor house rented from a local family. Hill Top was destroyed by fire in 1909.[89][15] Hick held the Bolton seat until 24 March 1880[13][90] when as a result of ill-health, he chose not to stand for re-election.[91]
He was actively involved in debates about the welfare of people working in factories with steam boilers and in May 1870 chaired a Select Committee to investigate steam boiler explosions; following the report in August 1870, Hick introduced a Bill "...to provide a more efficient remedy to persons injured and property damaged by the explosion of steam boilers through negligence".[4][12][13][92] In April 1871 he seconded a motion by Colonel Barttelot (1820–1893), Conservative MP for Sussex Western 1860–1885, for a Select Committee "...to inquire into the merits of the Martini-Henry Rifle...whether it is the most suitable rifle as compared with others now manufactured to arm our troops with."[13][93] and debated Supply – Army Estimates, June 1873 drawing attention to the improvement of heavy ordnance.[13][94] As a parliamentarian he was frequently consulted by Government on subjects relating to armaments and the construction of boilers for war-vessels.[4]
Hick also served on a Select Committee appointed June 1874 to investigate the testing of chain cable and anchors for the Navy,[4][12][13] and debated Railway accidents – the adoption of continuous brakes, June 1879.[95] As a director of LNWR, Hick defended the railway's position, stating he "regarded all automatic machinery with distrust".[96]
About July 1870, Hick was trustee to the estate of former Bolton mayor and MP Stephen Blair with Thomas Lever Rushton, William Hargreaves and others, empowered to build and furnish a 'free hospital for sick persons without limit of domicile'. Blair Hospital, now demolished was built on land donated by former mayor James Knowles at Bromley Cross.[97][98]
The river ran close to Mytton Hall where landlord Aspinall held the fishing rights and John Hick was lessee from 1874.[109] The trial was presided over by the Vice-Chancellor of England, Sir James Bacon.[110][111] In December 1880 Hick and Aspinall received presentations at Mytton Hall from the local angling community in recognition of "...their services in preventing pollution to the River Ribble and its tributaries".[112]
Like his father Benjamin, John Hick accumulated a large and valuable collection of art works, some of which was inherited, others purchased from the auction of Benjamin Hick's estate in 1843,[6][116][117] and devoted his final years at Mytton Hall to compiling an elaborately illustrated catalogue of the collection;[12] some of these works were auctioned by Christie's during June and July 1909[118] following Rebecca Hick's death in 1908.[26][119] The Hick library at Mytton Hall was dispersed at Capes Dunne & Co. Manchester in November 1909.[120]
Hick was unique in that he was the only LNWR director to have a locomotive class named after him in memoriam.[125][126]
Following withdrawal of the John Hick Class in 1912, during the month of the anniversary of Hick's death, February 1913, 5 of 6 names were transferred to the LNWR George the Fifth Class, locomotive No. 752 named John Hick, serving up to 1935 with the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).[127]
^ abKermode, M.A., Canon R. D. (1954). "XIV – St. Stephen's, Sulby". The Annals of Kirk Christ Lezayre. Victoria Street, Douglas: The Norris Modern Press Ltd. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
^ abRedfern, Diane. "John Hick". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abcdef"Obituary". 1894 Iron and Steel Institute: Obituaries: 389. 1894. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
^ abcdHick, John (1893). Catalogue of the Principle Paintings, Drawings, Books, Bronzes, &C., at Mytton Hall, The Residence of John Hick, Esq. Ede, Dearberg & Co 40 Queen Street City.
^Redfern, Diane. "Benjamin Hick". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^Redfern, Diane. "William Routledge". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^Redfern, Diane. "Joshua Routledge". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abcdefghijklUnknown (1894). "Memoirs". 1894 Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Obituaries: 161–162. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
^Hardman, Malcolm (2003). "Notes to Chapters 14 and 15". Classic Soil: Community, Aspiration, and Debate in the Bolton Region of Lancashire, 1819-1845 (illustrated ed.). Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 311. ISBN9780838639665. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
^"Foremen Engineers and Draughtsmen". The Times. No. 28263. 15 March 1875. p. 10.
