Author: Richardson, Joseph
Biography:
RICHARDSON, Joseph (1755-1803: ODNB)
“Joe” Richardson—poet, satirist, playwright, and politician—was born at Hexham, Northumberland, in 1755, the only son of a tradesman, Joseph Richardson. (He was not the Joseph Richardson, son of a clockmaker, who was baptized at Hexham in Jan. 1756; that man stayed in Hexham and succeeded to his father's business.) Christopher Clayton in the ODNB states that his mother was Frances Todd; she married a Joseph Richardson at Hexham on 16 May 1751. Educated at Haydon Bridge School, from July 1744 he kept nine terms at St John’s College, Cambridge (no degree). He entered Middle Temple in 1781 where he came to know the Whig grandees Fox and Burke. Though he was called to the bar in 1786, he was not a practicing lawyer. He was instead a political journalist, an agent for the Rockingham Whigs, who contributed to the Morning Post, the English Chronicle, and The Citizen newspaper. Much of his printed work was satirical, notably the anti-Pittite Rolliad, on which he collaborated with George Ellis, Richard Tickell, and French Laurence (qq.v.). He was a founding member of the Whig Club, of the Friends of the People, and of the Friends of the Liberty of the Press. With his close friend Richard Brinsley Sheridan (q.v.), he was part owner of Drury Lane Theatre and one of its managers. In his popular 1792 play, The Fugitive, he satirized aristocratical pretention and privilege. Apparently, he was ashamed of his Northumberland accent and for that reason never spoke in the House of Commons; he was MP for Newport, Cornwall, 1796 to the end of his life. He had four daughters out of wedlock with Sarah Fawcett (q.v.), whom he married 7 July 1799. He died 9 June 1803 at an inn near Virginia Water, Surrey, and was buried on 13 June at Egham churchyard. (ODNB 31 Jan. 2024; freereg.org 31 Jan. 2024; History of Parliament online 31 Jan. 2024; GM [1803], 602-3) JC
Other Names:
- J. Richardson