THE RICHARDSONS OF LEATHERHEAD

This is an email from John Morris to Phil Richardson on 14/10/2014.

Captain William Richardson was born in Calcutta in 1773. Like his father and grandfather before him, he became a sea captain in the East India Trade. His father, also William, married Mrs Anna Maria Lacy who was partly or wholly Indian. She died in Calcutta in 1814.
Captain Richardson had settled in Leatherhead by 1827 when he signed an agreement for his son, George Fish Richardson, to be trained in the law. The Richardsons lived at Belmont Lodge. The house no longer exists. The Red House Gardens were the gardens of Belmont Lodge.
His daughter Mary married the Rev John Byron vicar of Elmstone Hardwicke and Chaplain to the Duke of Sutherland. John and Mary were married at the Parish Church of St Mary & St Nicholas, Leatherhead on 8th December 1830. [Conception of Mary]
The witnesses were: William Richardson, Ellen Ireton Richardson, Sarah Byron, Rebecca Fish Richardson, Richard Byron, Henrietta Richardson and Ellen Maynard.
When Mary died her body was brought to Leatherhead from Hastings. When her father, William, died his body was also brought from Hastings. It would seem that William lived in Hastings with his daughter and son-in-law.
Captain William Richardson may have been the first inhabitant of Leatherhead to have a traceable Indian ancestry. Having identified the possible first Leatherhead resident with Indian ancestry I think a note on the way Anglo-Indians were treated would fit in here:
Laura Roychowdhury gives a brief history of the status of Anglo-Indians at the end of her novel ‘The Jadu House’. Most of what follows is an abbreviated version of this appendix.
From the East India Company’s arrival in India until 1786 it encouraged its civil servants and soldiers to marry Indian women. It provided those who did this with allowances for the children of the marriages. Laura does not explore the reason for this. Anglo-Indians could also travel to Britain without restriction in those days.
Tom Hiney’s ‘On the Missionary Trail says that’ similar marriages had also been encouraged in Portuguese Goa and Albuquerque, the first Captain General of the colony, explained his object:
“to rear a population possessing Portuguese blood and imbued with Portuguese Catholic culture who would be committed by race and taste to the Portuguese settlements and so form a permanent and self-perpetuating garrison”
Substitute ‘English’ for ‘Portuguese’ and ‘Protestant’ for ‘Catholic’ and read it again and you may have discovered the EIC’s reason.
In 1786 the EIC set up a school for orphans of Anglo-Indian parents. These orphans were not allowed to go to Britain for their education (or presumably to be cared for by their British relatives)
Between 1792 and 1795 new rules came in
High level civil servants and soldiers were no longer permitted to marry Indian wives and Anglo-Indians could no longer be employed in the higher posts.
In 1808 they were prohibited from holding any rank in the British army.
In 1823 the East India Club was founded to campaign for the rights of Anglo-Indians
In 1830 J W Ricketts petitioned parliament about the limited job opportunities for Anglo-Indians. They could not fill the higher posts because they were not British. They could not fill the lower posts because these were reserved for Hindus and Muslims. Anglo-Indians were Christians. Their legal status was unclear and unless they lived in Calcutta there were no courts for them.
In 1833 Anglo-Indians were given the same employment rights as Indians but their legal status remained unclear until Independence.
In the 1870s and 80s Nationalists campaigned for more employment for Indians and in 1883 the government ruled that more work should be given to ‘natives’. A ‘native’ was defined as ‘any person of Pure Asiatic origin’. The Anglo-Indians had been betrayed again.
In 1925 the Secretary of State altered the rules again. An Anglo-Indian was a ‘native’ in employment, but British for education. They were educated in English and thus they were unqualified to attend Indian Universities. They were also liable to be conscripted into the British Army.
We still carry on as if there were ‘pure’ races, despite knowing that everybody’s DNA contains a trace of African genes and traces of the genes from many if not all the other continents. All Europeans are said to be descendants of Charlemagne and he only lived twelve centuries ago. The Romans were trading with India and with Britain at least 2,000 years ago and traders are more common than Emperors so many of us will have a little Asian blood as a result of that ancient trade.
George Fish Richardson inherited his father’s estates in 1843. In 1849 he had erected barriers to prevent the inhabitants from having access to the Common Meadow across his land. The vestry asked him to remove the barrier and when he did not do so instructed the Way Warden to remove it. Mr Richardson then sued the Way Warden in a well known case of Richardson v Christie. The case had settled some legal points relating to rights of way and the rights of the inhabitants to fish in the River Mole.
James Barlow built the house where we have our flat. He has other claims to fame. He was an inventor who designed several useful items. His illuminators enabled glass to be set in pavements and let daylight into cellars. Modern versions may be seen in the streets of large cities. His “Registered Railway Hat Suspender” ceased to be useful as soon as railway carriages were fitted with luggage racks.
James Barlow paid for the legal costs of Christie’s defence and when he won paid for the victory celebrations.
George Fish Richardson had a son, Harry Seymour Richardson who was a captain in the army. In 1892 he was charged and convicted of shooting game without a licence.
Transcripts
THE RICHARDSON MEMORIALS IN LEATHERHEAD CHURCH

IN A VAULT BENEATH THIS TABLET
ARE DEPOSITED THE MORTAL REMAINS OF
REBECCA FISH.
WIFE OF
WILLIAM RICHARDSON Esqr
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
THE 9TH DAY OF JULY 1832 AGED 49,
IN THE RELATIVE DUTIES
OF A MOST FAITHFUL AND AFFECTIONATE WIFE,
A TENDER MOTHER AND SINCERE FRIEND,
HER CONDUCT WAS HIGHLY EXEMPLARY
AND NEVER WAS THE LOSS OF ANY ONE MORE
SINCERELY, NOR MORE DESERVEDLY LAMENTED
BY THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

IN THE SAME VAULT ARE DEPOSITED
THE REMAINS OF
WILLIAM RICHARDSON, B.A.
OF EXETER COLLEGE OXFORD, ELDEST SON OF
WILLIAM AND REBECCA FISH RICHARDSON,
WHO DIED 31ST JULY 1834 AGED 27.

ALSO THE MORTAL REMAINS OF
WILLIAM RICHARDSON Esqr
OF LEATHERHEAD AND
WILLOUGHBY HOUSE, CHELTENHAM.
WHO DIED 23RD FEBRUARY 1843, AGED 68
“NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER,
FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER THE HEAVEN
GIVEN AMONG MEN WHEREBY WE MUST BE
SAVED”
ACTS 4TH 12TH VERSE
------------------


Sacred to the Memory of
Ellen Ireson, {second daughter of the late William Richardson, Esquire
of Belmont lodge in this Parish}
the beloved wife of Colonel Charles Sheffield Dickson;
who departed this life January 8th 1857
“Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God”
----------------
IN A VAULT
NEAR THIS TABLET IS LAID THE BODY
AS THE LIVING SOUL LEFT IT
OF MARY
THE BELOVED WIFE OF REVD JOHN BYRON
VICAR OF ELMSTONE-HARDWICKE.
THE ELDEST CHILD OF
WILLIAM RICHARDSON ESQR OF LEATHERHEAD
IN WHOM WERE REALLY SEEN
THE AMIABLE VIRTUES
OF A KIND AND ATTACHED WIFE
OF A MOST AFFECTIONATE CHILD.
THO’ IT PLEASED THE ALMIGHTY
TO VISIT HER WITH LENGTHENED SICKNESS
YET DID HER FAITH REMAIN
FIRM AND STEADFAST
AND HER LOVE TO HER LORD AND SAVIOUR
UNCHILLED AND FERVENT
DIED AT HASTINGS OF PULMONARY CONSUMPTION
IN PATIENT RESIGNATION TO THE DIVINE WILL
ON 30TH DECEMBER 1842
AGED 37

HOC MARMOR MORENS MARITUS POSUIT

Diary of a Leycester

Tim Richardson - July 2021

This notebook was one of several in a jiffy bag covered in stamps residing in a house on the Scottish Borders. The keeper of this heirloom is Harry Rycroft, who has inherited through several generations, none of whom bothered to add a note identifying the author.
I took photos of the first three pages, transcribed below.

1860 DIARY OF A LEYCESTER

May . 31 . 1860 .
Dieppe . Hotel Royale
This morning at soon after 7 Mama, Rafe, Amy, Eliza and I left London for Newhaven where we crossed to Dieppe. We had a very smooth passage but the rain fell in torrents a great part of the time.
Some of our fellow passengers were rather amusing: consisting of Americans & French. One of the latter, a funny little dark man, told me I was very courageous for remaining on deck in the bad weather, and agreed with me in not at all liking the [cabin]
On landing we of course had to show our passports & have our things searched, but Rafe & I got away be…

------------
...fore
Mama in order to secure rooms at the hotel. Then we [opened from the Douana] we were again led by a clatter of voices demanding which hotel we were going to & after some [demure] a man in a blue striped blouse accompanied us to show the way, respectfully holding an umbrella over my head. After what appeared to be rather a long walk we got to the hotel, looked at some ‘apartements’ & Mama soon arrived. After we had refreshed ourselves by a collection of fillets de boeuf [Casserole] - terrer; vin a ordinaire - café au lait [Le] Rafe & I set forth on a small voyage of discovery.
----------
We first went to the place where they change one’s money, then to the fine old Church of St [Jean], which stands by a large sort of paved square or perhaps a market place. A beautifully tuned bell was ringing for service and we went in. There are several very pretty painted windows in this ‘eglise’ and the whole of the effect of the building both in the interior and exterior is striking. A good many women in white caps, and children also, kept dropping in to say their prayers. A priest was lighting the candles on a very much decorated (with flowers) altar, & Service was ...

Notes on the transcript :
The author of this diary is believed to be Isabel Emily Hanmer Leycester, the great grand-daughter of William Richardson of Calcutta, the pursuit of whose portrait has caused me to investigate this and other documents.

In May 1861 Rafe Leycester, her elder brother, was 18 and Isabel was five years younger so 13, possibly 14, and the entries in the diary could fit a young lady of this age.
We then have Amy and Eliza, if not belonging to Mama (Harriet Susan Neville) then likely to be of similar age (13-18).
Eliza is identified as Elizabeth Gertrude Lyne, who Rafe (in his own diary) referred to as Girt, she was the same age as Rafe. She was the daughter of Louisa Genevieve Leycester, sister of Mama’s husband Edmund Mortimer Leycester, so Isabel’s cousin.
Amy is possibly Amy Theodosia Leycester who would have been around 15 in 1860, from the Toft Leycesters, whereas Isabel et al were the White Place Leycesters.
Rafe’s own diary has been transcribed and annotated and is part of the Richardson Collection - https://richardson.surnametree.com

Memorial tablet in Leatherhead Church dedicated to Rebecca Fish (Holden) and the Richardson family: IN A VAULT BENEATH THIS TABLET ARE DEPOSITED THE MORTAL REMAINS OF REBECCA FISH WIFE OF WILLIAM RICHARDSON Esqr WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 9TH DAY OF JULY 1832 AGED 49, IN THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF A MOST FAITHFUL AND AFFECTIONATE WIFE, A TENDER MOTHER AND SINCERE FRIEND, HER CONDUCT WAS HIGHLY EXEMPLARY AND NEVER WAS THE LOSS OF ANY ONE MORE SINCERELY, NOR MORE DESERVEDLY LAMENTED BY THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. IN THE SAME VAULT ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF WILLIAM RICHARDSON, B.A. OF EXETER COLLEGE OXFORD, ELDEST SON OF WILLIAM AND REBECCA FISH RICHARDSON, WHO DIED 31ST JULY 1834 AGED 27. ALSO THE MORTAL REMAINS OF WILLIAM RICHARDSON Esqr OF LEATHERHEAD AND WILLOUGHBY HOUSE, CHELTENHAM. WHO DIED 23RD FEBRUARY 1843, AGED 68 “NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER, FOR THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME UNDER THE HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN WHEREBY WE MUST BE SAVED” ACTS 4TH 12TH VERSE

Description of the Papers of Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Edmund Crocker as given by the BetweenTheCovers Shop (USA) in 2021.

An archive of typescript works by the author, renowned hunter, and British soldier Lieutenant Colonel H.E. Crocker. A substantial lot of documents neatly organized in five folders including a 500 page typed manuscript, 56 page typed manuscript of *The Hoghunter's Annual Volume II*, 31 typed manuscripts essays, letters from editors, and agendas for organizations he was involved in. Very good with some small chips and tears and age-toning. The papers mirror Crocker's career and feature his game hunting and travel accounts, some of which were printed as articles, and others which remain unpublished, many of which were intended to be released collectively as a yet unpublished book. These largely recollect his experiences in Rhodesia, Tanganyika, the Congo, and Nigeria, as well as recounting his game hunting adventures around the world, including Australia, India, and Africa, and finally, his post-war interest in international affairs. One of the folders contains a 500-plus page unpublished book manuscript titled, *Africa from Within* written by Crocker circa 1960-1962. Some of his hunting adventures were previously published in poetic form, in a 1930s sport hunting magazine called *The Field: Hoghunter's Annual.* Other articles pertaining to Africa were published in the *Army Quarterly Magazine.* Some of the accounts and observations described within the archive were not published and according to the preface leaf, the writer was intending to put the latter together as a complete and detailed illustrated book. It seems that he was working with an editor at the time of Crocker's death, and fate would be such that the book was not published due to his untimely passing.
A comprehensive autobiographical archive, Lieutenant-Colonel Crocker kept numerous well written recollections of his hunting expeditions in Africa, some of his prizes including lions in Tanganyika, a black rhinoceros in East Africa, hippopotamus and elephant hunting in the Belgian Congo, and duck on the Zambesi. He further mentions meeting Sir Julian Huxley, secretary of the Zoological Society of London and founding member of the World Wildlife Fund. Chasing the thrill of a good hunt elsewhere around the world, he pursues wild boar and jackals in Cawnpore and the Kadir plains of India, but deems Queensland, Australia to be the "hoghunter's paradise." He also describes crocodile hunting in the great Down Under. A captivating account describes a hunt for black partridge near Baghdad, Iraq, during his service in the Mesopotamia Campaign. In Germany, he partook in a "pig-sticking festival," his account digressing into the event's ancient tradition and exuberant female participants.
Closer to home, in Scotland's Highland locks and rivers, in east Central Ireland, and in Hertfordshire in England, he takes up fly fishing. Crocker also takes an interest in the unique tribes dispersed across the African continent, making note of both lively and somber customs as he travels. He describes and contemplates without bias subjects such as cannibalism among the leopard society, superstition and witchcraft, juju and amulets and venerated objects, lycanthropy, serpent totems for worship, male initiation rites and excessive whipping, ancient dugouts in Rhodesia once believed to be slave pits, rain dances and festivities, marriage customs, tribal dress, communications and industry, as well as, the discovery of the bronze head and other copper alloy sculptures in 1938 at Ife, in Nigeria.
Not simply an observer, Crocker was a member of the Conservative Commonwealth Council for East and Central Africa, among other groups, and according to meeting minutes herein, was involved in the rehabilitation of the Mau Mau during the 1950s uprisings, in hopes of improving living standards and conditions. Shortly after World War II he reported on a munitions area in East Africa. The archive also details Crocker's travels to other countries with the British Army and on his own accord. In a signed firsthand witness account Crocker describes a fire walking ceremony in Benares. He also possessed a keen interest in global advancement and world events, rendering here numerous unpublished expositions and personal observations of politics, education, industrialization, and campaigns of war, starting with his own participation in the Fall of Baghdad in 1917 with the Thirteenth Division under General Maude. A 14-page account of the Northern States of India deals with border disputes, Chinese claims, and railways in Nepal, Kashmir-Tibet, Assam. Also pertaining to India he discusses the announcement of an important Russian steel plant, Bhilai Steel Plant, located in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, which in 1955 became India's first and main producer of steel rails. Education is his area of focus in Pakistan. A seventeen page report examines the reformation of Taiwan during the 1950s under KMT (Chinese Nationalist Party) rule, including the highly successful land reform program, mining exports, freedom of speech, and social conditions according to a Saigon civilian.
Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Crocker (1877-1962) obtained a commission as Lieutenant in the Essex Regiment in 1900, and served in the Second Boer War. After sustaining an injury during his regimental service in Belfast, South Africa, in 1901 he was seconded to the North Nigerian Regiment, remaining at this post until the end of the war. During the First World War, Crocker commanded the 13th Signal Company at Gallipolo, where he was wounded. He was appointed second-in-command of the 8th Battalion, Chinese Regiment, which arrived in Mesopotamia in late February 1916, and became battalion commander during the capture of Hai Salient on 15 February 1917, retaining this position until the end of the war. Crocker retired from the army in 1929 after some years in India, and subsequently decided to travel, hunt, and write, exploring extensively in Africa with his wife. He died on 13 May 1962.

