Author: Richards, George
Biography:
RICHARDS, George (1767-1837: ODNB)
He was baptised on 15 Sept. 1767 at Halesworth, Suffolk, the son of James Richards (1740-1804), curate, later vicar of Rainham, Kent (1777-1804), and his wife Mary (Smith?) (1745-1827), who had married earlier that year. He was educated at Christ’s Hospital and Trinity College Oxford (matric. 1785, Scholar 1786, BA 1788, MA 1791, BD and DD 1820). He was twice awarded the Chancellor’s Prize: for Latin Verse, Rex, A Violenta Regicidae Manu Ereptus (1787), commemorating the visit of the King to Oxford; and for English prose, On the Characteristic Differences between Ancient and Modern Poetry (1789). He also won a prize for The Aboriginal Britons (1791), which was later reprinted in editions of Oxford Prize Poems and admired by Lamb and Byron (qq.v.). He entered the established church in 1790 and was elected Fellow of Oriel College (1790-6), resigning the fellowship on his marriage to Hannah Maria Parker (1772-1844) on 6 Oct. 1796 at St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford. He was curate then vicar of Bampton (1796-1824) and vicar of Lillingstone Lovell (1795-1824)—both in Oxfordshire--before becoming vicar of St Martin-in-theFields, Westminster, London (1824-34). He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1799) and a governor of Christ’s Hospital (1822) and served for several years as the treasurer of Charing Cross Hospital. He died at Russell Square, Bloomsbury, on 30 Mar. 1837 and was buried at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He left most of his considerable wealth to his wife and over £20,000 in bequests to Christ’s Hospital, Oxford colleges, charity schools, and servants. His wife survived him and died at Russell Square on 16 Nov. 1844. There is a commemorative plaque to them in St. Martin’s. The first volume of Poems (1804) printed his verse dramas, Odin and Emma; the second printed fourteen odes and his miscellaneous longer poems. His religious works consist of an array of sermons including The Divine Origins of Prophecy (1800) and The Immoral Effects of the Poor Laws (1818). (ODNB 27 Nov. 2024; CCEd 27 Nov. 2024; Copsey 1, 408; Watkins 293-4; Bath Chronicle 13 Oct. 1796; GM Oct. 1796, 878, and June 1837, 662-3, and Jan. 1845, 104; SJC 8 Apr. 1837, 19 Nov. 1844) AA