Thomas Rickman

Thomas Rickman (1776-1841), an architect, was a Quaker for most of his life (late in life he became a follower of Edward Irving). Nevertheless, he spent his career building parish churches for the Anglican Church, largely because he was inspired by gothic architecture, although some Quakers questioned his faith. His greatest work was An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture (1817), which served as the standard reference on the subject of Gothic architecture throughout the nineteenth century. In 1830 he was elected to the Society of Antiquaries in London.