Author: RICHARDSON, J.
Biography:
RICHARDSON, John (1750-1840: ancestry.com)
Born in 1750 “on the banks of the Tyne,” the poet’s acquaintance with the grammarian Anne Fisher (1719-1778) and the mathematician George Coughron (1752-1774) suggests that he spent his early adulthood in Newcastle. His parentage is unknown. His brother, twenty-one years a soldier in the 31st regiment, died near Ticonderoga NY in 1773. Probably he apprenticed in law, for in later life he advertised “Indentures, Wills, Leases, Agreements … executed on easy Terms.” His first known publications, “Stanzas on the Death of Mr. Geo. Coughron” and “Enigma,” appeared, respectively, in Town and Country Magazine (June 1774) and The Ladies’ Own Memorandum-Book (1780). On 3 May 1778 at Yarm, Yorkshire, he married Elizabeth Coates (b 1755). She died in childbirth 28 Jan 1779. Later that year, he published Poems on Various Subjects, Chiefly Pastoral (reprinted 1780). From 1783 to the end of his life, he earned his living at Sheffield, primarily as master of the Park Charity School in Paradise Square. From 1792 he co-conducted the school with his second wife, widow Mary Pearson. They married at Newcastle in that year, on 2 Nov. Three evenings a week, he gave instruction in trigonometry, navigation, gunnery, and, employing “his new and elegant Globes,” geography (in 1787, he published A Key to Geography). He also tutored “private Families at convenient hours.” In Jan. 1791, he established a circulating library that specialized in science and history. He attended the library daily (Sunday excepted) when school was not in session. From 1781, he followed his brother’s example by serving for several years in the Yorkshire North Riding Volunteers. He returned to soldiering in 1794 as paymaster sergeant to the Loyal Independent Sheffield Volunteers. Two years later, he published Poems on Various Occasions, Chiefly Pastoral. His wife died 12 Apr. 1814, age 49. He died, childless, at his Sheldon Street residence on 19 Sept. 1840 and was buried two days later in Sheffield Cathedral. At probate, his estate was valued under £200. (ancestry.com 22 Feb. 2024; Iris, 29 July 1796, 22 Apr. 1802, 12 Apr. 1814, 22 Sept. 1840; Sheffield Register, 8 Jan. 1791; Advertiser, 4 Nov. 1791; W. C. Newsam, The Poets of Yorkshire [1845], 114; T. Richmond, Local Records of Stockton [1868], 81; Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 35:1 [1912], 248-51) JC