‘Crawling through Life’: The Diaries of Rafe Neville Leycester, 1859–1865
In the ruthlessly competitive marriage market of 19th-century England, an ability to dance was one of the most important social graces that a young person could have. So if you were somehow disabled, you were at a huge disadvantage.
In the late 1850s and early 1860s, a young clerk named Rafe Neville Leycester knew this only too well – ‘For who would look on a wretch with a lame leg,’ he wrote in his diary, as he remembered a lost love, ‘when they might get plenty of others with good ones.’ For Leycester, parties were generally a trial. ‘There were some very nice looking girls who were dancing all the evening,’ he wrote of one soiree in 1864, ‘so I
of course had not a chance of speaking to them. I spent a most miserable time of it.’ Given that Leycester’s social life was so often a disappointment to him, his diary is filled with a surprising number of remarkable encounters and events. There is a memorable description of Lord Palmerston’s funeral, and among the famous people who appear in the pages are Prince Albert, Garibaldi and the controversial bishop of Oxford, ‘Soapy Sam’ Wilberforce.
Leycester’s main obsession, however, was with the stream of alluring young women who crossed his path: the ‘jolly and well developed’ Miss Burns, the ‘scrumptious and larky’ Amy Abotson, the ‘stunning’ Green sisters, ‘a very rattling sort of girl’ named Miss Byrne, and in particular young Dally Fenton, with her ‘bright face & golden hair’.
Only two volumes of Leycester’s diaries are known to exist, spanning the years 1859 (when he turned 16) to 1865. If any reader knows of any further volumes, we would be fascinated to hear from you.
1859
Saturday Jany 1st. London 21 Cambridge St W. Staid at home all the morning, in the evening went with Thomas to the Colosseum where we saw a Mr Taylor perform a number of conjuring tricks, some of which were very good. We also saw a Mr Foster personify different characters; he also sang several songs & told some stories. He imitated Woodin & others. In conclusion we saw a Madlle Prudence mesmerized and she told (or pretended to tell) people’s thoughts &c. The panorama of Paris by night was very good though I did not admire it so much as London by night which I saw last year. There was a Galvanic battery and Thomas & I were galvanized.
Sunday 2nd. I did not go to church this morning as we were all very late and did not have breakfast till ½ past 12 but we read prayers & a sermon. In the afternoon I went to St John’s church the text being taken from Daniel. Capt Henderson dined here today. This evening there was a very thick fog.
Monday 3d. Staid at home all the morning in the afternoon went with Thomas to be measured for a pair of boots. Miss Deekins & Nantes spent the evening here, the former asked the following conundrum. What caused the potatoe disease? The rotatory motion of the earth (rot-tatory). How was it discovered? By consulting a commentator (a common tater).
1
Tuesday. This morning copied picture from “An officer’s log book” by Captn Methven. Nantes dined here.

Wednesday 5th. Staid at home till ½ past 7 when Nantes came here & we went to the Lynes’ in a cab where we met Goslin & a fellow called Danvers. There was a good deal of music and the latter exerted his lungs in attempting to play the cornet; but succeeded only in making a noise. Goslin sang several comic songs. Frank kept us in a roar of laughter nearly all the evening telling stories & relating anecdotes about himself & others. We afterwards played at Blindman’s buff. Berry & Thomas gave a large servants party this evening & some of the guests did not leave till 6 A.M.
Saturday 8th. F. Lyne goes to Whiteplace today & Aunt-Louisa has kindly invited me till Monday when he returns.
Sunday. Went to St James’s Church with A. L. & Louisa Jane. We had great difficulty in getting a seat, but after a great deal of whispering with the Pew-opener we succeeded in gaining our object. The sermon was preached by an old man with a white head. The text was taken from the 2nd Chap of Mat 1 & 2 verses. In it he tried to explain who, and from whence the wise men were, & what the star which guided them from Bethlehem consisted of, but after a long discourse in which celestial bodies, meteors, comets, constellations &c were the principal words he concluded without effecting his object.
2
Wednesday 12th. Mr Henderson had some people to dinner it being his birthday. I did not dine with them there being no room for me at the table but I came into dessert, we had the loving cup.
Thursday. This evening I went with Frank Lyne &c to the Colosseum and saw the same performances as I did before. There were great numbers of people and when they went up to see the Panorama of Paris by moonlight a woman fainted.
Friday 14th. In the evening I went with Thomas to the Alhambra formerly the Panopticon. It is now converted into a circus and is very different to what it was when last I saw it, but the organ is still there. I saw the two celebrated mules “Pete” & “Barney”. A reward of a guinea was offered to anyone who would ride round the ring three times. Several boys attempted it but they were all thrown off. There was afterwards a Pantomyme entitled the “Miser of Bagdad” but it was very stupid.
Wednesday 19th. In the morning went to Aunt Louisa’s to say goodbye but she unfortunately was out. Girt walked home with me. In the evening it being his wedding day Mr Henderson had some friends to dinner and about ½ past 8 set off for Liverpool, he very kindly gave me a sovereign.
White-place Jany 21st. Uncle Henry went out this morning to try and shoot a few birds & I went with him. I fired a gun for the first time in my life altho’ I am nearly 16. In the afternoon went out fishing with the nets and caught some Jack and other fish.
Saturday. Walked round the lawn with U.H. who shot a Black-bird. We then went out in the punt and fished for tench and Roach but caught only a few. We fished near a little point of land at Formosa Lady Young’s place. Mr Norris came here this evening.
Tuesday. We fished in one of the ditches with a casting net and caught an immense number of Perch, Roach and Gudgeon, we also caught an immense number of Bleak also called Fresh water herrings from their resemblance to that fish.
Saturday. Had breakfast at 9 o’clock and the pony cart came for my trunk at ½ past 9 and took me to the Cookham station. On leaving White place Uncle Henry gave me 5 shillings. I left Cookham at 10 and reached Maidenhead at 20 to 11. At Maidenhead took a ticket for Plymouth which cost 1.12.6. Had a pleasant journey and at Bristol a warrant officer got in who was in the Agamemnon during the storm which she experienced while crossing the Atlantic to lay down the Telegraph cable. Arrived at Plymouth at ½ past 9 and was met by Uncle Walton who came up with me to Donegal Terrace. When I arrived I found Frank Lyne here who is appointed to the Gannet.
Saturday 2nd April. C. and F. Churchill spent the day with me; in the afternoon we took a walk towards Western Mills and after having picked some primroses and Perriwinkles came by the beach as far as “Camel’s head bridge” and then came along the Saltash road. When we were near home we were overtaken by Mrs Cowlin who told me that poor Jasper had been killed by means of Prussic Acid. He was so eaten up by the mange and smelled so bad that Dr Dansey said it was quite unhealthy to keep him so this afternoon Mr Hamand sent up a man to kill [him] which was done in Cowlin’s garden. After dinner Charlie played some pieces on the piano.
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Saturday 9th. After school went to Devonport to be measured for a boot. In the afternoon went with H. Boy and GP to the Greenhouse in Cowlin’s garden. I saw poor Jas’s grave.
Good Friday. I went with Peter to Charles Church. All the rest went to Eldad to hear Mr Pimm preach. Eldad being a Puseyite one was hung on all sides with crape.
Monday. I today received my birthday presents consisting of a paint-box from UW some paints from AJ, a sketch block from H. Boy &c &c.
Wednesday 27th. In the morning I went to ask Ramsey to go with me to the Saltash bridge which he agreed to do. I waited for him until 2 PM and as he did not come went by myself. I crossed in the steam ferry to Saltash and walked up to the station where I presented the ticket Mr Carr gave me. I then went across the bridge which, when viewed from the end has the appearance of one of the walks at the Crystal palace. It was blowing very hard while I was there & nearly blew me off my legs especially as I am not very firm upon them. As I was coming back the man who took my ticket met me & in a hurried & excited manner informed me that “a injun was comin along in 5 or 10 minutes” so I waited for a good many “5 or 10 minutes” but not seeing any appearance of a train came home again. As I was crossing the Camel’s head bridge an engine & 2 carriages passed me. This evening I went with GP to the village to hear Mr Ferrand the Conservative candidate for Devonport address the people. He made a very good speech in which he showed the necessity of union in this time of danger.
May 2nd Monday. We had a holiday today as Prince Albert came down to open the Saltash railway. After I came out of school I met Bickford who said he was going to Saltash to see the train cross the bridge. There were thousands of people and every description of cart & carriage going along the generally desolate Saltash road and on each side of the river at Saltash it was quite like a fair there being numerous Punch & Judies, nut shooting &c. The train containing P Albert crossed about ½ past one. The prince got out at Saltash where he had some lunch. He then [went] back across the bridge & embarked in the “Vivia” steamer.
June 1st. I received a note a few days ago from Mr Carr inviting me to dine with him today at 7 o’clock I staid at home all the afternoon to review my English history. I went to Plymouth by the 6.30 train. After dinner Mr Carr very kindly took me to see the Panorama of India at the Royal Hotel. He said that some of the views were good but that upon the whole he did not think much of it. When we saw the city of Benares he said it was no more like the real place than Plymouth was.
June 2nd. As I was coming from school this evening Bickford overtook who said that he was going to Portsmouth at 6 tomorrow morning in order to pass his examination for the marines.
Wednesday 15th June. We all came into school at 10 o’clock this morning as it is breaking up day. I received two prizes for English & Latin. One was Byron’s Poems & the other “Stories of Waterloo.” This afternoon Ramsey & I went for a bathe near “Western Mills.” We return to school on the 26th of July.
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Monday 20th. I again went to SD Place by the 8.25 train. Instead of going to the breakwater we went to Bovisand, where UW met Captn Cox and Mr Davis for the purpose of making arrangements & measurements for constructing a watering pier for the purpose of supplying water to the vessels in the sound. As there was a high wind which [was] against us Captn Cox brought us in his surveying cutter as far as the mount Batten where we got into the boat.
Saturday 2 July. Today Ramsey & I went to the Whitsands. I got some seaweed & shells and then proceeded to the grotto which is a little cavern in the rocks about … feet high & 9 long. It is written all over with verses, some in Latin some in English; one of them commenced thus
“Near to this place once Sharron Palace stood
Surrounded by the rocks & by the briny flood &c”
Tuesday 5th..Ramsey & I went at 12 o’clock to see Captn Price on board the Caesar in Keyham dock. He seemed quite well but was very busy and had scarcely time to speak to us as he had to examine the case of some men who had mutinied. We then went on board the Turkish ship the name of which in English is the “Unicorn”. We then saw a man, one of the sailors who was very fond of Ramsey whose name was Alifende. He showed us over the ship and then took us to a part of the ship where he kept his desk and writing materials. I thought that he was a letter writer, for he seemed to write very well & one of the men brought him a letter to read. Alifende had a very peculiar pen & ink holder made of brass. The pen was merely a hollow piece of wood cut to a point. He gave us some of his writing and showed us a letter that he had received from Constantinople. He understood a few words of English so that by signs we could make ourselves understood. We saw a good many of the men saying their prayers for the purpose of which they each have a piece of carpet. They first stood up, then kneeled down and kissed the deck, which process they repeated many times muttering prayers all the time.
Wednesday 6th. Isabel & I went into Plymouth by the 8.10 train. I took Isabel to Mrs Stewarts at Woodside to spend the day and then proceeded to Uncle Walton’s house. As soon as he had finished breakfast we went to the office where I had a capital bathe, I can now swim tolerably well and all I want is constant practice in order to strengthen the swimming muscles of my arms & legs. We then went to the breakwater calling for Miss Billing and her “lover so brave” on our way. This same gent rejoiced in the name of Berwin.
Wednesday 5th Octr. We received a telegraphic message from Southampton to say that Papa and Mama had arrived there safely this morning. They come home tomorrow. It was GP’s birthday today.
Thursday 6th Octr. This evening Isabel & I went to meet the 5.5 train in hopes Mama would be in it. Papa is not coming as he is obliged to go to London in order to be examined by the doctors. Mama did not come by the express so we went to Mr Carr’s house where we waited till the 7 train came in when we went down, Cousin Emily and Berry included. Again we were disappointed but when the 9 train came in having again gone to the Station we were looking in the various carriages, when I saw
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something looming in the distance from which issued a voice saying “O my dear Nevey” and I was immediately locked in the embrace of the aforesaid “something” which really proved to be my maternal relation but so concealed in huge shawl and hat with long veil that I did not immediately recognise her. She was looking very well and (though somewhat stouter) not at all altered.
Friday 7th. I had a holiday today and this evening Mama AJ Isabel and I went in to Plymouth to meet the 5 train in which I was most delighted to find Papa had arrived. He was looking rather careworn, excited and as if he scarcely knew what he was about but I hope in a few days he will feel the benefit of pure air.
Friday 28th Octr. I had a holiday today in order to go to the confirmation. Although the service did not commence until 11 o’clock the church was very full and Papa & Mama had the greatest difficulty in obtaining a seat and even then, they could see nothing that was going on. After the usual service the Bishop of Oxford gave an admirable charge and then commenced the confirmation. The Bishop of Exeter was so old & infirm that he was not able to come down and perform the ceremony. There were an immense number of sailors and also soldiers.
Saturday 5th. Papa went this morning to London.
Friday 11th Novr. Harriet and Mrs Neville dined here this evening when I heard the melancholy news that poor Mr Stoddart had died suddenly on Wednesday evening. On that evening the dispenser was walking between the two gates at the hospital when he saw a body lying on the ground near the dial, and on lifting it up, found it was Mr Stoddart. He was immediately taken up into the doctors’ room but life was quite extinct altho’ his eyes were still open and there was a smile upon his face. AJ is in great grief about it. We got a letter on Friday from Papa (Dated) Whiteplace saying that poor Capt Ralph Leycester had been murdered at Vizirampoa India. When I was in London last, Aunt Louisa, Harriet, Girt & I went to him, previous to his going out to India.
Wednesday 14th. This evening I went [to] Mr Jonas’s breaking up party being invited by Pinwill. We passed a very pleasant evening especially when Mr John brought in a galvanic battery.
Thursday 15. Today being breaking-up day we went to school at 10 o’clock; for a long time before we went into school the boys amused themselves by sliding in the playground. I received two prizes and a certificate for Mathematics Classics and English Examinations. Papa came home by the 5 o’clock express train from London. I went to see G. Cuerton today.
Friday 23rd. Joll called for me at 10 o’clock and we went out for a walk with the gun. He shot 5 birds and I shot 2. On my return I was informed by Isabel of the death of poor Mr Cuerton. I understand he has been ill for some time but was pronounced by the doctors in no immediate danger. I am much grieved as he was truly kind and hospitable to me.
Saturday. We all went this morning to see the Christmas market. According to Mama’s account she was frightened out of her wits by the waits.
6
Christmas day. It has rained all day today. Mama and Isabel went to St John’s in a fly, Papa & I walked, & we read prayers at home this evening.
1860
March 23rd. I now write a few lines to say that Isabel was yesterday taken with the measles which today have “come out beautiful” to use a household expression for her face is one mass of red blotches and she is very sick, but Dr Dansey says she is progressing favourably. She is rather light headed and asked Mama why she did not take her to the Tournament. Unfortunately Papa is now in London, he went to the 1st Lords Levee yesterday. I continue at school till we leave the place. I was going to the Cuertons tomorrow, but have written to put George off.
Saturday 7th [April]. Went this morning to Plymouth by the 9.20 train in order to rouse up Mr Luke about my boots which he has been promising to send up for the last fortnight. He says I am to have them this evening but I do not expect them. When I was waiting at the station I heard a voice from the bridge saying “Nevy, Nevy”. I immediately looked up and beheld Mama who cried out, “Nevy, Papa’s coming home this evening” which of course delightfully attracted the attention of all the by-standers and spectators. I nodded my head in token that I understood her, but having mis understood me she again repeated the same news, however fortunately the train came in at the moment, and drew off the people’s attention. As soon as I had been to Luke’s I hastened up the hill and out towards Mannamead on the road to which I appointed to meet George but missed him. I spent the day with the Cuertons, George and I passed the afternoon in firing the rifle and pistol. I returned home at ½ past three having concluded all the arrangements for going with him to the Whitsands on Monday, I hope it will be asfine as today. Papa returned home by the express minus his moustache.
Thursday June 28th. Called for Williams this morning at 10 o’clock in order to go with him to see the bugles presented to the Devonport rifle volunteers. This ceremony took place on Mt Wise in front of the general’s house. A large space was first enclosed by the soldiers of the line and shortly before 11 o’clock the volunteers of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport preceded by the band of the 10th marched upon the ground and took up their position in the form of a semicircle. At this time the rain which had been threatening for some time came down pretty smartly but shortly after cleared up. The silver bugles having been presented the buglers executed a flourish upon them, and then the v’trs went through a little manoeuvring under the superintendence of the general, whilst sergeants &c rushed about in a state of fearful excitement, and into each other’s arms.
We then proceeded towards the Stone-house gate, an immense number of people being assembled on either side of the road to witness the procession of the order of foresters. In due time they arrived habited in true Robin Hood fashion, armed with bows and theatrical spears. There was also an open van full of shepherdesses looking very blue about the nose & arms, and none being remarkable for personal attractions. The procession wound up with all the members of the order arrayed in scarfs &c &c all armed with the insignia of forest life.
7
We then went on to Devonport where we saw an Italian who played 6 instruments at the same time, and his wife who played two, viz a fiddle and a brass box in which she made the coppers rattle.
Papa saw this very man playing in the village of Cookham about 2 months ago.
Thursday July 26th. Leycester Lyne has just come down here for a short time in order to make arrangements for being curate to a Mr Prynne a Puseyite clergyman of Plymouth. Leycester has brought with him a young Scotchman of the name of Buchan, an[d] who is dressed in Highland costume. The latter is rather a nice fellow and we have been to bathe &c several times. They have dined with us several times and the latter was one day sitting on one of our chairs which have horse-hair cushions, when he was obliged to get up and beg to have a softer cushion to sit upon.
We one day went round the Keyham yard, where we saw at work one of Nasmyth’s Steam Hammers. A huge & shapeless mass of iron was first placed in a furnace until it attained a white heat, being first welded in some method to a long pole which was held by 4 or 5 men and then placed beneath the hammer under whose powerful blows it soon began to take a more definite form. We also went all over HMS Howe which is at present the largest vessel in the British Navy.
Tuesday July 31st. This morning at 8 o’clock I called for Williams as we are invited to spend the day with Mrs Price. We walked round to Wiveliscombe and about ½ past 12 we were joined by the rest of the party from Mrs Dansey’s. We shortly afterwards proceeded to dinner in the open air. It was a very “sumptuous” repast with numberless quart cans of cream into which huge spoons were recklessly plunged and then emerged with their rich loads leaving behind them cavernous holes. The dinner over, the poney was saddled and the girls rode upon it all the afternoon, I had one little canter and terrified by my “violent” riding the old ladies of the party who seemed to have an idea that poneys and horses were made only to be walked about with little girls on their backs.
8
Tuesday August 7th. The long talked of and anxiously expected scheme of retirement having come out and Papa not being able to benefit by it, he determined this morning to start off for London in order to ask for a ship. We, that is Papa Mama and myself went into the station this morning as Papa intended going by Express. The usual scene of activity bustle and amusement was going on, excited mothers snugly stowed away their numerous families, only to learn that, that train was not going to their intended destination. Young men in irreproachable suits of clothes and small moustaches were doing the military, up and down the platform with an apparent contempt for all sublunary affairs. The train off, we went into Plymouth where a shower coming on, we retreated into the porch of an eye infirmary, and were asked by a woman to sit down in a room, the walls of which were covered with tablets on which for the trifling consideration of a 5£ or 10£ note any one could have the distinguished felicity of seeing his name subscribed in golden characters.
Thursday 20th Septr. This afternoon Danvers who is in the E. Bengal, Ry Cy called for me and we proceeded for a short walk. I have above mentioned that the marriage of Harriet and Mr Bate was fixed for today, but last night and this morning great doubts existed as to whether it would take place in consequence of Mr B. having made some demur at signing some settlement; but that was smoothed over and they are now knotted. The following are some notes I took at different hours of the day. –
9.10 a.m. Great confusion at the other house. Mr Bate and Uncle went up there at 7 o’clock this morning to break off the wedding in consequence of sundry unpleasant revelations on part of Mr Besley de rebus amantium. I been up there this morning and told part of this by Ramona.
10 a.m. Just been up to the other house. Marriage to take place. “Carriages to leave the house at 10.30.” Mama and Isabel now gone up.
12.40. Harriet and Mr Bate now set off for the train, great display of emotion on all sides, attempt at a speech on the part of G. Papa, but failure.
The married couple having returned from St George’s Church having been united by a Mr Nantes, we all adjourned to the drawing room, where the cake was cut with all ceremony, in which Isabel, Ramona, and Aunt Jane officiated. Wine of two kinds was handed round and various healths and toasts drunk, and thanks returned, the bride alternating between “Tears and Smiles” a story to be seen in “Cassel’s family Paper”. The bride then went up to change her dress and having returned she and Mr Bate went off to the train. They are to stay a week at Ivy-bridge and then proceed on their way to London.
Friday. Every-body is very much surprised at the wedding having taken place so quietly and speedily.
Friday Octr 12th. A short time after lunch we all started off for a walk, going by a roundabout lane towards Ugboro’ Beacon, another Tor about 4 miles from here. In passing thro’ the village I called at the constabulary station to ask for the earthly abode of Mr Maxwell. I was recommended to the notice of a particular suspicious looking gentleman in the garb of a policeman, who accompanied me back for some distance in order to show me the way. I soon entered into conversation with him by which I learnt the interesting fact that he had [been] in the Crimea in the artillery which he did not like &c &c &c. On our road Isabel and I picked a large quantity of nuts to the terror of Mama who has prophesied an illness to both of us.
9
Tuesday Novr 6th. We all went today to the Carew Arms an Inn about a mile ½ from Brent to see the meeting of Mr Tralawney’s Fox hounds. The meet was advertised for 11.15 but they were not all assembled till near 12. When we reached the ground there
was a small sprinkling of Red Coats and others imbibing Bitter Beer and blowing clouds, among whom was Captn Woodleigh an old ship mate of Papa’s who came up and talked to us until the arrival of Mr Tralawney. It was curious to observe the various habiliments of the men, the polished boots and variety of hats, the hounds are entirely the property of Mr Tralawney. I was much disappointed as I had a sort of vague idea that it was a very brilliant sort of scene and that we should see all the hounds start off in full cry with the horses at their heels &c &c.
Cowyard, Underhill Farm
Wednesday Novr 7th. Proceeded to Devonport, did various commissions and having plenty of time to spare went on to Plymouth to see G. Cuerton; we went to Devil’s Point and loitered about. As I was coming from the train I met Mr Edwin Jonas and Pinwill, the latter of whom gave me a ticket to see the fireworks at the Block house. They were pretty good and were accompanied at very long intervals by the dulcet strains of a few men from the Marine Band. There were a good many people, but I met no one that I knew. After the conclusion of the proceedings George and I returned to his house, where I slept the night, in the morning I went to the market to try and get some fish, none to [be] had. I lost the 1.45 train in consequence of a hamper from Hawkins not being there at the right time. While I was waiting at the door on the lookout, I was much amused at the people who came in for their tickets. A hughe Guard with a voice to match stood at the door to keep out those who were not going by the train. First came an old woman evidently unaccustomed to travelling “going by the train” shouted the Guard. “Yes? Come in then my dear woman” bundled her into the ticket office, allowing her under no inducement to return to say goodbye to her friends. Next came a potatoe faced, nervous young man, perhaps a draper’s assistant. Guard. “Going by the train Sir”. Young gent startled out of his wits. “Up the Rhine. – Er – Ivybridge.” Pushed in, and summarily disposed of.
10
Saturday Novr 10th. TOTNESS. At 1.30 today Papa and I set out to walk to Totness, distant from here about 8 miles. After the first two miles I began to feel hot and weary but gradually freshened up again. I was greatly tempted to go and steal some of the apples from the yellow heaps in the numerous orchards by the way side. Papa endeavoured to lighten the journey by telling various stories of his youthful exploits in the way of catching rabbits &c &c. Here and there you get some beautiful bits of scenery.
Wednesday. Decr 26th. We today dined with Captn and Mrs Price, and spent a very pleasant evening in inspecting the various things, brought by Captn Price from abroad. While talking about our last day at “the Cottage” Wiveliscombe, Captn P said he understood I showed great attention to one or two of the female portion of the party, I am afraid my conscience tells me who one of them was, a passing fancy.
Decr 28th Friday. Papa has today recd. the offer of an appointment to the Superintendence of the Transport and Mail Agency department at Liverpool, he first told me of it when I was in the orchard looking out for some Lapwing Plovers, by asking me if I was ready to go to Liverpool, to which I immediately returned an affirmative.
1861
Jany 1st. Shortly before dinner G. Cuerton called for me to go to tea with him and the Maxwells. Spent a pleasant evening and returned at 11.30 when I found Mama in tears. It being an intensely dark night she thought that by some means I had walked into the river & should not have been again heard of till my swollen body was fished out some miles down the stream.
The new year was ushered in with a gale of wind and much rain, much damage done of rooves and chimneypots.
11 [ cut here to fit database table ]

