in 1619. He became fellow of his college in 1607, and rector of Heythrop, Oxfordshire, in 1635. He died on 31 Dec. 1642, and was buried on 1 Jan. in the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford. Richardson wrote ‘Of the State of Europe, XIIII Bookes conteining the Historie and Relation of the many Provinces hereof, continued out of approved Authours,’ Oxford, 1627, fol. (each book paged separately, and beginning with a half-title). This was dedicated to John, bishop of Lincoln. Wood states that the manuscript, amounting to several volumes, of the remainder of the work came into the hands of Dr. Henry Bridgman, who neglected, if he did not mutilate, it.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. iii. 37, and Fasti Oxon. i. 302, 326; Clark's Oxford Reg.; Foster's Alumni Oxon. The Registers of Brasenose College give little information.]
RICHARDSON, GEORGE (1736?–1817?), architect, was in full professional practice towards the end of the eighteenth century in London. From 1760 to 1763 he was travelling in the south of France, Italy, Istria, and Dalmatia, and studying the remains of ancient architecture and painting. The materials which he there collected were utilised in his subsequent work on the five orders of architecture, and in what formed the main branch of his professional activity, viz. the decoration of apartments in the antique taste. In 1765 he gained the premium of the Society of Arts for the elevation of a side of a street in classical style, being then under thirty years of age, and from 1766 he was a frequent exhibitor at that society's gallery. From 1774 to 1793 he also exhibited at the Royal Academy. In 1766 he lived in King Street, Golden Square; but had removed by 1767 to 95 Great Titchfield Street, and again by 1781 to No. 105 in the same street, which continued to be his address till 1816, the date of his last publication. His terms as a teacher of architectural drawing are advertised in his ‘New Designs in Architecture,’ 1792. In his old age he was in reduced circumstances, and was relieved by Nollekens.
Original coloured designs for ceilings, by Richardson, are in the Soane Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The range of his studies and the measure of his ability as a decorator may be deduced from his published works: 1. ‘Ædes Pembrochianæ,’ 1774 (an account of the antiquities at Wilton House). 2. ‘A Book of Ceilings,’ 1776. 3. ‘Iconology,’ 2 vols. 1778–9, with plates by Bartolozzi and other engravers after W. Hamilton. 4. ‘A New Collection of Chimney Pieces,’ 1781. 5. ‘Treatise on the Five Orders of Architecture,’ 1787. 6. ‘New Designs in Architecture,’ 1792. 7. ‘New Designs of Vases and Tripods,’ 1793. 8. ‘Capitals of Columns and Friezes from the Antique,’ 1793. 9. ‘Original Designs for Country Seats or Villas,’ 1795. 10. ‘The New Vitruvius Britannicus,’ 2 vols. 1802–8 (a sequel to Colin Campbell's ‘Vitruvius Britannicus,’ 1715, &c.). 11. ‘Ornaments in the Grecian, Roman, and Etruscan Tastes,’ 1816. In all these works, with the exception of ‘Iconology’ (No. 3), the plates were engraved in aquatint by Richardson himself, jointly, in the later publications, with his son William, who exhibited architectural designs at the Royal Academy, 1783–1794.
[Richardson's published works; Dict. of Architecture; Smith's Nollekens and his Times, ed. Gosse, 1895, p. 122; Dossie's Memoirs, 1782, iii. 421.]
RICHARDSON, GEORGE (1773–1862), quaker, born on 18 Dec. 1773 at Low Lights, near North Shields, Northumberland, was fourth son of John Richardson (d. 1800), a tanner there, by his wife, Margaret Stead (cf. Newcastle Advertiser, 5 April 1800). George's mother died when he was eight, and he was sent to live with an aunt who kept a shop at Shields. There he read largely, chiefly quaker books. At fourteen he was apprenticed to Joshua Watson, a grocer in Newcastle, where he settled for life, and soon took charge of a branch of his master's business. He began preaching at twenty, and was recorded a minister by the Society of Friends at twenty-four. After travelling seven hundred miles or more as ‘guide’ to friends from America, he began religious tours on his own account, and during the next forty years visited every county in England, as well as Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Jersey, and Guernsey. He also interested himself in missions, and was for fifty years connected with the Bible Society. He actively helped to found the Royal Jubilee schools at Newcastle by way of celebrating the jubilee of George III (1809). He spent his leisure among the fishing population of Cullercoats (Northumberland), and provided for the village efficient water supply and schools. Even in advanced age he would, when at Cullercoats, put out to sea with bibles for the French sailors in the ships in the offing.
He died, aged nearly 90, on 9 Aug. 1862, and was buried in the Friends' burial-ground, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle. By his wife, Eleanor Watson, niece of his first employer, Richardson had five children, who