^"Thirtieth Annual Report". Thirtieth Annual Report of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church Throughout England and Wales. Oxford University. 1841. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abHick, John (1 January 1839). "No. XI. Expanding Mandrel". Transactions of the Society, Instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. LIII. Jstor: 87–92. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Hick, John (1 January 1843). "NO. II. Elliptograph". Transactions of the Society, Instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. LIV. Jstor: 8–13. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Redfern, Diane. "Margaret Bashall". Diane Redfern Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abcRedfern, Diane. "Rebecca Maria Ashworth". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abcBishop M.A., Rev. Kenneth M. (1952). Dean Church(PDF). p. 38. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
^"Marriage Registration". Ancestry.com. 16 December 1874. p. 183. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^Eccleshall, Robert (11 September 2002). "Sir Rhodes Boyson (1925-)". English Conservatism Since the Restoration: An Introduction and Anthology. Routledge. ISBN9781134997749. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
^Redfern, Diane. "Margaret Elizabeth Hick". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^"Edmund Ashworth Jnr". Links in a Chain – the Mayors of Bolton. Bolton Council. 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
^"Census". Ancestry.com. Public Record Office. 1881. p. 4. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^Farrer, William; Bronbill, J., eds. (1911). "Topography, The Hundred of Salford, Dean". The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster. London Constable and Company Limited. pp. 4–5. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
^"Census". Ancestry.com. Public Record Office. 1901. p. 18. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
^ ab"Thomas Lever Rushton". RBS Heritage Hub. Royal Bank of Scotland 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
^ ab"Thomas Lever Rushton". Links in a Chain – the Mayors of Bolton. Bolton Council. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
^"123". Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue. Vol I. Section II. Classes 5 to 10. 1851. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^"122". Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue. Vol I. Section II. Classes 5 to 10. 1851. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^"Hick, B., & Son, Bolton — Designers and Manufacturers". Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue. Vol I. Section II. Classes 5 to 10. 1851. p. 293. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^"List of Jurors". Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue. Vol I. Section II. Classes 5 TO 10. 1851. p. 45. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
^"Appendix A: Decisions Regarding Juries". Reports by the juries on the subjects in the thirty classes into which the exhibition was divided. Getty Research Institute: London: Spicer Brothers, wholesale stationers; W. Clowes and Sons, printers; contractors to the Royal Commission, Tudor Street, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. 1852. p. iii. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
^Great Britain. Imperial commission, Paris universal exhibition (1855). "Fine Arts Division". Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855. Catalogue of the Works Exhibited in the British Section of the Exhibition, in French and English; Together with Exhibitors' Prospectuses, Prices Current, &c. University of Michigan: London, Chapman and Hall: 84. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Great Britain. Imperial commission, Paris universal exhibition (1855). "Fine Arts Division". Paris Universal Exhibition, 1855. Catalogue of the Works Exhibited in the British Section of the Exhibition, in French and English; Together with Exhibitors' Prospectuses, Prices Current, &c. University of Michigan: London, Chapman and Hall: 77. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Peck, John (1857). "B. West P.R.A."Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857. Getty Research Institute: 288. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Peck, John (1857). "P.F. Poole A.R.A."Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Collected at Manchester in 1857. Getty Research Institute: 352. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
^Redfern, Diane. "Benjamin Hick". Diane Redfern – Ancestry & Family History. dianeredfern.ca. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
^ abP. W. Pilling, Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1985). pp. 121, 451–452.
^P. W. Pilling, Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1985). pp. 152, 158–160, 485, 521.
^P. W. Pilling, Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets (Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1985). p. 122.
^Pilling, P. W. (1985). Hick Hargreaves and Co., The History of an Engineering Firm c. 1833 – 1939, a Study with Special Reference to Technological Change and Markets. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Liverpool. pp. 118–119, 123–125, 158.
^Kingsley, Nicholas (22 April 2016). "Aspinall of Standen Hall". Landed families of Britain and Ireland. Nicholas Kingsley. Retrieved 11 May 2016.
^Unknown (October 2012). "Mitton Hall Mitton, Lancashire – Heritage Statement"(PDF). Ribble Valley Borough Council. JWRC Chartered Building Surveyors & Historic Building Consultants. p. 8. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 September 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
^"High court of Justice. Chancery Division. (Before Vice-CHancellor Sir J. Bacon.) Aspinall V. Mitchell". The Times. No. 29927. 7 July 1880. p. 4.
^"High court of Justice. Chancery Division. (Before Vice-CHancellor Sir J. Bacon.) Aspinall V. Mitchell". The Times. No. 29945. 28 July 1880. p. 4.
^"The Need of a Science Museum". The Times. No. 32137. 29 July 1887. p. 4.
^Steel, Wilfred. L (1914). "Concerning Locomotive Matters". The History of the London & North Western Railway. University of California. p. 465. Retrieved 4 February 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Cave (Urban), Edward (Silvanus), ed. (1843). "Sales of Pictures". The Gentleman's Magazine. XIX. London: William Pickering; John Bowyer Nichols and Son: 507–508. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
^"John Hick Class". London and North Western Railway Society, Passenger Engines of the LNWR. LNWR Society. 1914. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
^Hambleton, F.C. (15 February 1940). "Webb compounds: "John Hick" class L.N.W.R.". The Locomotive Magazine and Railway Carriage and Wagon Review. Vol. 46, no. 570. London: Locomotive Pub. Co., 1896–1959. pp. 36–37.
^Baxter, Bertram (1979). Baxter, David (ed.). British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Volume 2B: London and North Western Railway and its constituent companies. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Moorland Publishing Company. pp. 196–197. ISBN0903485842.
^Sharman, M. (1986). The London and North Western Railway: A Selection of 7mm Locomotive Drawings (illustrated ed.). Oakwood Press & Video Library. ISBN9780853613152.
^Baxter, Bertram (1978). Baxter, David (ed.). British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Volume 2A: London and North Western Railway and its constituent companies. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Moorland Publishing Company. ISBN0903485516.
^Baxter, Bertram (1979). Baxter, David (ed.). British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Volume 2B: London and North Western Railway and its constituent companies. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Moorland Publishing Company. ISBN0903485842.