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Announcement in The Builders Merchants Journal May 1959 page 110

Acquired by directors

A and WT Richardson, Ltd.

Mr E Jameson, Mr J J Rouse and Mr R C Staff, three established directors of A&WT Richardson, Ltd, LMS Rly. Depot, Wandsworth Road, SW8, and 6 South Wharf Paddington London W2 have now acquired that company. The three gentleman concerned have been with Richardson's for over 30 years, and Mr E Jameson in particular is very well known in the merchant trade as a member of the BID Council and Commodity Committees.

A and WT Richardson was established in 1850 by the late Charles Richardson, with merchant premises at Brunswick Wharf, Vauxhall and South Wharf, Cement Works at Conyer’s Quay, Sittingbourne and stock brickworks at Teynham, Kent, and Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush.

Over a period of 109 years, the company has passed through four generations, and the retiring directors represent the third and fourth generations of the Richardson family. It was the wish of the family, following the death in December, 1957, of the late managing director, Lieut-Colonel C Richardson, that the shares should be offered to the three remaining directors.

Apart from the actual change of ownership, there will be no change in the policy of the operation of the company which, during its long history, has established a high reputation with both its manufacturing suppliers and its customers.

Obituary in Daily Telegraph 19/12/96

Judge John Streeter

Barrister who refused to allow the loss of his legs to affect his courtroom style

Judge John Streeter, who has died aged 76, refused to compromise his professional behaviour after losing both legs during the Second World War.

Streeter became the senior resident circuit judge of Kent. As a barrister, Streeter would stand for long periods on his tin legs in court, often in great pain, sweat pouring from his forehead. He would never do his advocacy sitting down, and at the end of the day preferred to walk up the stairs to his chambers although there was a perfectly good lift.

A heavily built man with rugged features, Streeter was a thorough and robust counsel, and fearless of judges. His bravery and keen sense of humour inspired respect tempered with affection.

Streeter always knew his court, and would play on its foibles. When before a retired naval officer, he would slip in the odd nautical phrase, and in a plea in mitigation before a Scottish Judge just before Burns night, he concluded that “A man’s a man for a’ that”.

On the bench Streeter was tough when the occasion required, but known above all for his humanity and good sense. He never contracted what some lawyers called “judgitis” (the crotchetiness that characterises so many senior judges). Barristers liked appearing before him; younger ones would often receive helpful tips afterwards in the robing room on how to improve their advocacy.

The son of a Scottish osteopath, John Stuart Streeter was born on May 20, 1920. He was educated at Sherborn, and commissioned as a 19-year-old in the Royal Scots Fusiliers at the outbreak of the Second World War. He was mentioned in dispatches.

In autumn 1944, Streeter, by then an acting major, was due to accompany the second airlift to Arnhem, but, when the air lift was cancelled due to bad weather, he set off overland. The armoured car he was travelling in came under fire from German artillery. Streeter lost both his legs, the one above the knee, the other below, when the vehicle blew up.

Streeter was eventually fitted with artificial decks at Roehampton, and began to read for the bar while still rehabilitating. He was called by Gray’s Inn in 1947 and entered Chambers at Garden Court in the Temple.

His set, which later moved to Queen Elizabeth Buildings and is now at Raymond Building in Gray’s Inn, has contained several notable advocates over the years; among them were his pupil master Reggie Seaton, Jeremy Hutchinson, Victor Durand, Richard Du Cann and Robin Simpson. It is still regarded today as one of the top criminal chambers.

Although Streeter did some defending, his practice was mainly prosecution. He was Counsel to the Post Office on the South Eastern Circuit for two years from 1957, and in 1959 was appointed Treasury Council to the old County of London Sessions (which is now Inner London Crown Court). As such he held the rank of a Silk and was called on by the attorney general to do the most difficult prosecutions at that court.

Streeter served as a permanent deputy chairman of the Kent Quarter Sessions for four years from 1967, and then as chairman until the introduction of the Crown Court system in 1972, when he was appointed senior circuit judge.

He took a keen interest in the design of the new Maidstone Crown Court, ensuring that the various parties would be kept appropriately separate and be properly catered for. The new building is also notable for its metal sculpture of Kent’s equine symbol, which Streeter encouraged local judges, recorders and magistrates to pay for.

Streeter was for many years an active supporter of the Sherborne House probation centre, which rehabilitates young offenders; he became president in 1993. He took a keen interest in his old school and was president of the Old Shirburnian Society from 1990.

Streeter swim regularly in the pool at his home in Sissinghurst and was an active gardener.

He married, in 1956, Nancy Richardson; they had a son and two daughters.

A & W.T. Richardson Ltd.
[ photo ]
THIS YEAR A & W.T. Richardson Ltd., London, S.W.8 celebrates its 110th anniversary and in the adjoining photograph we show the three Directors on the occasion of their attending the first Annual General Meeting of the company following their acquisition of it in January, 1959.
From the left are Mr. J. J. Rouse, Mr. E. Jameson and R. C. Staff who in aggregate have completed 100 years of service, made up by 34 years for Mr. Rouse, 35 years for Mr Jameson and 31 years for Mr. Staff.

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Richardson v Commercial Railway Company

[ Source of this document not recorded, originally transcribed by Tim Richardson 04/10/2011 ]

Between GEORGE STONE, BENJAMIN SEWELL, and GEORGE GIBSON, Assignees of CHRISTOPHER RICHARDSON, a Bankrupt, - Plaintiffs’
and
THE COMMERCIAL RAILWAY COMPANY- Defendants
1839 - March 18th, 19th, April 10th.

In the schedule to the act, a bonded timber yard of three acres in extent, containing certain detached sheds and buildings thereon, was inserted under the description of “Timber Yard”.

That, in and for some time before the year, 1823, C. Richardson and his father, were the occupiers of, and carried on the business of timber-merchants, upon a large piece of ground, dwelling-house, wharfs, docks or ponds, and other hereditaments of very considerable extent and value, situate of the south side of the Commercial Road, in the parish of St Ann, Limehouse, and lying near, and partly contigious to the river Lea, and also near to a dock or basin in the Regent’s Canal, and at a short distance from the river Thames. That the aforesaid premises then belonged to the father of C. Richardson, in fee, and were called “Richardson’s Wharf;” part thereof having for many years before 1819, been used for landing foreign goods and merchandize, and enjoyed the privileges of a sufferance wharf, but which privileges ceased to be renewed in the year 1819.

That in the year 1823, it was conceived, that part of the premises might be advantageously converted into a yard for bonding foreign timber and wood; and accordingly, a petition for that purpose was signed by several merchants, and was presented to the lords Commissioners of the Treasury, of His Majesty George the Fourth. That the Secretary of the Treasury informed C. Richardson and his father, that the petition was granted; and they, together with two sureties, in July 1824, executed the usual bond to his Majesty, and such bond, after reciting that the premises called Richardson’s Wharf, had been conditionally approved of by the Commissioners of Customs for the deposit of wood which might be imported into the port of London, was conditioned in the usual manner. That, after obtaining such privelege, part of the said ground and premises were appropriated for, and converted into, and have since been used as, a yard for bonding timber and wood, and several thousand pounds laid out in building and making the walls, and fence, and the sheds, and sawpits hereinafter mentioned, and which are necessary and usual in yards of a similar description. That the ground so appropriated - with the exception of a portion thereof adjoining the docks or ponds, which is on the south side of the yard and between it and the river Lea - is surrounded and enclosed by high and substantial brick walls; and the remainder thereof, or the portion adjoining the docks or ponds, is secured and enclosed partly by the back of a shed within the yard, and partly by a high wooden fence; and there are several gates to the yard, for the egress and ingress of the timber and wood, and such gates are under the Queen’s locks, and are opened and closed at fixed hours every day, with certain exceptions, and the keys of such locks are now kept by an officer of Her Majesty’s Customs. That, within the yard, there are several sheds for stowing and protecting the deal planks lodged in the yard, and also two buildings containing several sawpits for sawing and cutting up such of the timber and wood as is intended for exportation into planks, boards and other forms, in which operation, as many as forty men are frequently employed. That, after the bonding yard had been formed, C. Richardson and his father carried on their business of timber-merchants on the remainder of the premises called Richardson’s Wharf.
That, in 1830, two floors of a building, at some distance from the bonding yard, and at the opposite end of a wharf, between the yard and warehouse, and forming other part of the premises, was approved of by the Commissioners of Customs as a warehouse for bonding foreign corn, and in the year 1831, the privelege of receiving wood was extended to iron and steel, when forming parts of the cargoes of vessels laden with wood, and in the year 1833, the docks or ponds were approved of by the Commissioners of Customs as a proper place for the deposit of imported timber, and these occasions bonds, similar to that aforesaid, were executed. [The bill then stated the death of the father of C. Richardson, whereby the latter became entitled to the business and premises, the bancruptcy of C. Richardson, and the transfer of his estate to the plaintiffs. ]
That the privelege of bonding timber and wood in the yard, and the business and profits resulting therefrom, are of considerable value, and render the bonding-yard, in its present state, a very valuable property; and in consequence of an application of the plaintiffs to the Commissioners of Customs, stating the appointment of F.G.Richardson, as occupier of the bonding-yard, ponds and warehouse, the usual bond was executed, which, after reciting that F.G. Richardson was the occupier of a bonding-yard, also docks or ponds, the whole situate at Richardson’s Wharf, Limehouse, was conditioned for the due exportation of or payment of Custom duties, on all such goods and merchandise as were then, or might thereafter, from time to time, be lodged in such bonding-yard, docks, ponds and warehouse. That, the plaintiffs have ever since the bankruptcy continued in the enjoyment of such privileges, and used the yard for bonding timber and wood, and by means of their agent F.G. Richardson, have ever since carried on the said business.
The treasury bonds of 1824, and 1831, describe the premises as “Richardson’s Wharf”.

Death of Rickmansworth architect

Mr C.W. Richardson

We regret to announce the death of Mr Charles William Richardson at his home, Pondmere, Chorleywood Common, on Friday morning. He was aged 74.

Mr Richardson had been seriously ill towards the end of last year, but appears to have made a good recovery. He had returned to work and was in fact in his office on Thursday. His death was unexpected. He was well known throughout the district, particularly in Rotary and Masonic circles.

Founder-President of Rickmansworth Rotary club, he rarely missed one of its weekly luncheon meetings. He was also a past Master of the Rickmansworth Lodge of Freemasons.

It was in the field of recreation that he was possibly best known. A keen swimmer in his youth - when he entered for many county and other championships - he was one of the pioneer members of the Rickmansworth Swimming Club when the meeting place was the Grand Union Canal. He was Secretary for nearly 30 years and in later years President of the club.

An architect, Mr Richardson came to Rickmansworth in the closing years of the last century when he took a post as assistant at Swannell and Sly’s. Later he opened a separate firm of architects in partnership with another man. He moved to Chorleywood in the early 1900s. In his business, Mr Richardson was responsible for the planning of many houses and estates in the district. His firm planned several estates for Rickmansworth and Chorleywood councils, one of the latest being the postwar Mill End estate, for Rickmansworth. He was a director of the Watford and West Herts Building Society.

