User:Rich Farmbrough/DNB/C/h/Charlotte Caroline Richardson

Charlotte Caroline Richardson||| Charlotte Caroline Richardson (1775–1850?), poetess, born at York on 5 March 1775, of poor parents named Smith, received a meagre education at the Greycoat school, York, a charitable institution where the girls were chiefly trained for domestic service. In July 1790 she obtained a situation, and remained in service at various houses until 31 October 1802, when she married a shoemaker named Richardson, to whom she had long been attached. Shortly after the marriage Richardson was found to be suffering from consumption. He died in 1804, leaving his widow destitute, with a two- months-old infant, who fell ill and became blind. In these straits Charlotte opened a school, but, although it had some measure of success, she was forced to discontinue it in consequence of her own ill-health. She had a natural liking for poetry, and, despite her defective education, had for many years been in the habit of writing verse. Her poems came under the notice of Mrs. Newcome Cappe, who appealed through the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for subscriptions to defray the expenses of printing a selection from them (cf. Gentlemen's Magazine. 1805 ii. 813, 846, 1808 ii. 697). The appeal was successful. Among the subscribers were Dr. and Miss Aiken, Mrs. Barbauld, Mrs. Lenoir, Mrs. Meeke, and Messrs. Longman & Co., and six hundred more copies than the number subscribed for were sold. To the volume, which was published in 1806, Mrs. Cappe prefixed an account of the author. Mrs. Richardson's verses have little distinction, and are chiefly remarkable as the work of an uneducated woman. The poems are mainly religious or personal, such as paraphrases of passages from the New Testament or addresses to relatives and friends. Mrs. Richardson died about 1850.

Other works by Mrs. Richardson are: 1. 'Waterloo, a Poem', 1815. 2. 'Isaac and Rebecca, a Poem', 1817. 3. 'Harvest, a Poem, with other Poetical Pieces', 1818. 4. 'The Soldier's Child, or Virtue Triumphant: a Novel', 2 vols. 1821. 5. 'Ludolph, or the Light of Nature, a Poem', 1823.

A contemporary, Mrs. Caroline Richardson (1777–1853), born at Forge, Dumfriesshire, on 24 November 1777, wife of George Richardson, East India Company's servant, who died at Berhampore in 1826, published a volume of 'Poems' in 1829, which reached a third edition in the following year. She also wrote a novel, 'Adonia', and several tales and essays. She died on 9 November 1853 (Irving, Eminent Scotsmen, page 433).

DNB references
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