A COMMERCIAL DAY BOOK. 21 



with zest into the sport of that time, and was recommended 

 to his friends by his genial nature and his hospitality. He had 

 a near neighbour in his brother James, described by Hutchins 

 as of West Knighton and of the City of London, merchant, 

 who is stated to have bought the manor from the family of 

 Ward and Lisle of Moyle's Court, and to have built on it the 

 existing house. 



John Richards had two sons, John and William, the elder 

 of whom he tells us he put to School at Wimborne, in 1702. 

 This son is omitted from the genealogy of the family in 

 Hutchins ;t and Thomas, for whose existence there is no other 

 authority, is substituted. Probably Mr. Hutchins or his 

 printer converted the abbreviation " Jno." into " Tho.," 

 Thomas instead of John being the result. Anyway John 

 disappears from the story, unless he can be identified with 

 " John Richards of Tiverton," who appears in connection 

 with a simple business transaction in 1722, the year after his 

 father's death. 



Apart from Mr. Richards's account of his settled life at 

 Warmwell, we have believed with Mr. Barrett that when in 

 1687 he bought the manor of Warmwell he cast off the cares 

 of business and continued to live in Dorset until, to the regret 

 of his friends, he departed this life in 1721. But the book 

 before you shews that from Jan., 1713 and how much earlier 

 we cannot say until June, 1718, when apparently, through 

 failing health, he no longer took an active part in the business 

 of the firm, he represented the house of Richards in London, 

 trading with Spain chiefly, but also with Holland, France, 

 Italy, Russia, and the Spanish Main. It is a w r eighty volume, 

 vellum bound and in good condition after a century or more 

 of neglect. " Laus Deo " appears on the first page and 

 on the turn-over of every leaf, as in Germany up to recent 

 times were written or printed the words " Gott mit uns." 

 (Parenthetically and with an apology for the digression, I 



f Hutchina's History of Dorset, 3rd Edit. (1863), Vol. II., 

 page 499. 