His wife died in 1940. He leaves one son, Mr M.S.Richardson, who was in business partnership with him. The funeral service, which was held at Chorleywood Parish Church on Tuesday afternoon, was attended by representatives of many local organisations.

Article about William Richardson of Gainford published in the Gainford and Langton Parish Magazine in April 2020. Content already available in the Richardson Collection.

Captain Michael Hogan was born in September 1766 at Stone Hall, County Clare, Ireland. In his youth, he served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and his career was advanced with
the support of Lord Charles Cornwallis (commander of the British army in the American campaign - (left) and his brother Commodore - later Admiral - William Cornwallis (right), after both of whom Hogan, in
gratitude, would later name a ship and his property in Australia. His papers are in the Mitchell library in Sydney, and he has been the subject of a biography “Michael Hogan, Sailor, Merchant, Diplomat on Six Continents - from which much of this article comes - written by one of his descendants, Michael Hogan Styles,
After leaving the Royal Navy, Hogan began a mercantile career and eventually became a colourful mariner, privateer, slave ship captain and owner, American statesman and property speculator. His early travels took him to India, where he arrived in Bombay (present day Mumbai) in May 1789.
Histories of old Bombay tend to focus on the upper echelons of British society, the leading Indians and the vast number of poor. But there were British and native Indians who were comfortably situated without either an aristocratic lineage or high social standing. Among these were the Richardsons; a family with a long history of
merchant trading in England, Portugal and India. William Richardson, eldest of the five children of Christopher Richardson of York, England, came to India in 1764 just after the end of the Seven Year's War, when British merchants were being encouraged to settle there. He became an independent merchant trader and sea captain.
Shortly after his arrival in Bombay, Richardson hired a dark- skinned Indian woman, called Anna Maria Lacy, as a housekeeper. She was supposedly of a Portuguese family that had resided in Bombay and Goa for many years, but was also reputed to be of Parsee descent. Parsees are a religious sect descended from Persian refugees who had settled in the Bombay and Goa area of India in the seventh and eighth centuries to escape Islamic persecution, and they remained a distinct racial and religious group with little or no intermarriage with others. The term was often loosely and incorrectly applied to any Portuguese who had settled in India.
Anna soon became William’s mistress. She never took his name and he himself refers to her in his will as only a “confidante, good servant and affectionate mother”. Nevertheless, even though he also doesn’t admit to being the father of their six illegitimate children - only referring to them in his will as the “sons (or) daughters of Anna Maria Lacy” - they transparently bear the “Richardson” surname.
William and Anna had two sons, William Richardson Jr. and Christopher Rowland Richardson Sr., and four daughters. The two eldest girls, Jane and Frances (the latter of whom was later to become known as the “Indian Princess”) had been sent to England as young children - as was the custom in those days - staying with Richardson relatives living at Streatham, a small town half way between London and Croydon, and received "the best English education" at Mrs. Ray's school at Russell House in Streatham Park, next door to Streatham Place, the home of Henry and Hester Thrale. Frances later recalled that "it was at Mr. Thrale's (that) Dr. Johnson was so constant a guest that I saw something
of that lion of the day." Revered for his
enduring witticisms, Samuel Johnson (right)
was famous for his poems, essay collections,
biographies and especially for his
comprehensive dictionary. He, and other social
and intellectual figures of the day, were
frequent guests at the Thrale’s when Frances
would have been only eight years old.
The Richardson girls returned to
Bombay in 1786, when Jane was seventeen and Frances thirteen. Jane soon married a British Army officer, Captain Barnaby Boles, whose regiment was stationed in India. Three years later, Michael Hogan met and courted Frances. She was not a beauty and apparently of a markedly dark complexion, but she was from a respectable and cosmopolitan family.
In those days the choices for acceptable matches among residents of the British colony were limited; perhaps the couple found commonality in their non-English backgrounds, for both would have been regarded as a notch below full acceptability by the pure blooded English elite - Hogan for his Irishness, Frances for her Portuguese (or Indian) blood. Despite their background, several of William Richardson’s other children would also marry well; it would seem that Frances’ brother, Christopher Rowland Richardson Sr., was sent to England for an education, where he eventually married Martha Anne Humphries and later returned to India to set up an indigo plantation in Bihar. Christopher’s son (William’s grandson), Christopher Rowland Richardson Jr. (nicknamed “Black Daniel” by his troops) became a colonel in
the British Army in India and fought with
distinction in the Indian Mutiny, whilst his
daughter, (William’s granddaughter),
Catherine Marianne Richardson (right) wed
Francis H. V. Guinness of the famed Irish
brewing family, who had a neighbouring
indigo plantation in Bengal, and who later
became an MP in New Zealand.
Michael Hogan and Frances Richardson were married on Tuesday, December 15th 1789 at the home of her father in Mulund, now a respectable suburb of modern Bombay, some 30 km up the Thane River. He was barely twenty-three; Fanny, as he called her, was alleged to be eighteen. However, according to the Parish




CAPTAIN MICHAEL HOGAN AND HIS “INDIAN PRINCESS”

registers of the Presidency of Bombay, Frances was born on 20th Dec 1773; making her only 16 when she married Hogan. Perhaps her age had been falsified to allow the wedding to proceed.
Although he had turned aside a possibly illustrious career as a British naval officer in favor of a more lucrative career in commerce, Hogan told his brother-in-law, Captain Barnaby Boles, that: "I have probably my life to spend at sea". Perhaps guided by his new father-in-law William Richardson - whose opinion he valued - Hogan decided that some practical experience in commerce would be desirable. On May 5th 1790, he sailed from Bombay on the New Triumph with his bride and her father, Captain Richardson, aboard. The ship stopped first at Tellicherry where Frances was left to visit her sister Jane and Captain Boles at Calicut. The New Triumph arrived at Calcutta on July 8th where it picked up a cargo of rice and then returned to Tellicherry in November to bring Frances back to Calcutta where Hogan had decided to make their home and to try his hand at business ventures on his own.
Hogan took his first major business step by buying a teak-built ship, then under construction, from the eminent shipbuilding firm of Messrs Gillett Lambert & Ross & Company. 'It was to be a three-masted frigate, 104 feet long (some sources say 166 feet ) and 34 feet at the beam, with three decks, weighing 654 tons.' The largest ships being built at the time were in the 1,200-ton class designed for the China trade, but most ordinary merchant vessels were only in the 200-ton class. Many in the Calcutta trade were over 300 tons, though they could not exceed some 800 tons to navigate safely on the Hugli (Hooghly) river estuary to Calcutta. Hogan's ship was thus a large one and probably enjoyed the good reputation for quality that Calcutta teak-built ships then commanded. He needed to borrow a considerable sum of money, about 120,000 rupees (then worth about £12,000 pounds sterling), to make the purchase. He offered a quarter share to his father-in-law, William Richardson, a quarter to his brother-in-law Boles (and any other Army officers who wanted to subscribe - several did), and a third quarter to Pondoosett Tewajusett in Bombay, keeping the last quarter for himself. After some delay, principally because Boles needed to raise funds to buy his share, the necessary money was advanced, some of which was in respondentia bonds (a loan on the value of the ship's cargo) as security.
Since he was not licensed by the East India Company, Hogan was restricted to what was called the "Country Trade" (i.e. trade between India and China, in which he and William Richardson were engaged) as distinguished from the more profitable “Orient Trade” between India and Europe. He told others that he planned to ship rice from the granary centers around Calcutta to other parts of India where he would pick up cotton and opium for transport to China. He intended to command the new ship himself, leaving his wife Frances at Calcutta.
The new ship was launched on November 12th 1791, but the arrangements made for its use were quite different from Hogan's initial plans. He told others a few days before the launching that, due to "the embargo on grain and many indifferent prospects before ship holders in country”, he had given up plans to engage in the Country Trade and instead placed the ship under Genoese colors as Il Netunno (Neptune) and chartered it for three years to Messrs Robert Charnock & Company to sail on two voyages between India and Ostend in Belgium, where the goods would be offloaded for separate shipping to England. This was part of an elaborate plan to circumvent the East India Company’s prohibition on direct trade with Britain by unapproved traders.
At the same time, he announced he was giving up the idea of making Bombay the family home, electing London instead, at least for the time being. Explaining this decision to Boles he wrote: "Mrs. Hogan will have the opportunity of spending some time with her friends in England with which she is quite delighted, and as we leave this port at a good time of the year, early in January, the passage I doubt not will be pleasant in so capital a ship. Her accommodations will be far superior to any (East India) Company ship."
On January 30th 1792, Hogan and his now-pregnant wife Frances, as well as her parents, Captain William Richardson Sr, his mistress Anna Maria Lacy and a few of their servants - sailed from Calcutta on the Netunno. Richardson Sr., who had by this time spent 28 years in India, was permanently returning to England for his health. His eldest son, William Richardson Jr. now 17, remained in India, as he was already embarking on his own maritime career there, and would later sail with Hogan on a blood-stained voyage.
Hogan told a correspondent that the Netunno "stops at no port whatever and sails very fast" and later claimed the voyage took only three months and fourteen days. The elapsed time was closer to three months and twenty-one days, still a speedy trip by the standards of those days, as the ship stopped at St. Helena on May 18th and probably also at the Cape of Good Hope before that. Hogan's enthusiasm for a quick voyage was based on more than good business practice. On leaving Pondicherry, he said "we may first give the late glorious news in Europe." The "glorious news," contained in the March 1st issue of the Madras Courier - a copy of which was in Hogan's hands - was that a preliminary peace treaty had been concluded between the British in India and Tippoo Sultan, following the latter's decisive defeat by one of his patrons Lord Charles Cornwallis and General Robert Abercromby in the Third Mysore War, which paved the way for eventual British control over all of India.
Hogan disembarked his passenger, a Mr. Cooper, at Havre de Grace on June 30th so that the gentleman could get the news to London on a packet boat whilst Hogan supervised the unloading of the Netunno’s cargo at Ostend. Cooper delivered Hogan's covering letter and the Madras Courier to the East India Company on July 2nd. The news, including Hogan's brief letter, was printed in The Times the next day as London rejoiced at the "glorious news." One British spokesman said that Lord Cornwallis "had made the British name loved and revered in India."
After unloading the cargo, Hogan and the Netunno sailed for London. Hogan found temporary quarters at Covent Garden, where on July 17th Frances gave birth to their first child, William Hogan, who would later rise to prominence in the United States (as related later). The family soon moved to the more fashionable Finsbury Square.
William Richardson Sr. meanwhile retired to Gainford in the County of Durham, where he died in 1799. His mistress, Anna Maria Lacy, afterwards returned to the home and families that they had left in Calcutta, where she lived until her death there in 1814; desiring in her will “that my Body be buried in the new Portuguese Church (The present day Cathedral of The Most Holy Rosary, also known as the Portuguese Church, founded in 1799) and that the Expense does not exceed one thousand Rupees”.
Hogan was so proud of the performance of his new ship that, in 1793, while he was in Calcutta on
his second voyage, he commiss-
ioned a painting of the Netunno
(right) by a Flemish artist named
Balthazar Solvyns, who lived in
Calcutta for twelve years and
produced many etchings portraying
the people and life in Bengal.
Several versions of the painting still exist. Later, Hogan procured two etchings of a wooden model of a sailing vessel that looked very much like his.
The French Revolution in 1789 and the subsequent outbreak of war with England in 1793 changed international trading conditions. Of immediate concern to Hogan was the fact that British-registered vessels engaged in the Orient trade were increasingly at risk because of the presence of French privateers in the Indian Ocean, and in the waters near Britain. The risk could be avoided only with the protection provided by British Navy convoys, which was available only to East India Company ships or private British vessels sailing under government auspices or under contract with the Company. Hogan's choices were thus limited to doing business for the Company or with the British Government, or of finding some other career. He could not even consider the latter.
Fortunately, as the charter on the Netunno had by now ended, Hogan was now free to use his ship for new purposes. He renamed the ship the Marquis Cornwallis, another indication of his attachment to Cornwallis family, and registered it on September 23rd 1794 under the British flag. In October, he offered to undertake four, six or more India voyages for the East India Company. His application emphasized the best features of the ship: "She is coppered fore and aft to the bends and
MICHAEL HOGAN IN AUSTRALIA – THE BLOODY VOYAGE OF THE MARQUIS CORNWALLIS

shall be fitted under the inspection of your officers with the number of anchors and cables required and a sufficient quantity of stores and she shall mount 14 guns, six-pounders, with the quantity of ammunition required and be navigated with seven men and one boy to every one hundred tons of her chartered tonnage."
Turned down by the Company in February 1795, he offered to sell the vessel to the Royal Navy Board as a man-of-war, but was again unsuccessful. He finally found clients for a round-trip voyage in March. Under contract with the Transport Board, the Marquis Cornwallis would carry Irish convicts from Ireland to New South Wales, and on the return voyage, would pick up cargo in China and India under contract with the East India Company.
One of the only two convict ships sent to NSW in 1795, the Marquis Cornwallis left Portsmouth on June 8th, after taking on board 30 sullen soldiers of the NSW Corps (the infamous Rum Corps), commanded by Ensigns John Brabyn and William Moore, to act as guards of an expected 200 convicts. Also on board was Hogan's brother-in-law, William Richardson Jr, (1775 – 1843), who was, by now, 20 years of age. He was shown as “ship’s master” in the documents when the Marquis Cornwallis was registered in 1794 and also in Transport Board accounting of the ship's voyage to New South Wales.
The departure of the Marquis Cornwallis was already a little late, for the Transport Board had told the Admiralty on May 15th that, "It is...indispensably necessary, in order that this transport may secure her passage to China, from whence she is chartered to receive freight from the East India Company, that she should arrive by the 1stof June at Cork, and proceed thence as speedily as possible." The secretary for colonial affairs, the Duke of Portland, had also requested the Admiralty to provide a convoy for the vessel from Cork to an area near the Canary Islands. The request for convoy was approved on May 18th with the notation, "Their Lordships have taken measures ... to provide for her escort to such a distance as may place her in a state of safety."
On arrival at Cork, Captain Hogan found that he was to take on board an additional 24 female convicts for whom he had to purchase supplies out of his own funds. This was not the end of his problems. While still in port, one of the NSW Corps soldiers, Bryan O'Donald, after "damning the King and saying he would not serve his Majesty," refused to stand guard as sentry. He was tried at a general court martial on August 5th, presided over by an British Army commander, found guilty and given a sentence of 800 lashes, "this sentence to be put into execution tomorrow morning before 10 o'clock and to receive such part of the punishment as M. Hogan, the owner of the Marquis Cornwallis, shall think proper, the remainder of the 800 lashes to be given to the said Bryan O'Donald should he behave bad on his passage, and if he acts like a good soldier, M. Hogan will please to remit the remainder after what he receives tomorrow." Hogan remitted all but 150 of the lashes. Flogging was then standard practice on ships at sea.
At the last moment, an additional 9 male Irish convicts were brought aboard to make a total of 241 of whom 168 were males and 73 females. With the ship's crew and the soldiers acting as guards, there were no less than 328 persons on board. The ship also carried 136,376 pounds of beef and pork and a one-year's supply of clothing being sent by the government to the inhabitants of New South Wales, as well as goods and liquor that Hogan expected to sell privately in Sydney.
Concerned on the eve of sailing from Cove that he had left his wife Frances short of cash, Hogan wrote his London agent: "I have written to Mrs. Hogan and told her you would pay her all the money of mine you may have after paying the bills I have drawn on you, which I request you will (do), and that you will receive it from the Board as soon as possible. On your receiving my certificate from Botany Bay, you will reserve in your own hands £1,400 of the money due on them and pay the rest to Mrs. Hogan”.
MUTINY AND MURDER
The Marquis Cornwallis was finally underway at 6 p.m. on August 9th, a month behind schedule; Captain Hogan noting that the "ship was very full of rats." But rats were to be the least of his problems on this long voyage.
Even before embarking from Portsmouth, there was a report that the NSW Corps guard detachment was mutinous and that the worst among them was a Sergeant Ellis. It was also
known that several of the male convicts were “Defenders”, a loosely knit group of defiant Catholic rebels against British rule in Ireland. The Marquis Cornwallis was the first of many ships that would carry Irish political prisoners to Australia.
After a month at sea, on September 9th, two of the convicts sent a note to Captain Hogan asking to see him in private. The ship was near the Cape Verde Islands, its British Navy escort having just departed, the very islands where the youthful Hogan had participated in a naval battle fourteen years earlier. The meeting took place the next morning in the presence of the young William
Richardson. The prisoners "informed me," Hogan later recorded in the log book (left), "that a conspiracy was formed by the convicts and soldiers to get possession of the arms and the ship and that I was the first person to be put to death, and that Sgt. Ellis and a few of
the soldiers were at the head of this plot. They also informed me that the sergeant was to furnish the convicts with knives for the purpose of making saws to cut off their irons, and that the convicts were to send the sergeant money to purchase the knives, and that they and he corresponded regularly, and the notes which passed between them (after being read) were thrown overboard, and at daylight some morning they were to rush on deck in a body when the boys were let up to clear the slop buckets."
Hogan continued that this report "gave me some concern and additional caution, and induced me to request Ensign Brabyn to fall his men in and muster their kits, and on examining the sergeant's (kit) first we found six knives upon him, all new and large but one. Last night he went to Ensign Brabyn and got two knives from him, saying he had not one to cut his victuals, but to our great surprise we found him possessed of six, for (I am sure) the worst of purposes."
It was also discovered that Ellis had spiked the touchholes of six muskets and disabled two pistols so that these weapons could not be used by the guards against the convicts. Having disarmed the presumed perpetrator and warned loyal members of the guard detachment against possible surprise attack, Captain Hogan thought the mutiny plan had been thwarted. But Sergeant Ellis was not finished. "On the 12th, at 8 p.m.," Hogan's report continues, "the gunner came to me in my cabin and informed me that last night between half-past 10 and 11 o'clock, being in the lee waist, he heard the sergeant make use of mutinous and inflammatory language to the soldiers, addressing himself mostly to the sentinels on the fore hatchway (the prison door). He compared the situation of the soldiers to the convicts, saying they were worse off, for that some of the convicts were transported only for seven years, and that they were for life, and that they were damned fools to be sold."
Although Hogan was captain of the vessel, the guards were subject to the authority of their commanding officer, Ensign John Brabyn, who was yet unwilling to arrest Sergeant Ellis, perhaps fearing the whole detachment might rebel. Hogan could do nothing but post additional guards. But the next day, a convict named Patrick Hines, a "man who I had good character of and had reason to form a good opinion of from his general conduct since he came on board," confirmed the earlier disclosure of a mutiny plot between Ellis and the convicts. Hogan instructed Hines to return to the prison and obtain further information from the ringleaders "by pretending to be hearty in their desperate cause."
The full plot, as it was later pieced together, was for prisoners to seize Hogan when he was making his twice weekly inspection of the prison accompanied by several ship's officers and one of the two surgeons on board. They were all "to be put to death by their own swords." Ellis and his fellow conspirators among the guards were to attack the remaining officers on deck, including William Richardson, hand out arms to convicts as they escaped from their prison below, and once in control of the ship sail her to South America. It was also alleged that "some of the women were concerned in the conspiracy, their part being to convey knives to the men, and to put pounded glass into the messes (food) of the ship's company."
Captain Hogan forced the issue upon the reluctant Ensign Brabyn on the 15th by assembling Brabyn, his fellow ensign, William Moore, and the ship's officers and crew, including William Richardson,

