William Bicknell bought the copyright of this work in the year of his son Elhanan's birth, and on finding that he had made money on the deal, gave it back to the author in 1789.

[1] Bicknell returned to London late in 1809 and soon after he joined a business run by his uncle, John Walter Langton (1746-1822).

A friend and close business associate there at Newington Butts was fellow oil merchant and shipowner, Thomas Sturge.

About 1835 Bicknell anticipated agitation for the repeal of the navigation laws would injure his business interests, yet he magnanimously supported the movement, together with the abolition of all protection; and when the crippling of his undertakings and his income came, he accepted it.

By 1850, he had collected some of the works of Thomas Gainsborough, J. M. W. Turner and numerous others including David Roberts, Edwin Landseer (such as Doubtful Crumbs), George Clarkson Stanfield, Thomas Webster, William Collins, William Etty and Augustus Wall Callcott.

[1] Gustav Friedrich Waagen published a description and listing by room in his Treasures of Art in Great Britain.

"[11] Published comments by Ruskin and other art experts made Bicknell's collection well known and may have contributed the high prices it fetched when broken up after his death.

"[12] Bicknell bought many of Turner's finest works before Ruskin's advocacy brought the artist to public prominence.

That painting, Guidecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio (1840), changed hands in 2006 for US$35.8 million, setting a new record for a British work of art sold at auction.

[14]) He was a member of the committee for the erection of, and a substantial donor to, the 1820s campaign for South Place Unitarian Chapel under William Johnson Fox, which evolved into today's Conway Hall Ethical Society.

His business acumen and reputation saw Bicknell being invited to become a partner in the major engineering firm Maudslay; but he turned down the offer.

He left a large family by his various marriages, and some of his sons (one of whom married the only child of David Roberts, R.A.), in succeeding to his fortune, made names for themselves in the arts, archaeology, botany, travel, and reform.