Author: Richardson, John
Biography:
RICHARDSON, John (1741-95: findmypast.com)
DNB gave a speculative death date of 1811, in Calcutta, corrected in ODNB; Cockayne asserts 1801, with probate 1804; but the date in fact was 1795. Though official records are scanty, it is clear that Richardson was an unusual member of an unusual family. He was one of three sons born to George Richardson of Edinburgh, a barrister, and his wife Jean Watson, of Stirling. His father was a younger son of Sir William Richardson, 6th Baronet of Pencaitland (or Pencaithland)--a Nova Scotia baronetcy established by Charles I in 1630. When the 7th Baronet, their uncle, died without issue, the title passed to John's elder brothers James--a plantation owner in Jamaica--and George, who became the 8th and 9th Baronets respectively. On the death of George in 1791 his son George Preston Richardson legally became the 10th Baronet but John disputed his right and assumed the title himself. His will, made out on 24 Apr. 1794, identifies him as "Sir John Richardson, baronet," and leaves his estate to the children of his late brother. John Richardson is better remembered as an Orientalist, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries from 1767 and a protégé of Sir William Jones (q.v.) who took on Jones's project of translating and adapting Meninski's standard Thesaurus linguarum orientalis as a companion to Jones's Grammar of the Persian Language, a project brought to fruition with the publication of Richardson's Dictionary of Persian, Arabic, and Englishin 1777. Other contributions to the advancement of knowledge of Indian languages and culture--Persian being the official language of administration in colonial India--were his specimen translation of Hafiz (1774), a Grammar of the Arabick Language (1776), and Dissertations on . . . the Eastern Nations (1777-8). Richardson matriculated at Wadham College, Oxford, belatedly in 1775 at the age of 34, and was granted the MA by diploma in 1780. Also in 1775, he entered the Middle Temple and was called to the bar in 1781. He practised law in London and, after 1790, in Calcutta. According to Alumni Oxonienses, Richardson had a son, George, but no record of marriage has been found and neither wife nor son is mentioned in his will: either they had died before 1794 or, more probably, the record is an error based on the fact that his nephew (not son) George succeeded to the baronetcy. Richardson died in Calcutta on 9 May 1795. (findmypast.com 14 Dec. 2021; Alumni Oxonienses; DNB; ODNB 15 Dec. 2021; G. E. Cockayne, Complete Baronetage [1902], 382-3; J. B. Burke, Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary . . . [1911], 833-4; Calcutta Gazette 28 May 1795)