to demand an indictment of the perpetrators of the plot. The assembled lot readily gave their unanimous consent. There was later dispute whether the order to punish the mutineers was given by John Brabyn, who had authority at least over his own soldiers, or by Captain Hogan, who had ultimate authority for the safety of the ship. 40 to 50 of the convicts were flogged and six of the women prisoners punished. The severest punishment was meted out to two soldiers: Sergeant Ellis's head was shaved, he was handcuffed, thumb-screwed and leg-bolted to one of his supporters, Private Lawrence Gaffney, and both were put in the ship's prison among the convicts.
On September 22nd, the convicts strangled one of the informers and attempted to force their way upon deck. One of the ship's officers later said that "Capt. Hogan rushed down the fore hatchway, followed by Mr. William Richardson and three more of the officers and myself, armed with a pair of pistols and cutlass, where began a scene which was not by any means pleasant. We stuck together in the hatchway and discharged our pistols amongst them that were most desperate who, seeing their comrades drop in several places, soon felt a damp upon their spirits. Their courage failed them, and they called out for quarter. I broke my cutlass in the affray but met with no accident myself." 7 of the convicts later died of wounds; Sergeant Ellis died on the 24th. There were no reported attempts of mutiny thereafter.
SYDNEY COVE 1796
On February 11th 1796, six months after sailing from Ireland, the Marquis Cornwallis arrived at Port Jackson, the port for Sydney, where the prisoners were put ashore and placed in the hands of the local authorities. Some of the convicts who had been punished were not fully recovered and were sent to the hospital.
Under British law, offences committed on board British ships on the high seas were subject to trial or review by Admiralty Courts. Governor John Hunter (left) reported to London that "a daring and dangerous insurrection has been reported to have been planned by the convicts, aided by some other disaffected people (on the Marquis Cornwallis)," but he said he was at a loss to know how to proceed judicially, as a Vice Admiralty Court had not yet been established in Australia. Hogan applied to the governor to conduct an official inquiry because he did not want to stay in New South Wales while the question of the governor's legal authority was debated with London and because he wanted to be cleared of any possible charges against him. Hunter directed that such an inquiry be held, after
which he would address the judicial issue. The inquiry was held on March 21st 1796 before the Judge Advocate, David Collins (left), and the Acting Chief Surgeon, William Balmain. Gaffney and several other soldiers testified that, although they were not part of the plot, Hogan had grossly mistreated them, but Ensigns Brabyn and Moore, other soldiers, the two surgeons on board and two ship's officers all confirmed the plot and testified that Hogan had acted properly throughout the affair. Collins and Balmain reported to Governor Hunter on April 30th that "we have no difficulty in saying we think Mr. Hogan, situated as he found himself with a dangerous conspiracy in his ship on the point of breaking out and headed by some of the most daring and desperate offenders that the jails of Ireland could produce, could scarcely have acted otherwise than he did, and we are of the opinion that nothing but the steps he took ensured the safety of the ship and the preservation of the lives of all on board." The report also said that "it does not appear to us that there was any improper interference with the military guard on board on the part of Mr. Hogan." Governor Hunter immediately wrote to the Duke of Portland apprizing him that “All I can at present observe upon it is that the steps which were taken by Captain Hogan .... appear to me to have been the only means which could have been used to save the ship and their own lives." Hunter did not forward the official report of the inquiry to London untilSeptember5th,longafterHoganhadleftNewSouthWales. Nothing
more was heard of the matter.
It had been eight years since the first convict ships had arrived in Sydney Cove; the Colony had survived near starvation and was becoming self-supporting, partly due to the officers and men of the New South Wales Corps, each of whom could be awarded 25 acres of free land for the asking. Officers could obtain 100-acre lots, together with ten convicts who were, in effect, used as slave labor to serve the colony, including the cultivation of farm lands in the Hawkesbury River area north of Sydney.
During his brief stay in New South Wales, Hogan acquired a plot of land previously known as Woodhay, which he called Cornwallis Place (or Estate) after his favorite nobleman, with the intention of raising livestock and growing grain. The plot consisted of 400 acres purchased from Lieutenant Abbott and 30 acres from Samuel Jackson, Abbott having bought a number of the 25 and 100-acre lots previously awarded to New South Wales Corps members to make up the 400-acre parcel. Later in April 1797, Hogan's farm supervisor purchased an additional 30-acre lot called the Rowan Farm. Both were on the Hawkesbury River slightly to the north of Green Hills, a settlement later named Windsor (below).
Governor Hunter cited Hogan's farming plans when he wrote to Under Secretary for Colonial Affairs King to encourage the Government to send some settlers, rather than only convicts, to the new British Colony. He noted that Captain Hogan, "having purchased a farm which was partly cleared .... has left several people upon it from his own ship, and a few of the convicts he brought out he has taken off the hands of the public, and seems determined to make his farm productive. He has left some live stock, tools of every kind and, in short, promises fair to (become) really a respectable farmer. It could have been well for this colony could we have early had fifty or a hundred such settlers, but many of those who have been permitted to fix (here) are truly worthless characters, and very few sent out by permission of the Government are likely to benefit the settlement. They seem, most of them, disposed to speculate in some way of no great advantage to the colony. I wish they were in their own country again."
In the same letter, sent with seven other government dispatches on the Marquis Cornwallis when it returned to England, Hunter promoted Hogan as "a man of property and good connections (who had) mentioned to me that he liked the country and climate, and had some intention of making proposals to Government to be permitted to establish a store here for the supplying with of every article which may be wanted either the settlement at large or individuals." Hunter lent his support to such a venture because he "long wished that some steps could be taken...to (suppress) effectually that shameful imposition which has so long distressed poor individuals who pay for every little article (at) the most unjust and unreasonable prices." The governor also believed that such a store would be "a means of introducing the manufactures of our own country in greater abundance into this settlement, and thereby lessen the speculations of foreigners and adventures from the East Indies." Putting in a good word for Hogan in London, Hunter closed by saying that, "If his proposals were attended with moderation in point of profit, I thought it probable Government might listen to him."
Cornwallis Place was to become a weight around Hogan's neck over his lifetime and, seventy years later, an inheritance problem for his children and grandchildren. Expecting to reap profits from livestock and grain, Hogan had arranged for two convicts on the Marquis Cornwallis, John Riley and Philip Tully, to be assigned to work the farm, and he signed an agreement with an unscrupulous and almost illiterate ex-convict named Mark Flood to manage the farm. Flood managed to avoid paying Hogan whatever profits the farm earned and to run up considerable debts by one subterfuge or another. Realizing Flood

needed to be supervised, Hogan sought the intercession of John Macarthur who later became wealthy when he introduced Europe to wool from Merino sheep. The cause of the farm's problems was not wholly attributable to his tenant farmers; there were many crop failures in New South Wales during the early years of the Colony, and in May 1799 there was a disastrous flood on lands near the Hawkesbury River. Nor was the farm always a loss; in 1805 Governor King would later report to London that Cornwallis Farm "has been very successfully and advantageously cropped on account of Government since the year 1800."
While Hogan was still in New South Wales, Governor Hunter also granted him a six-acre plot on the "eastern side of Sydney Cove," a possession Hogan apparently forgot about for over thirty years. In 1830, he asked his land agent in Sydney to obtain an "authenticated copy of a grant made to me by Governor Hunter of the point of land below the governor's garden called Bennselou's (sic) Point. It was in the month of April or May 1796 and regularly recorded.... I think it measured about 9 acres." This was obviously Bennelong Point, near what is now Government Wharf and the site of the famed Sydney Opera House - what this grant would be worth today is anyone’s guess!
There was an understandable social tension between the
to allow it.
Hogan told at least one person that he “intended to take up residence in New South Wales sometime in the future." Although his talk about this may simply have been intended to please those who stayed behind, whether willingly or not, it is enticing to speculate that he might have had the most personal of reasons for later returning to the colony. Just two weeks before Hogan left Sydney, a thirty-one year old woman convict named Ann Ryan, who had come there on the Marquis Cornwallis, gave birth to a daughter. She named her Mary Hogan and listed Michael Hogan as the father. It is possible that Ann Ryan named Hogan as the father out of some spite or to avoid the onus of the daughter's having a convict as her father, but there is no good reason to doubt the claim. Perhaps the report of women conspirators among the prisoners who "put pounded glass into the messes of the ship's company") came from Ann Ryan herself. She might even have been genuinely pleased to be selected by the captain himself, as well as happy to escape from the dreadful
British and the conquered Dutch population. Hogan were certainly not
the social equals of
British and Dutch titled
Michael and Frances
Hogan had brought with him dry goods, wine and spirits, and he was allowed to open a shop on shore to sell these articles to the inhabitants. Although, by 1796, a half dozen or so
ships would arrive every year from England and India
with basic supplies, the inhabitants still looked
forward to each arrival to bring news and luxury
goods, such as clothing and liquor. Hogan had less
success when he tried to sell spirits on nearby Norfolk
Island, which at that time was in the charge of the
strict Lieutenant-Governor Philip Gidley King (right)
- a future governor of New South Wales - who refused
officials, but Lady Anne
Barnard - wife of Andrew
Barnard, the British
Colonial Secretary at the
Cape of Good Hope
(right) - was conscious of
the slights that the
Hogans were occasion-
ally subjected to, and tried to rectify them. She noted in her diary that "Mr. and Mrs. Hogan had taken pet" at receiving no invitation to one of her large parties. She added that Frances "is a woman of color and all women of that complexion are distrustful of neglect. Mr. Hogan knows the nature of the Cape Dutch to be so disposed to disdain any one in whose blood there was a drop of the Slave that he was almost afraid of bringing her here. She herself however (is) so well received by the English that she had nothing almost to suffer from the others, but the small want of attention or appearance of it is always on the point of mortifying her - and on this occasion did also." By referring to Frances as a "woman of color," she meant a person from India, although there is no mention of Frances's mother being either Indian or Portuguese in origin. To make amends, Lady Anne invited the Hogans (and others) to dinner three nights later.
A CONTINUING TRADE WITH AUSTRALIA
Hogan would soon begin business ventures in two new areas (see below), but his first business task was to arrange for cattle to be shipped on the Marquis Cornwallis to Port Jackson under contract with the Transport Board. The vessel finally arrived at the Cape on May 1st 1798 and spent almost two months procuring and loading the cattle and other goods before sailing on June 26th. It arrived four months later at Port Jackson where 158 cows and 20 bulls were landed, as well as brandy, wine and miscellaneous goods procured at the Cape and some cows and mares Hogan sent to his Cornwallis farm. Governor Hunter reported "there are a few (cattle) rather weakly, but in general they are in as good health as any I have seen landed (at Port Jackson) after a voyage of such extent and will be a vast acquisition to the Colony." Hogan was paid £37 a head for the cattle, but future business for him and others in cattle exports ended in 1800 when New South Wales decided to increase its stock
by breeding and even sought an export market.
Hogan later received a lengthy account of the difficulties that John Macarthur, his agent at Port Jackson (right), had experienced in obtaining satisfaction from Mark Flood, the man Hogan had left in charge of his Cornwallis Place in 1796; principally involving Flood's refusal to accept instructions from Macarthur or to pay him moneys earned from growing wheat and raising livestock.
Flood was a troublemaker, repeatedly in
court over threatened or actual assaults and non-payment of debts, but part of the recurring difficulty was Hogan's poorly framed powers of attorney and instructions to Flood, Macarthur and others. At one point, Macarthur sought to have Flood dismissed as manager of the farm, but the Civil Court of Indicature denied the request, stating it could not "consider (Macarthur) or any other person or persons as agents to Captain Hogan, no paper having been produced to this Court which they think of sufficient weight to induce them to set aside the agreement entered into between Captain Hogan and Mark Flood." After reporting that Flood had assaulted a servant of Charles Munn, captain of the Marquis Cornwallis, and threatened to murder him, Macarthur in exasperation told Hogan, "I declare to God I believe the fellow is mad."
The Marquis Cornwallis left Port Jackson on December 3rd. Contrary to Hogan's expectation when he was fighting with the Transport Board and East India Company a year earlier over how to package the ship's voyage, he did not sell his favorite ship in Bengal as he planned.
conditions in the prison hold.
Hogan must have known that Ann Ryan was pregnant
because she would have already been in her seventh month when she arrived at the Colony. Whether he knew of the birth of Mary before he left Sydney cannot be known, but it is equally difficult to conclude that he was both unaware of his parenthood and totally uncaring. Perhaps, after all, he did seriously consider returning later to address the issue of his illegitimate child, but as events were to turn out he would never return to New South Wales; although the Marquis Cornwallis (under captain Charles Munn) made another voyage there in 1799.
THE MOVE TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE
After more than two eventful years away, Michael Hogan returned to England July 24th 1797. War with Revolutionary France had begun in 1792, and he now saw an opportunity to move to the strategic Cape of Good Hope – which in 1795 had been captured from the Dutch by British forces - as a base for both lucrative privateering expeditions against ships of the French and their allies, and for access to the profitable slave trade.
Hogan, his wife Frances, five-year old son William and two-year old daughter Fanny arrived at Cape Colony on February 4th, 1798, and the family remained there for six years. He became one of the leading merchants at the Colony and acquired a fortune, despite the vagaries of international politics. He established a business office at No. 29 Heerengracht, and also bought three other pieces of property for his warehouse and possibly homes for his employees.

