William Richardson was born on 31 July 1845 in Paddington, Middlesex, his father, Charles Richardson, was 28 and his mother, Selina Ellis, was 35.

He worked with his father establishing the family brick and cement manufacturing business , He also expanded, buying into the sailing barges that were transporting the bricks .

He married Anne Elmore on 11 July 1872.

William Richardson purchased a new sailing barge Jeffie from her builder, John Bird of Teynham, in March 1874. In doing so he obtained a mortgage, recorded in the barge’s register as £2000, an amount far in excess of the cost of a barge at that time. The sum was advanced to him by an Edward Pinnock of Stuttgart, Germany.

This might have got him into debt, since in January 1881 William sold the barge to his father Charles Richardson, together with his other barges Lydia, also bought in 1874 and Phoebe, bought in 1876.

Thereafter he seems to have dropped out of the picture. The mortgage on Jeffie was paid off by Charles Richardson within a year. The more manageable sums of £150 each raised on Lydia and Phoebe remained on the books until Charles Richardson’s death.

William and Anne had no known children . He died in 1907 in Sunbury, Middlesex, at the age of 62, and was buried there.
His widow moved to Australia.