RICHARDSON, SIR JOHN. 



RICHARDSON, SAMUEL. 



miles to Bloody Fall, from which point the river ceases to be navigable 

 upwards, owing to the large number of shoals and rapids. Leaving 

 their boats, they then travelled on foot along the banks of the river 

 and across the country till they joined Captain Franklin and his party, 

 who had returned to Fort Frauklin on Great Bear Lake. Captain 

 Franklin anil Dr. Richardson arrived in London on the 29th of Sep- 

 tember 1827. In 1828 was published a 'Narrative of the Second 

 Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1825, 1826, and 

 1827, by John Franklin, Captain R.N., F.R.S., &e., and Commander of 

 the Expedition ; including an Account of the Progress of a Detach- 

 ment to the Eastward, by John Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c., 

 Surgeon and Naturalist to the Expedition; illustrated with numerous 

 Plates and Maps,' 4to. 



In 1829 Dr. Richardson published the First Part of the 'Fauna 

 Boreali-Amtricana, or the Zoology of the Northern Parts of British 

 America, containing Descriptions of the Objects of Natural History 

 collected on the late Northern Laud Expeditions under the Command 

 of Sir John Franklin; by John Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., &c., assisted 

 by William Swainsou, Esq., F.R.S., &c., and the Rev. "William Kirby, 

 M.A., F.R.S., &c.' 4 to. Part II., ' The Birds,' by Swainson and Richard- 

 son, was published ~in 1831. Part III., 'The Fishes,' by Richardson, 

 in 1836; and Part IV., 'The Insects,' in 1837. 



Dr. Richardson's first wife died in 1831, and in 1833 he married a 

 second, who was the only daughter of John Booth, Esq., of Stickney. 

 In 1838 he was appointed Physician to the Fleet, and went to reside at 

 the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, near Gosport. In 1840 he was 

 appointed an Inspector of Hospitals. His second, wife died in 1845; 

 he was created a Knight in 1846 ; and in 1847 he married a third wife, 

 the youngest daughter of Archibald Fletcher, Esq., of Edinburgh. 



Sir John Franklin, who had left England in May 1845, with the ships 

 Erebus and Terror, on his last expedition to the Arctic Seas, not 

 having been heard of at the end of the autumn of 1847, the British 

 government resolved to send out three distinct searching expeditions 

 one to Lancaster Sound, under Sir James Clarke Ross ; another down 

 Mackenzie River, under Sir John Richardson; and a third to Behring's 

 Straits, under Captain Kellett. 



The main object of the expedition under Sir John Richardson was 

 to search the oast between the mouths of the Mackenzie River and 

 the Coppermine River, and the shores of Victoria Land and Wollaston 

 Land lying opposite to Cape Krusenstern. Dr. Richardson, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Rae, left Liverpool by steamer on the 25th of March 

 1848. On the 18th of April they were at Montreal, on which day the 

 steamers commenced running on the river St. Lawrence. They 

 embarked on the following day; and, passing across the Canadian 

 lakes in steamers, afterwards travelled with canoes along the northern 

 series of lakes and rivers to the Great Slave Lake, where boats and 

 all necessary stores having been provided, they commenced the 

 descent of the Mackenzie River on the 24th of July 1848, and reached 

 the sea on the 6th of August. Having traced and examined the 

 shores as far as Cape Krusenstern, they advanced to Cape Kendall, 

 but were prevented by the ice from reaching the mouth of the Copper- 

 mine River. They were consequently obliged to leave their boats, 

 and travel overland till they reached Fort Confidence, on Dease River, 

 where log-houses had been constructed for their UEC, and where they 

 passed the winter of 1848-49. In the summer of 1849 Mr. Rae 

 attempted to reach Wollaston Land in a boat, but the quantity of ice 

 and stormy state of the weather rendered all his efforts unavailing. 