Instead, the Marquis Cornwallis continued to trade between India and England.
Hogan used other ships to trade with New South Wales where he thought, based on his experience there, a good market would develop. Beginning a practice of naming ships he had purchased after his children, he shipped Cape wine and brandy to Port Jackson on the Young William (named after his son) in October 1799. He well knew the high demand for spirits in New South Wales, and he may have been particularly persuaded by the report he had received from Macarthur of the high prices obtained for wine and brandy imported the previous year at Port Jackson on the convict ship Barwell. These were only a few of the vessels on which he shipped goods to New South Wales. In February 1799 Captain Phillip Gidley King made an 11 day stopover in Capetown whilst on his way from England to Sydney to take over the duties of Governor of NSW from Governor Hunter. King’s wife, Anna, wrote they “went on shore and spent all our time at Mr. Hogan’s, who had been expecting us for upwards of a year and a half” and that “a large party dined at his house that day”. Apparently their disagreements on Norfolk Island had been forgotten.
There would be many other normal business activities for Hogan, most stemming from the Colony's dearth of foodstuffs, timber and ship supplies and the need for sea transportation to import these supplies and to ferry troops and military supplies. One early example was a government-approved procurement of a cargo of tickwood (teakwood) from Pegu in what is now Myanmar (Burma), as well as two tons of beeswax and bags of rice from India.
HOGAN’S HEROES - PRIVATEERING VENTURES
As England was at that time at war with revolutionary France, Hogan decided to venture into the privateering business. A privateer was a civilian ship-owner authorized by a government “letter of marque”; a license authorizing him to arm his vessel to attack and capture enemy vessels during wartime and bring them before an admiralty court for “condemnation” - a legal process to enable him to claim ownership of a vessel taken as a prize, so that it and its cargo could then be legally sold for profit. One of Hogan’s early ventures was to export candles and tallow purchased from the sale of aSpanishprizeLaUnion toNewSouthWalesinMay1798.
Cruising for prizes with a “letter of marque” was considered an honorable calling, combining patriotism and profit to attack foreign vessels during wartime. It was a way for the Royal Navy to quickly mobilize smaller armed ships and crews without the vessels having to be commissioned into regular service as warships.
Privateering was a dangerous trade, and although seamen were a rough lot, signing on to a privateering vessel meant that they would have to engage in close combat in a small, lightly armed ship, with death an ever-present prospect and with no guarantee of ever receiving prize money. Candidates were likely to be those to whom violence was a way of life, which is probably why Hogan told his captains to consider Sydney Cove as a safe port to take their prize ships and to seek crews from among
the local ex-convicts.
Hogan initially operated the 56 ton brig Harbinger with 6 cannons, (similar to illustration right) which he bought for £700. On 22nd Aug 1800 she arrived in Table Bay from the coast of Brazil where she had taken
two French ships, and she sailed again on the 7th November 1800 from Table Bay, under Captain John Black, bound for Port Jackson. Harbinger was only the second vessel to sail through Bass Strait, reaching the Australian coast near Cape Otway on 1st January 1801, veering sharply south-west to the north-western tip of Governor King's Island (now King Island), which Black named after the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King. Harbinger then sailed easterly towards Wilsons Promontory. Proceeding around the tip of the promontory, Black discovered the Hogan Group of islands, which he named after the ship's owner. Governor King later purchased the Harbinger in May of that year and renamed her Norfolk. The ship was later visiting Tahiti when a hurricane struck
on 25th March 1802; Captain William House ran the Norfolk aground and the crew escaped to safety. The hull was salvaged but as it was being towed to another island it sank.
Hogan later fitted out another small 131 ton privateer named the Harriet (after one of his three daughters). Commanded by Captain White, she captured a large Danish East-Indiaman called the Holgar Danske, which was worth £100,000. A contemporary newspaper subsequently carried an article about the Harriet and an advertisement for the sale at Michael Hogan's warehouses of a couple of the prize ships that she had taken. Hogan also owned, or shared in the ownership of, several other small armed vessels; for example the Chance (178 tons, 16 guns), which cruised off the coast of Peru where she found opportunities for gain. On Thursday 19th August 1801 she captured the new 600 ton Spanish ship Amiable Maria, 14 guns, with a cargo of grain, wine and baled goods, and sent her to the Cape as a prize. On 24th September, although outgunned, the Chance also captured a 22 gun Spanish warship Limeno under captain Don Felippe Martines, which had been sent to intercept her.
Privateering became a very profitable venture for Hogan, as would his other, rather more doubtful enterprise, the slave trade.
MICHAEL HOGAN AND THE SLAVE TRADE
The custom of slavery had existed for centuries, and in some European countries the practice was now being perceived as barbaric, but in January 1800, when Hogan raised the proposal to import a total of 600 slaves from Mozambique for 200 Spanish dollars each with the new British governor, Sir George Yonge, the practice was still legal, if distasteful.
Yonge granted permission for the slave imports on February 8th, justifying it by claiming that, although he was "not inclined to encourage too much the increase of slaves in the Colony, (he was) perfectly aware of the necessity...for an additional number of labouring men and, though I would wish to see them all free men, yet, as I perceive, slaves in general meet with good usage and regulations will soon be made to regulate more favourably their treatment" He also approved the Spanish dollar transaction involved, but noted: "No goods whatever will be allowed to depart in the vessel, except a small quantity of Cape wine which I would be glad to find its way to the countries that are in amity with us."
When Hogan received the governor's approval, the Joaquin was at anchor in Table Bay with a cargo of 400 slaves from Mozambique allegedly bound to Brazil but, according to Hogan, they could now be sold at the Cape with this permission. These were the first of about 2,000 slaves he would import for sale over the next few years. Hogan also owned slaves himself; an 1800 tax census shows that he had thirty-one servants and/or slaves, but he seems to have treated them well. In 1807, after increasing pressure, the British government would pass an Act of Parliament abolishing the slave trade throughout the British Empire, although slavery itself would persist in the British colonies until its final abolition in 1838.
Three children were born to Michael and Frances Hogan in Cape Town: Harriet on April 10, 1799, John in November 1800 and Sophia on March 9, 1802. John died in infancy. When their eldest son William was ten, he was sent back to London to attend school, and would later rejoin the family in America.
On 25th March 1802 the Treaty of Amiens was signed by Joseph Bonaparte and Marquis Cornwallis (Hogan’s patron), temporarily ending hostilities between the French Republic and Great Britain. As part of the negotiations, Britain was to return the captured Cape Colony to the Dutch, who raised their flag there again on February 21st 1803 and immediately began to impose onerous taxes and restrictions on the British residents. Hogan had been anticipating this, and was already selling his properties and many business interests, including timber and sugar, to amass funds to take to the US. His plan was delayed when Francis suffered a life- threatening miscarriage the same February. Eventually, as Hogan’s son William later wrote: “On March 8th 1804, my father with my mother, three sisters and a retinue of nine servants bade farewell to the Cape of Good Hope .... on board the American ship Silenius” and two more ships which Hogan had chartered “with cargoes of Java coffee and spices and all the moveable and readily convertible

property he had in six years gathered at the Cape, falling little short of half a million of dollars, exclusive of real estate there and in New South Wales”. By this time war with France had resumed and, ironically, Cape Town would soon become permanently British after the defeat of the Dutch at the Battle of Blaauwberg in 1806.
NEW YORK - THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE
Hogan arrived at New York on the. 4th May 1804, in a great fanfare of self-publicity calculated to impress local society and businessmen, introducing his Indian born wife Frances as a “dark Indian princess with a dowry of two million US dollars”.
In his 1847 book “The Old Merchants of New York City”, author Walter Barrett recalled: “Now look back forty-eight years ago to 1805, and there was but one Hogan in New York. His name was Michael Hogan, and he had only landed in the city a few months, but what attention he received from all the leading men of that day! He was such a man as did not arrive in the then small city of New York every day. Michael Hogan brought with him in solid gold sovereigns four hundred thousand pounds, equal to two million dollars, and he had a wonderful history. What would I not give if I could write it all out!
“He arrived here in 1804, with his dark Indian princess wife. Michael Hogan was born at Stone Hall, in the County of Clare, Ireland, September 26, 1766, so he was thirty-eight years old when he landed in New York, with his dark-skinned lady and his fabulous amount of gold. But what scenes he had been through in these eventful thirty-eight years! He had been a sailor; he had commanded ships bound to ports in every quarter of the world, in Asia, Africa, America, and Europe; he had been to North as well as South America; and he had voyaged to the West as well as to the East Indies; he had made successful voyages to the almost then unknown land of Australia. In the East Indies he had married a lady of great wealth. This was the story that was talked about when Captain Michael Hogan came here." This legend became accepted as fact in America, and is still quoted in publications to this day.
However, it would seem that the fortune he possessed was nowhere near what he claimed; his son’s figures seem far more realistic – and it would more likely have come from profits in the Indian and Pacific trade and the sale of any prize shipping and cargo rather than, as the Americans came to think, his marriage to his supposed ‘well-born Indian Princess” from Bombay. Most likely he created her supposed “dowry” as a way of protecting his fortune from any bankruptcy actions in his proposed business speculations.
Hogan bought a vast estate comprising 100 acres of New York City land in the present day Harlem district (left), running north from 107th Street to 131st Street, and west from Broadway to the Hudson River, - the value of which today would be incalculable! The later tomb of US post-Civil War President Ulysses S. Grant now stands in Riverside Park, on a portion of the old property.
The southern part of Hogan’s estate he
called Monte Alto, and his home (right), in the northern portion, Claremont; the latter name being probably intended to commemorate his native county - Clare - in Ireland. However, in typical self-
aggrandising manner, Hogan claimed that he had “named Claremont for the Roehampton castle in Surrey of his long-time friend William, Duke of Clarence, the future "Sailor King, William IV of England, with whom he had served as a midshipman in the Royal Navy” An impressive claim but, like the rest, highly unlikely.
The house was decked out royally with imported furniture and the largest plate-glass mirrors yet seen in the city and, according to the New York Post reminiscing about Claremont 100 years later, “as a summer residence, it was the scene of some of the most brilliant social festivities in the city”. Michael Hogan and his “Indian Princess” had obviously taken New York society by storm.
Hogan opened a dry goods store, at 225 Broadway, later the site of Astor House, which he had for two years. He then went to 52 Greenwich Street. Later, he had a counting house at 82 Washington Street, and went into shipping, ship-owning and general commission business. He imported goods from the West Indies, as well as Spanish and other brandies. He also investigated the selling of imported slaves into the southern American states.
With England now at war with France again, in 1805 Hogan sold the Marquis Cornwallis for £68,630 to the Royal Navy, which swiftly armed her with 54 guns as HMS Cornwallis, a fourth
rate ship of the line. She served off Bombay and in the blockade of Isle de France (now Mauritius) and in the Far East, sailing to Australia and the Pacific, and was later renamed HMS Akbar. She participated in the final invasion of Isle de France, and served
in the West Indies before being laid up at Portsmouth in 1816, until the Admiralty sold her in the 1860s. In 1994 she was commemorated by a stamp issued by the Marshall Islands (above).
By 1806, The US government was deeply in debt after buying the vast area of Central America from Napoleonic France for $15 million dollars - the famous “Louisiana Purchase”. To recoup the investment, Congress offered great parcels of land at very cheap prices for rapid sale, and wealthy investors formed syndicates to buy as much as possible. This started a boom and bust real estate bubble, with many bankruptcies. In 1807 Hogan began to speculate heavily in land by the Canadian border, in Central and Northern New York State. He purchased 10,168 acres of Franklin County, and 20,000 acres just north of what became the Adirondack Park. He founded the town of Bombay, which he named in honour of his wife's birthplace, and also named Hogansburg after himself; today it is a hamlet of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, Franklin Country, in the town of Bombay in the state of New York.
Due to various unfortunate dealings and investments in the uncertain aftermath of America’s War of 1812 with England, Hogan found himself facing financial ruin, so, to make ends meet, he sought a Government position. In 1819 he was made the Agent for United States Commerce in Havana, Cuba and, in 1820, he was moved to Valparaiso in Chile as Agent and later US Consul, but illness forced his retirement in 1831. His Claremont estate had been sold to Jacob Post in 1821, and part of the estate was ceded to the city in 1872 for the formation of Riverside Park; gradually the rest was sold, the last lot in 1900. The old house itself was moved and converted into an inn, finally being demolished in 1951.
Michael Hogan died in Hogansburg on 26th March 1833, and his wife, Frances - his beloved “Indian Princess” - looked after his dwindling estate until she died in 1859. Both are interred in New York’s Trinity Church Cemetery. Their son, William Hogan, meanwhile, had been elected to the New York State Assembly in 1822 and in 1830 was elected to the US Congress.
Hogan had never returned to his 400 acre farm in New South Wales. After 1801 it was leased by his agents, but after his resident servants died, a local man, John Hand, took over the whole estate in 1847 and would not pay rent or accept the Hogan’s claim to the land. In 1856 William Hogan’s son came to Australia and brought an action of eviction against Hand, which the Privy Council in London eventually supported in 1861. The estate was then sold, providing the Hogan family with a small but welcome inheritance.
CONTACT DETAILS
General enquiries: Dawn Moss - 9953 3040
WebSite: Email: Bookings:
www.ffghs.org.au info@ffghs.org.au bookings@ffghs.org.au


This document covers research up to 2109 into the whereabouts of William Richardson's mansion in Gainford, County Durham.

Foreward

In the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Gainford, County Durham, overlooking the River Tees, is an unassuming gravestone with the epitaph:

Sacred to the Memory
of Captain WILLIAM RICHARDSON
many years Commander of a Ship in the East Indies
who died the 21st day of August 1799

Now Gainford is far from the sea and far from any port, however the last few years of research have begun to reveal the eventful life of William Richardson, and one of these events was that at the age of 26 he captained the Solebay and its crew of 80, as well as 31 HEIC (Honorable East India Company) soldiers, from London to Java and thence to Calcutta where he remained for most of his life until he retired to Gainford around 1796.

Not many log-books of the period survive, and this one appears to have languished in obscurity for the last 250 years until this transcription has brought it to light.

Transcribing this 160-page log book has taken about as long as the 14-month voyage of The Solebay from Limehouse Hole in London to Fort Marlborough in Java, and both Richardsons were relieved to have finally reached their destination. It is no easy task transcribing faded handwritten text on weather-stained paper (such as the page above) and to come to grips with the idiosyncrasies of the period - a disdain for the full stop (Wills and Indentures of the period are as bad), peppering the text with apostrophes (penn’d instead of penned) and quaint spellings such as extreams and logg.

It is recommended reading for insomniacs, William Welch the first mate, who penn’d the log, achieved some 300 permutations for describing the day’s weather in three parts - the first, the middle and the latter.

The Solebay started out as a ship of the Royal Navy, the third vessel named after the battle of Solebay on 7 June 1672, the first battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. It was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1742. She was captured by the French in 1744, recaptured by the British in 1746 and then sold into mercantile service in 1763. It was bought by Charles Dingley.

William’s younger brother Christopher Richardson was Charles Dingley’s manager at the Limehouse sawmill, so this might explain why William became Captain despite Captain Gardener being nominated by the HEIC only a month before.

The Solebay was one of four vessels departing Portsmouth for Java in May 1764 in the service of the HEIC. The Lord Anson and the Prince of Wales were to be stationed at Bencoolen, the port of the HEIC’s Fort Marlborough, and the Solebay and the Beckenham were to continue to Bengal.

Captain William Richardson seems to have had his fair share of problems during the voyage, as crew were pressed into service they fled the ship wherever they could, except Madagascar where it was probably safer to stay aboard the fever-ridden ship. Confining crew to irons and giving a dozen lashes were all part of the day job, The ship itself, now 25 years old, was showing signs of age and the activities of Mr Ingram Smith, the sailmaker and Mr William White, the carpenter are noted almost daily.

The Solebay’s three-month stopover in Madagascar is of interest as it gives an indication of how trade operated in these early days. During this period the Solebay took on board 42 slaves, bartered by the local kings in exchange for iron pots and alcohol, and taken to Bencoolen to work for the HEIC in Java.

The log book finishes abruptly in Bencoolen, so we have no knowledge of the onward journey to Calcutta. As other documents in the Richardson Collection attest, William Richardson went on to have a successful, and hugely profitable, career in Calcutta as a Country Trader (a privateer in the pay of the HEIC) including potentially being the first to smuggle a shipment of HEIC opium into China.

His investments were not restricted to India, he also purchased properties in England and his children were sought for marriage by members of the merchant class. He bought up several properties in Gainford and built his own mansion overlooking the Tees, recently rediscovered. Sadly he died before it was fully completed and his daughter Charlotte inherited it.

It is hoped that more information will come to light on the life of William Richardson (his son-in-law Michael Hogan’s papers in the Mitchell Library in Sydney might one day be transcribed) and if anything is found, it will be added to the Richardson Collection.

Tim Richardson
London
July 2020

HEIC SHIP SOLEBAY FROM LONDON TO BENCOOLEN 1964-1765


IMPREST BOOK































2nd May 1764, the Solebay was at Gravesend, the day before 31 soldiers of HEIC had boarded.
1: Thomas Humphreys
2: John Nelson
3: James Tripe
4: Emanuel Mandes
5: William Smith













6: Mark da Costa
7: James Robinson - 2nd Master
8: Henry Salm
9: Christian Bremer
10: Rich. Stratton  [ Mion & Cox ]











11: James Marsh
12: William Dibney Ship’s Steward
13: Joseph Thomas
14: William Lee
15: John Clark













































21: Thomas Roberts
22: James Ney
23: Christopher McDonald
24: George Sculthorp [landsman]
25: John Yeal




26: John Anderson
27: Robert Blackaller [2nd Master]
28: Robert Burt [2nd Master]
29: Thomas Ren
30: John Bluitt














31: Henry Staplefield
32: Peter Downes
33: Christian Staplefield
34: William Gill
35: Charles Whittingham










36: John McLaughlin
37: Reynold Thomas, Purser
38: Alexander Moore
39: John Kalf
40: Joseph Garland Bradford














41: John Clarke
42: John Davenport, Second Mate’s servant
43: William Welch Second Mate
44: James Rees 3d Mate
45: Joseph [H]eady













































46: Thomas Meredith - Armourer
47: Antonio John Perera
48: John Barrett
49: John Ramsey
50: George Miller










51: William Patterson, Boatswain’s mate
52: William Wood, Butcher
53: James Hambleton
54: John Bloodsworth, Butcher (crossed out, not paid)
55: Thomas Hiscock, Surgeon







56: Robert Hull, Surgeon’s mate
57: William Snowdon, Midshipman
58: Mark Gorman, Cooper
59: James Gutteridge, Ship’s cook
60: John Bloodsworth, Butcher (crossed out again, not paid)














































61: John Sadler, Gunner’s Mate
62: William White, Carpenter
63: John [J]ans, Carpenter’s servant
64: Ingram Smith, Sailmaker
65: John Bloodworth, Butcher














































66: Alexander Young, Gunn[er]
67: Francis Dale, Gunner’s servant
68: Alex Wiley, Carpenter’s mate
69: William Harvey, Caulker
70: Ralph Lomack, Boatswain























































71: William Winter, Boatswain’s servant
72: Edward Cobb
73: Benjamin Hughes
74: Robert Hewitt, Midshipman
75: William Bennet










































76: Edmund Gale, Chief Mate
77: John Broughton, servant of Chief Mate
78: John Whitmarsh, servant of Surgeon Thomas Hiscock
79: William Richardson, Commander
80: John Buck, Commander’s servant

















































81: George Welbourne, Captain’s servant

0

THE DURHAM PAPERS

Download the PDF file to read the complete paper (36 pages)

These papers all relate to the purchase and inheritance of properties purchased by William Richardson of Gainford between 1797 and his decease in 1799.

