Document Request: The Richardsons of Leatherhead
Document Description: John Morris researched the Leatherhead Richardsons and sent this document to Phil Richardson in 2014.
Transcription URL: https://richardson.surnametree.com/library/vdocs/D_315#315
Document Transcription: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
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