Summary
The correspondence indicates that by 1797 William Richardson had already purchased tenements from John Kipling for his main house and was purchasing two cottages (known as Germany) on the east flank which later became his servants’ quarters. There are two phases, in 1797 transactions to ​build one house on the site where formally stood five smaller messuages​, and in 1798 another transaction to purhase property owned by William Bell and Jane Sewell. a ​messuage tenant or dwellinghouse with the garth garden orchard or yard behind the same and there to belonging situate and being in Gainford aforesaid late in the occupation of John Miller and now of William Gibson.
In 1799 William Richardson was in his last year and his daughter Charlotte, then aged 19, became betrothed to Lowis Walton, the son of Gainford gentry. William wrote a Codicil to his Will bequeathing the property to Charlotte. The date of their marriage is not recorded but was before the Indenture of March 1800.
William’s unexpected death left several legal arrangements related to the property purchases unfinished, so Christopher Richardson, William’s younger brother, appears to have taken up temporary residence in Gainford in 1800 while sorting out the paperwork. A further set of documents of 1804 relate to the Codicil.
The last set of documents relates to the legal transfer of the property from Charlotte to her husband Lowis upon her death in 1840, by which time both the appointed executors has died and new executors from the London Richardsons were appointed.

The first brick

Just as unlikely as the second brick, with perhaps finer results.


The second brick
On my 61st birthday I was living in Bath and came up to London for a couple of days as our flat was untenanted. QR Languages was trying to take off and I decided to visit a few museums around Lambeth to see if I could drum up some business.
I ended up in the Garden Museum next to Lambeth Palace. It turned out to be a converted church, St Mary's Lambeth, I thought it rang a bell (nice one - Ed) and looked up on the Ada Family website, sure enough my great great great grandfather Charles Richardson married here one month short of two hundred years ago.
This coincidence caused me to switch into family tree mode for the first time in months, I remembered that my great great grandfather (William's son) had run the Brunswick Wharf part of the business and had delivered bricks for the foundation of the Oval Cricket ground, a few minutes walk from the church.
I walked there through a very run-down part of London and arrived at the Oval, got to the right gate and was told by Security that the museum was closed.
At the back of the room another Security guard started a conversation, then made a phone call, and said that the museum was open. Through that door, up the stairs, through the Long Room and you get to the museum.
So off I went, worth it just to go through the Long Room with its perfect view of the pitch. On the other side was the Library, very hot and stuffy and small, I started to look around.
There was a Librarian at his desk by the window. I was probably his first visitor in ages if Security was telling everyone to go away. I had a look round and then got into conversation with the librarian who was probably pleased for the company.
I told him about Richardson bricks making the foundations of the Oval pitch, he said that could not be as the base of the Oval cricket ground is gravel dug out of the river Effra which passed by one side of the grounds. We worked out from the dates that they must have been providing the foundations for the pavilion in which we were standing. The librarian said that it was possible to see the foundations as the undercroft had been exposed a few years ago underneath the stand. Having spent a fair amount of time in the library not finding any evidence of Richardson involvement, the librarian suggested a trip to the undercroft and cleared this with Security. Off we went, with a guided tour of the cricket greats in the Long Room and the new collection of blazers, down into the undercroft.
So there we were in the dusty basement full if discarded carpet and water bottles, the librarian showed me the foundations, I took some photographs, it had been worth the journey.


Then the unexpected, he asked me if I wanted to take a brick. he started looking around and saw there was a crack at the base of one of the columns, gave me a metal bar he had found. I tried to work loose a half brick and it came out together with a full brick,  covered in mortar so we could not identify it.


A couple of ladies suddenly appeared in the undercroft looking at the stores. He suggested that I find a bag or something, and looking around I found a bag full of rubbish and emptied it out. It was just big enough to hold a brick, on the outside it said OUT OF THE ASHES TOGETHER WE WILL SUCCEED so even the bag was special. I thanked the librarian effusively, smuggled my brick past security and took a celebratory photo outside.

Conyer Cement Works



Don Sattin (2004) relates the story of the cement works in Conyer village on the creek of the same name leading off the Swale at Teynham. From the 1850s the Richardson family had business interests in Conyer and in the 1860s Charles Richardson built a cement works at Conyer Quay and opened the Teynham Field brickworks near the railway. [1][1]



In November 1840 Charles Richardson, a builder, married Selina Ellis, a shopkeeper’s daughter, at St Mary’s Parish Church, Lambeth. [2][2] He was recorded as a brick merchant living at South Wharf, Paddington in 1851. He was aged 33 years, a family man, with two daughters and three sons: William, Alexander and Walter. [3][3] Ten years later they were living in Hammersmith and there were two more sons: Frederick and George. [4][4] A directory dated 1867 gives addresses for the London end of the enterprise as a depot at Number 6 South Wharf, on the Paddington Basin and another at Brunswick Wharf, Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall. [5][5] The family was still living in Hammersmith in 1871. Charles was now described as a brick manufacturer, as were all three elder sons. [6][6]



In 1950, a brief history was written by the company to celebrate its 100th anniversary:

“The year 1950 marks the Centenary of our business founded by the late Charles Richardson in 1850 with wharves and offices at Vauxhall and Paddington, these premises being the London points of distribution for his stock bricks and red facing bricks manufactured at Teynham in Kent and Wood Lane, Shepherd's Bush. Portland cement and Roman cement manufactured at Conyers Quay near Sittingbourne were also handled here.
On his death the founder of the Company was succeeded by his two sons, Mr Alec and Mr Walter T Richardson and a partnership formed, to be known by the title of A & WT Richardson until, following the decease of Mr Alec Richardson, the firm was formed into a private limited company in 1923...
...It is interesting to note that Mr Charles Richardson commenced business immediately after the repeal of the tax on bricks which lasted from 1784-1850 and following the demand created for the then "new" Portland Cement first discovered in 1824 by William Aspdin a bricklayer of Leeds.
The White City at Shepherds Bush now occupies the old site of the Wood Lane Brickworks, from which more than a million stock bricks were supplied for the foundations of the Albert Memorial. In more recent years the Company also supplied the bricks used in the foundation of Eros, when that graceful statue by Gilbert was finally replaced in Piccadilly Circus.
Early in the present century bricks and Portland cement were also supplied for Surrey's famous home of cricket, the Oval at Kennington, whilst much of the early production of cement from the Conyer Works was exported to New Zealand, where the high quality of the product won for us the Silver Medal at New Zealand International Exhibition in 1882.
The Company ceased production of cement at Conyer in 1906 and of bricks at Teynham in 1919, but in 1945 with the acquisition of the Auclaye Brickfields Limited, are again producing multi coloured stock bricks, the bulk of which have been supplied to help meet the needs of London's post war housing problems, many millions being used by the London County Council and the Ministry of Works.
Times have changed, demands have changed, and methods of transport have changed since 1850, but the good name of the Company gained by its service to the building trade has remained unchanged throughout the last 100 years...” [7][7]



Charles Richardson owned several sailing barges, which carried his bricks and cement from Conyer Quay to the depots in London and often into the Regent’s Canal, “squeezing into the locks and ‘legging’ their way through the long tunnels such as Maida Vale.” (Don Sattin.) [8][8]



William Richardson, of the family’s Wood Lane Brickworks, Shepherds Bush purchased the 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. [9][9] The sum was advanced to him by an Edward Pinnock of Stuttgart, Germany. In January 1881 William sold the barge to 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. [10][10] 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.[11][11]



In the census of 1881 Charles Richardson, at the age of 62, was recorded living at Cary Castle, [12][12] St Marychurch, Torquay, Devon with a live-in staff of four to look after him, [13][13] while his wife and son Walter continued to live at the house in Hammersmith. [14][14] Charles died on 30th January 1890 [15][15] four years after his wife. [16][16]



Sattin (2004) tells how three members of the Richardson family: Charles, Rowley and Walter Richardson combined their interests with another merchant and manufacturer in the brick trade, Eastwood & Co., and several other manufacturers of bricks and cement to form an association. Charles relinquished any active involvement in the firm and his barges were passed on; some, in the 1880s, went to Eastwoods [17][17] and others belonged to his sons Alexander and Walter.



Rowley William Crabb Richardson [18][18] was descended from another branch of the family. He was born in 1822, twinned with his sister Elizabeth, at Gosport near Portsmouth . [19][19] His father was a Royal Naval Officer, William Richardson (1785-1864), [20][20] [21][21] who rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral. [22][22] Rowley made a career in the civil service becoming Superintendent of the India Branch at the Admiralty. [23][23] He married Sarah Emma Radcliffe in Kingston, Surrey in 1855 [24][24] and they lived at Berrylands Road and then The Avenue, Berrylands, Kingston with their family of five daughters and four sons. [25][25] After leaving the service he was appointed Secretary of a public company. [26][26] He died, aged 67, on 5th September 1889 at his home, leaving an estate of £6597. [27][27] He owned a number of sailing barges jointly with Edward Frederick Quilter, described as a gentleman, of Saville Row, London. Neither was involved with the running of the barges, devolving the management of the vessels to Eastwood’s manager, Arthur Byrne. On Rowley Richardson’s death Quilter acquired his share of the barges and a few years later they passed to Eastwood & Co. [28][28]



Following the retirement (and subsequent death) of Charles, Walter T. Richardson became responsible for the family’s interests at the London depots of South Wharf and Vauxhall and in the manufacture of bricks and cement at Conyer. [29][29] The barges formerly owned by Charles Richardson were now jointly owned by sons Alexander and Walter, although Walter became the managing owner. [30][30] Those barges were largely kept outside the Eastwood’s consortium. [31][31] In 1891 Walter lived with his wife and daughter in Addison Road, Kensington and was described as a cement and brick maker. [32][32] Walter Thomas Richardson died at Kensington in November 1904 leaving an estate of £44,000. His brother Alexander Richardson of Langlands, Northwood was an executor of Walter’s estate [33][33] and assumed the management of the family businesses. [34][34]



New Zealander Phil Richardson, a descendant of Frederick Charles Richardson, says that following a disagreement with his father, Frederick was “told to go into the world and prove himself.” After initially working as clerk for a stockbroker, he went to New Zealand where he did well for himself as a brick manufacturer and merchant. He probably imported bricks from the family brickworks at Teynham as well as making his own. He also dealt in property. In October 1878 he married Catherine Mary Guinness of the brewing family at St Cuthbert’s Church, Collingwood, Nelson, New Zealand. They had nine children between Oct 1879 and 1895 born in Christchurch and Auckland. Frederick returned to England in his 50s and lived in Upper Addison Gardens, Kensington. He died there of ‘flu [35][35] in December 1918. [36][36]



George Canning Richardson became an architect and married Emily Parker at Islington in 1879. [37][37] They moved to Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales and had three children between 1880 and 1885, all born in Llangollen. [38][38] On his death in July 1892 George and Emily had moved to Parson’s Green, Fulham. [39][39]



In 1919 Eastwoods [40][40] bought out the Richardson’s interests in Conyer and little trace of them remained in 1978 when Don Sattin first wrote “Just Off The Swale.” The cement works was derelict by then, but he described the cement mills at the head of Richardson’s Dock, which Charles Richardson had dug out of the creek, [41][41] as a single storey building across the road from the dock with “double doors opening out on to the road. The bagged cement was wheeled through these to be slid down a chute into barges... Loading must have been a filthy job; the cement was in jute sacks of two hundredweight, and after sliding down the chute and hitting the bottom there was a permanent fog of dust.” Behind the mill buildings were washbacks in parallel with the road and “at the back of the washbacks stood six kilns where the cement was fired... About halfway along Richardson’s Dock there was a wash mill which pumped the mud across the road by means of an overhead chute into the washbacks. The mud barges unloaded close to this wash mill. ” [42][42]



The mud used in the manufacture of cement came from diggings around the shoreline of Foley Island. The diggers or ‘Muddies’ hand dug it out with ‘fly tools’, the traditional narrow wooden spades. A long narrow spit of mud was cut and loaded into the barge using a “very quick wrist action” [43][43] causing the spit to fly up and over the side of the barge into the hold. It was a messy business. So much mud was taken from Foley Island over the years that it became very much smaller. [44][44] Mud was mixed with chalk dug from chalk workings in the Teynham brickfield. The chalk was loaded into side tipping trucks and was hauled down to the washbacks along a tramway laid down to the dock. [45][45] Richardsons had a steam locomotive built by Aveling in 1888, which ran on 3’ 9” gauge rails. [46][46] In the kilns the dried mixture was layered with layers of faggots and coal in the beehive kilns until it was full. “The holes in the kiln were then bricked up and the lot set fire to. After being burnt the kiln was left to cool, then the holes were unbricked and the burnt mud taken to the mill to be ground into powder.” [47][47]



The Rochester Shipping Registers record that the following barges were owned, partly or wholly, by the Richardsons: -

R.W.C. Richardson: Frank, Heron, Mabel, Osprey, Phoebe, Plover, Ruby, Swallow, Swift, William & Eleanor.

Charles Richardson: Alexander, Charles, Eliza, Jeffie, Lydia, Phoebe and William.

William Richardson: Jeffie, Lydia, Phoebe.

Alexander Richardson: Agnes, Alexander, Charles, Eliza, Glendower, Jeffie, Lydia, Nesta, Phoebe, Victory and William.

Walter T. Richardson: Agnes, Alexander, Charles, Eliza, Glendower, Jeffie, Lydia, Phoebe, Victory and William.



Frank Willmott gives, in addition, the following sailing barges as owned by Charles Richardson: Frederick & MaryAnn, Mabel and Sophia. [48][48]



Don Sattin records the following additional barges as owned by members of the Richardson family:

Charles Richardson: Frederick & Mary Ann and Sophia. [49][49]

Rowley Richardson: Active, Arthur & Eliza and George & Ellen. On Charles Richardson’s retirement Frederick & Mary Ann passed to Rowley. [50][50]



John White (2007) lists the following barges as owned by Walter Thomas Richardson in the MNL of 1899: Agnes, Alexander, Charles, Eliza, Glendower, Jeffie, Lydia, Nesta [51][51] , Phoebe, Victory and William.



Chris Kite

10-10-2011







APPENDIX: Sailing Barges.



Sources (unless stated otherwise): Frank Willmott (1977), Richard Hugh Perks (1981), Bob Childs (1993), John White (2007), Ron Green (2010).



Legend: Barge name – Official number; (r) Port of registry; (b) Builder (if known) and place built; (y) Port no. (if known) & year; (t) Registered tonnage; (o) Principal owners (not a complete list); (f) Fate or additional info. where known.



Active - 50302; (r) Rochester; (b) Sittingbourne; (y) 1864; (t) 37; (o) R.W.C. Richardson [52][52] ; Eastwood & Co.; (f) Not recorded in 1916 MNL.

Agnes - 106518; (r) Rochester; (b) Alfred Marconi White, Conyer; (y) 12 in 1896; (t) 36; (o) Walter Thomas Richardson 1896-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1914; Cremer, Goodenough & Co., Faversham 1914-1918; Smeed Dean & Co. 1918-1932; [53][53] (f) Condemned and her hull was sold off in May 1931 to J. Brown for £5. [54][54] Registry closed February 1932. [55][55]

Alexander - 58432; (r) Rochester; (b) Queenborough; (y) 20 in 1867; (t) 26; (o) Charles Richardson 1867-1890; Alexander & Walter T. Richardson (joint owners) 1890-1899; Frank Adams, Brentford 1899-1903; (f) Registry closed May 1903, the barge had been converted to a lighter. [56][56]

Arthur & Eliza - 44092; (r) Rochester; (b) Faversham; (y) 1862; (t) 38; (o) R.W. Richardson [57][57]; Eastwood & Co.; John Sparrow, Shotley; (f) Not listed in 1934 MNL.

Charles - 55175; (r) Rochester; (b) Edwin Burgess, Queenborough; (y) 58 in 1866; (t) 36; (o) Charles Richardson 1866-1890; A. & W.T. Richardson 1890-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1906; Charles Benjamin Burley 1906; Charles Burley Ltd. 1906-1913; (f) Registry closed November 1913, vessel being broken up. [58][58]

Eliza - 55166; (r) Rochester; (b) Edwin Burgess, Queensborough; (y) 46 in 1866; (t) 35; (o) Charles Richardson 1866-1890; A. & W.T. Richardson 1890-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1914; Curtis’s & Harvey 1914-1919; George Austen & Arthur Warr King, Gravesend 1919-1920; Thomas E. Ward, Gravesend & Albert Ernest Schooley, London 1920- . (f) Registry closed December 1940, vessel said to have been broken up and no trace of owner for many years. [59][59]

Frank - 58510; (b) Rochester; (b) Murston; (y) 10 in 1870; (t) 36; (o) George Smeed 1870-1882; John Wood, Singlewell 1882-1886; Eastwood & Co. 1886; Edward Frederick Quilter & R.W.C. Richardson (joint owners) 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895- ; (f) Registry closed July 1925, vessel broken up. [60][60]

Frederick & Mary Ann - 26602; (r) Rochester; (b) Frindsbury; (y) 1852; (t) 36; (o) Charles Richardson; R.W.C. Richardson; [61][61] Eastwood & Co.; (f) Not listed in 1934.

George & Ellen - 23373; (r) Rochester; (b) Frindsbury; (y) 1845; (t) 39; (o) Woods; R.W.C. Richardson; [62][62] Eastwood & Co.

Glendower - 99923; (r) Rochester; (b) Daniel Wilson Langton, Teynham; (y) 4 in 1893; (t) 37; (o) A & W.T. Richardson 1893-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1915; Curtis’s & Harvey 1915-1920; George Austen & Arthur Warr King 1920-1931; T.F. Wood (Gravesend) Limited 1931- ; (f) Register closed 1933, vessel broken up. [63][63]

Heron - 90967; (r) Rochester; (b) R.M. Shrubsall, Milton; (y) 13 in 1884; (t) 40; (o) Eastwood & Co. 1884-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1920; Eastwoods Limited 1820- ; [64][64]

Jeffie - 67072; (r) Rochester; (b) John Bird, Teynham; (y) 6 in 1874; (t) 39; (o) William Richardson 1874-1881; Charles Richardson 1881-1890; A. & W.T. Richardson 1890-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1915; Sydney Burley, Borden 1915-1923; (f) Register closed Nov.1923 after letter advising vessel broken up signed by S.W. Burley. [65][65]

Lydia - 67088; (r) Rochester; (b) John Bird, Conyer; (y) 29 in 1874; (t) 40; (o) William Richardson 1874-1881; Charles Richardson 1881-1890; A. & W.T. Richardson 1890-1905; Alexander Richardson 1905-1916; John Nicholls, Faversham 1916- . [66][66]

Mabel - 67053; (r) Rochester; (b) John Bird, Teynham; (y) 11 in 1873; (t) 39; (o) Thomas Lake, Tong 1873-1876; Eastwood & Co. 1876-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W.C. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1896; Alfred Hart 1896-1899; George Turner, Rochester 1899-1919; William Germaney & A.G. Larraman 1919-1920; John Thomas Rayfield, Northfleet 1920; William Claxton Dines, Grays, Essex 1920-1925; (f) Registry closed May 1925; owner reported the barge was a total loss. [67][67]

Nesta - 109926; (r) Rochester (Missing page, some info. lost ); (b) Alfred Marconi White, Teynham completed 1898; (y) 2 in 1899; (t) 42; (o) Alexander Richardson 1905; Albert E. Wood, Milton next Sittingbourne 1905-1934+; [68][68] [69][69] (f) Not listed MNL 1938.

Osprey - 84414; (r) Rochester; (b) R.M. Shrubsall, Rainham; (y) 47 in 1881; (t) 42; (o) Eastwood & Co. 1881-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W.C. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1919; William James Smeed, Frindsbury 1919; (f) W.J. Smeed dismantled Osprey and converted her to a lighter immediately after purchasing her. Register closed September 1919. [70][70]

Phoebe - 74811; (r) Rochester; (b) Jno. Bird, Conyer; (y) 21 in 1876; (t) 56; (o) William Richardson 1876-1881; Charles Richardson 1881-1890; A. & W.T. Richardson 1890- 1905; [71][71] Alexander Richardson 1905-1910; Frederick & Harry Cremer, Faversham 1910-1913; Walter George Penfold, East Greenwich 1913-1930; William Howlett, Gravesend 1930-1939; (f) Vessel “being broken up” December 1939 and Registry closed 1940. [72][72]

Plover - 87227; (r) Rochester; (b) George H. Curel, Frindsbury; (y) 8 in 1884; (t) 43; (o) Eastwood & Co. 1884-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W.C. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1920; Eastwoods Limited 1920-1935. [73][73] [74][74]

Ruby - 67047; (r) Rochester; (b) Nash & Miller, Battersea; (y) 3 in 1873; (t) 38; (o) William Hewett, Pitney 1873-1885; Eastwood & Co. 1885-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1897; William Thomas Rouse, Maidstone 1897-1898; George Thomas Marshall & James Marshall, Strood 1898-1899;(f) Sunk in the Thames, raised and sold as a wreck. Registry closed March 1899. [75][75]

Sophia - 10994; (r) Faversham; (b) Faversham; (y) 1856; (t) 36; (o) Eastwood & Co.; (f) Not listed in 1934.

Swallow - 76621; (r) Rochester; (b) George H. Curel, Frindsbury; (y) 35 in 1877; (t) 41; (o) Eastwood & Co. 1877-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1897; (f) Sunk in collision off Holehaven, October 1897. A search found no trace of the barge. [76][76]

Swift - 67071; (r) Rochester; (b) Nash & Miller, Battersea; (y) 5 in 1874; (t) 37; (o) Eastwood & Co. 1874-1886; E.F. Quilter & R.W. Richardson 1886-1893; E.F. Quilter 1893-1895; Eastwood & Co. 1895-1898; Alfred Thomas Hart, Peckham 1898-1903; A.T. Hart & John Charles Lawrence 1903-1905; John Simmonds Squire & John Calver, Millwall 1905-1906; (f) Registry closed 1906. Vessel sold to be broken up.

JOURNALS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS VOL 32
9 - 10th Februarii, 1769

Sir Charles Whitworth reported from the Committee, to whom the Petition of Charles Dingley, of London, Merchant, was referred, That the Committee had examined the Matter of the said Petition; and had directed hime to report the same, as it appeared to them, to the House; and he read the Report in his Place; and afterwards delivered it in at the Clerk’s Table; Where the same was read; and is as followeth; viz.

To prove the Allegations of the said Petition, a Member present informed your Committee, That he had known Mr. Dingley Thirty-eight Years; that he has carried on Trade with him as a Merchant; and that the said Mr Dingley has, for several years past, dealt very considerably in the Importation of Timber from different Parts of the World; And,

Mr James Stansfield, being examined, said, That he was concerned in erecting Mr. Dingley’s Swa Mill; that it is built upon the Construction of those he has seen in Holland, but it is much more useful; and that it will cut all Sorts of Timber, and for all Uses; and that it is situated upon Mr Dingley’s Estate at Limehouse, near to the river of Thames: Then,

Mr. Dingley produced to your Committee an Account of the Expence of first erecting the said Mill, amounting to the Sum of £4,454 2. 2.; and,

Mr. Christopher Richardson said, That in the Year 1765, Mr Dingley imported into England a Quantity of Timber, which amounted to £ 38,700; and that Orders pretty near to that Amount have been continued ever since: That before Mr Dingley erected the Saw Mill, Deals and Wainscot manufactured from Timber, were imported ready cut, which are now imported in Logs, and cut by the Mill; and that upon the known Usefulness of the said Mill, Mr Dingley has given Orders for large Quantities of Timber to a considerable Amount; and that great Quantities of deals have been supplied for His Majesty’s Use, manufactured by the said Mill, and greatly approved of.

Mr John Barrow said, That he knows Mr Dingley’s Saw Mill, that he has seen many of the Dutch Mills, but that this exceeds any he ever saw – That it cuts better and finer; and that it works Thirty-six Saws at one Time.

Mr Yeomans and Mr Payne confirmed the above Evidence, with respect to the Utility of the said Mill; and Mr Yeomans being asked, Whether he thought this Mill would be an Advantage? He said, All things of that Kind was for the public Good; but it does not employ so many Men.

And in order to shew the general Approbation the erecting of the said Mill had received, Mr Dingley produced to your Committee a Gold Medal, which was presented to him by the Society of Arts, as a Testimony of their Opinion of the Utility of the same; And,

Mt. Richardson, being again examined, said, That he was upon the Spot when the Mill was pulled down by the Rioters; that it could not be worked for Six Months; and that the stopping thereof was a great Detriment to Mr Dingley, and a public Loss.

Mr Joseph Osbaldeson and Mr James Stansfield, being severally examined, said, That they saw the Mill just after it was damaged, and that it was rendered entirely useless from May to Christmas last: Then,

Mr Thomas Francis, being examined, said, That Prosecutions were carried on against Two of the Persons concerned in the above Riot; that the Opinion of the Judges was, they did not come within the Meaning of any Act of Parliament, but as for a Misdemeanor: And,

Mr Stansfield informed your Committee, That he had been employed in repairing the said Mill, and that the same is now substantially rebuilt, and in actual Use; an Account of the Expence whereof being produced to your Committee by Mr. Richardson, amounts to the Sum of £1,131. 12. 4. exclusive of all other Damages and Loss of Time.

Ordered, That the said Report do lie upon the Table.

CASES IN BANKRUPTCY
Ex parte​ ANN RICHARDSON -- In the matter of CHRISTOPHER RICHARDSON
C of R Jan 14, 1839
A casual conversation is insufficient notice to prevent reputed ownership. The Court will restrain assignees from proceeding at law to invalidate transfer of shares by virtue of reputed ownership.
MR RICHARDSON, the bankrupt, was one of the original shareholders in certain mines in Germany. The produce consisted of copper, silver, lead and iron; and the property in them was transferred by deeds registered in the German courts to three English trustees, for the benefit of thirty-six shareholders.
Mr. Richardson applied to his sister, the petitioner, for a loan upon the security of these shares. She consented, and sold £2,000 three per cent. annuities, and paid the proceeds, £1,800, to her brother, on the 1st March 1937.
On the same day he delivered to his sister a packet, on which was indorsed, in his own handwriting, the following words: “Shares in the German mines, the property of Miss Richardson.”
The packet contained the original certificates of the mining shares, and also a receipt for the sum paid by him upon a call on the shares, together with a memorandum in the bankrupt’s handwriting, addressed to the petitioner, as follows:
“Limehouse, 1st March 1837.
“My dear Ann,
“The accompanying two shares in the German Mining Company (Nos 74 and 75), and for which I have this day been offered £2,100, I deposit with you as a security for the £2,000 three per cent. reduced annuities you have this day placed at my disposal; and I do hereby engage to transfer the said two shares to you, on being requested so to do.
“(Signed) CHRISTOPHER RICHARDSON.”
“To Miss Ann Richardson”
On receiving this packet she put the same, together with other documents belonging to her, into another packet, and sealed the whole up with her seal.
The petition then stated, that the petitioner then proposing a visit to the continent, and being then resident in the house of her said brother, and having no suitable place of deposit for the security of the said packet, delivered the same in its sealed state and condition, with its before-mentioned contents or enclosures, to the said Christopher Richardson, for safe custody, requesting him to take charge thereof; which he consented to do, expressing his intention to place the same for that purpose in the iron safe in his counting-house, and which he accordingly did. That the petitioner shortly afterwards visited the continent, and returned home to the said brother’s house in the second week in November 1837; shortly after which she requested him to re-deliver the said packet to her, and the said ​Christopher Richardson ​did accordingly return the said packet to the petitioner, with the seal perfect, unbroken, and in all respects in the same state and condition as when she delivered it to him as aforesaid; and the said certificates,
receipt and letter have ever since been in the possession of the petitioner. That the said German Mining Company was established for the working of mines in the kingdoms of Bavaria and Russia and the grand duchy of Nassau, and was possessed of and interested in various mines or mining properties, or interests and rights of mining, locally situate in those countries, the same being property of an immovable nature or character. That the said mines or mining property have been conveyed to the trustees for the said company, of whom ​Bernard Hebeler​, thereafter named, was one, being shareholders, their heirs and assigns for ever, in trust for themselves and the other shareholders of the said company, of whom the said bankrupt was one. That the said company was not of a trading or commercial description, but was to all intents and purposes a mining company. That the shares of the company were not goods and chattels, but represent the interest of the members in mines or mining property. That it is provided by the deed of the said company that no shares of the said company shall be transferred or assigned without the consent of a board of directors; and that on a transfer being made the original certificate or certificates of the party transferring the same shall be delivered up to the directors to be cancelled, and a new certificate or certificates shall be given to the party to whom such transfer shall be made. That due notice of the said deposit of the said shares, and of the title and interest of the petitioner of the same, was in fact given to the said company and to the board of directors before the said bankruptcy of the said Christopher Richardson. That the facts and particulars of the said deposits of the said two shares by the said Christopher Richardson, by way of security to the petitioner upon the said loan or advance by her, were afterwards, and a considerable time before the said bankruptcy, distinctly communicated and made known by the said Christopher Richardson to the said Bernard Hebeler, then and still one of the directors of and a trustee as before mentioned for the said company, who was a near connexion of the petitioner, he having married a ​near relation​ of hers; and he was and continued from that time to the time of the said bankruptcy perfectly well aware of the petitioner’s title and interest in the two mining shares under and by virtue of such deposit. That at a meeting of the board of directors of the said company, at which the said ​Bernard Hebeler ​was present, upon the name of the said Christopher Richardson, together with other shareholders, being mentioned by the secretary to the said board as not having paid the amount payable under a call upon shares then lately made, the said Bernard Hebeler then openly stated and made known to the said board, in the hearing of the directors and secretary then present, that the said Christopher Richardson had mortgaged his said shares to his sister, Miss Richardson, the petitioner; and that the amount of the said call would be paid by her; and which last-mentioned statement was made before the bankruptcy of the said Christopher Richardson. That the said assignees, in prosecution of their said claim, have lately expressed their intention and in fact intended to commence some action at law or other proceedings against the petitioner for the recovery of the said certificate of the said shares; and the petitioner was advised that the said assignees ought in the meantime to be restrained, by the order and injunction of this Court, from commencing or prosecuting any such action or other proceedings for the recovery of such certificates.
The petitioner prayed that she might be declared an equitable mortgagee, and that the assignees might be restrained from prosecuting any action for recovery of the certificates.

Mr Anderdon, for the petitioner, stated that this was a clear equitable mortgage, the consideration beyond dispute, the property of the lady in the funds having been sold out and received by the bankrupt. The affidavit of Mr. Bernard Hebeler, one of the directors, and a personal friend of the family, together with the evidence of the secretary of the company, prove the notice relative to the shares. Mr. Hebeler deposed that the bankrupt applied to him for a loan, when he advised him to part with his shares, but was told that they were already pledged to the petitioner for £2,000; that on a subsequent occasion, the day of the bankrupt’s insolvency, at a meeting of the directors, allusion having been made to arrears of calls due on Mr. Richardson’s shares, he notified the transfer to the sister, and an enquiry was made by the secretary to know who should be applied to for payment.
On a ​viva voce​ examination, Mr James, secretary to the company, stated, upon the examination of Mr Anderdon, that he well remembered the meeting of directorson the morning of 7th of December, and heard Mr Hebeler mention the mortgage and transfer of shares to Mr Richardson’s sister. One of the directors, a creditor, objected to the transfer. The meeting was over about three o’clock; and he believed the declaration of insolvency was filed the same evening.
This witness being examined by the Court stated that Mr Richardson paid the calls on the shares. Since the bankruptcy they have been paid by the assignees. Mr Richardson’s difficulties were the subject of conversation before Mr Hebeler’s mention of the deposit of the shares with Miss Richardson. His observation was incidental and casual. Had it been a formal notice of transfer he should have made a minute of it, which he had not done. It is the custom in the company to ask leave of the board for transfer of shares. When this is not done the shares are treated as in the hands of the original holders. Such applications were previous to transfer; the board knew nothing of deposits by way of mortgage.
Mr ​Bacon​, on the same side, said that this notice was sufficient, and referred to ​Smith v. Smith (a), ​ex parte Harrison​ in the matter of ​Medley​. (b) By the rules of the company, no transfer of the shares subsequent to that of the petitioner could have been made without delivery up of the certificates; and no transfer could have been made by the bankrupt without possession of the certificates, which were in the hands of the petitioner. Before the act of bankruptcy the reputed ownership of the bankrupt had ceased. All that was required in this kind of case was knowledge, and not a formal notice.
Mr Swanston and Mr Russell for the assignees:--
Sufficient has not been done to prevent the operation of the clause relating to the reputation of ownership. The certificates were not actually in the petitioner’s possession until after the bankruptcy. The alleged notice was a mere casual conversation amongst strangers, without Miss Richardson’s cognizance (a); and in the case of ​Smith v. Smith​ (b) the notice was to one of the trustees of private property; and with respect to the allegation in the petition, that this case is not within the statute, as it is in the nature of real property, the answer is obvious; this point was fully discussed, and the law settled, that in cases of this nature the property is personal. ​Ex parte Lancaster Canal Company​. ( c ) This point has lately been under the consideration of the Lord Chancellor relative to property in Scotland (d); and although judgment has not yet been pronounced, the result seems to be clear.(e) And if, as the petitioner insists, this is to be considered as real estate, the ​lex loci​ must be considered, and the German law does not
recognize equitable mortgages.
Mr Anderdon was not called on to reply.
Sir J Cross: --
Upon the integrity of this case no doubt can be entertained. The petitioner lent the money to her brother, and received what she considered undeniable security. But it is said that sufficient notice was not given. The bankrupt had no power over the shares; and could not transfer them without the certificates.(a) The petitioner had therefore entire dominion over the property; the order and disposition were in her; and the bankrupt could have acquired no property in the certificates, except by the felonious act of breaking the petitioner’s seal. This is not like case of a bond which has been assigned; for there the original creditor might receive the amount due upon it, without its production. Bankruptcy ensued on the 7th of December in the evening, when the declaration of insolvency was filed; but the directors of the Company had knowledge in the morning of that day of the extinction of the reputed ownership. The petitioner is entitled to have the property sold for her benefit, and to become a creditor in the event of a deficiency.
With respect to ​ex parte Pollard​, I still entertain the opinion I expressed when it was before this Court; but be that as it may, it very much differs from the present case.
Sir George Rose:--
I should have deeply regretted if the petitioner could, by non-compliance with any legal requisite, have been deprived of the property upon which she advanced this sum to her brother in his distresses; but there is not any foundation for the objection; the conversation with Mr. Hebeler was sufficient notice, even if it had not been mentioned before at the board. Notice, therefore, was given, and what can it signify by whom? Though a bankrupt was up to the ears in insolvency, notice at any fractional period of time before the act of bankruptcy would be sufficient to take the case out of the statute. Order and disposition is always a question of fact, and quite enough appears in this case to show it was not in the bankrupt. If this was to be taken as real property no notice was requisite, the authority having been completed by the writing on the deposit of the certificates. The German law on transfer is not in this case of any effect, this being merely a transfer of documents representing shares of interest in property, and the petitioner only seeking her portion of the profits of real estate, as in ​ex parte Pollard​. The assignees must be restrained from proceedings at law for the recovery of these shares.
The petitioner declared entitled to relief as prayed, with the costs, there having been a memorandum in writing.

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