 The party then proceeded to Great Bear Lake, and afterwards to 

 Great Slave Lake, whence they returned by their former route, and 

 arrived safely in Canada. Sir John Richardson left Montreal in 

 October, and landed at Liverpool on the 6th of November 1849. In 

 1851 he published the ' Arctic Searching Expedition : a Journal of a 

 Boat- Voyage through Rupert's Land and the Arctic Sea, in Search of 

 the Discovery-Ships under command of Sir John Franklin ; with an 

 Appendix on the Physical Geography of North America ; by Sir John 

 Richardson, C.B., F.R.S., Inspector of Naval Hospitals and Fleets,' &c., 

 2 vols. Svo. This work, besides the journal of the progress of the 

 expedition, contains a very large amount of information on the geology, 

 geography, and natural history of the northei n part of the American 

 continent, as well as concerning the various tribes of Indians and 

 Esquimaux who inhabit it. Sir John Richardson retired from service 

 as a naval medical officer in 1855. 



Sir John Richardson, as part of his official duty, had the superin- 

 tendence of the museum established at Haslar Hospital through the 

 exertions of Sir William Burnett, inspector-general. Many specimens 

 of rare fishes were deposited there, and in 1842 he published in 4to 

 the first part of ' Icones Piscium, or Plates of Rare Fishes.' The work 

 however was discontinued. 



Sir John Richardson has contributed to the natural history of the 

 following voyages : ' The Mammalia,' to ' The Zoology of Captain 

 Beechey's Voyage to the Pacific and Behriug's Straits, in H.M.S. 

 Blossom,' 4to, 1839; ' The Fishes,' to 'The Zoology of the Voyage of 

 H. M. S. Erebus and Terror, under the command of Sir James Clarke 

 Ross, during the years 1839 and 1843,' 4to, 1845; ' The Fishes,' to 

 ' The Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. H. Samarang, under the com- 

 mand of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, during the years 1843-46,' 4to, 

 1848; 'Fossil Mammals,' to 'The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. 

 Herald, under the command of Captain Henry Kellett, R.N., C.B., 



during the years 1845-51, 4to, 1852 ; ' Notes on the Natural History,' 

 to ' The Last of the Arctic Voyages, being a Narrative of the Expe- 

 dition of H. M. S. Assistance, under the command of Captain Sir 

 Edward Belcher, C.B., in Search of Sir John Franklin, during the 

 years 1852-53-54,' 2 vols. Svo, 1855. 



RICHARDSON, JONATHAN, a portrait-painter, was born about 

 1665. His father dying when he was only five years oM, his mother's 

 second husband articled him to a scrivener ; but as his master died in 

 the sixth year of his clerkship, he followed the bent of his inclination, 

 and at the age of twenty became a pupil of John Riley. After leaving 

 this instructor, with whom he studied four years, and whose niece he 

 married, Richardson commenced the practice of portrait-painting, in 

 which, even during the lives of Kneller and Dahl, he obtained great 

 employment, and upon their decease he was considered as the head of 

 his profession in P^ngland. The profits of his business enabled him to 

 retire from practice many years before his death, which happened 

 suddenly at his house in Queen-square, Westminster, on the 28th of 

 May, 1745. Hudson, the preceptor of Sir Joshua Reynolds, was his 

 pupil and son-in-law. As an artist, Richardson was one of the beet 

 painters of ahead that this country had at that time produced, but 

 there his merit ended. He had strength, roundness, aud boldness in 

 his colouring ; but his attitudes, draperies, and backgrounds are 

 insipid and unmeaning, and the disposition of his subjects shows that 

 he was wholly devoid of imagination. There are a few etchings of 

 portraits by his hand, among which are his own, prefixed to his work 

 on Criticism ; John Milton ; Alexander Pope (two plates, one of them 

 a profile) ; and Dr. Mead. 



It is however as a writer on art that the fame of Richardson must 

 depend. In 1719 he published two discourses, entitled 'An Essay on 

 the whole Art of Criticism as it relates to Painting, aud an Argument 

 in behalf of the Science of a Connoisseur,' in 1 vol. Svo. This work 

 contains the rules of painting and of pictorial criticism laid down with 

 judgment and precision, and expressed in language both forcible and 

 just. In it he shows a just appreciation of the excellences of Raffaelle, 

 and makes many admirable remarks upon the various styles of this 

 great painter his Perugino, his Florentine, and his Roman manner. 

 He also refers with pride to our national treasures at Hampton Court 

 the Cartoons of Raffuelle and pronounces as to them and 'The 

 Transfiguration ' that as they were the last, so they are the best pro- 

 ductions of his hand. The Essay and Argument with ' The Theory of 

 Painting,' by Richardson, were published together in an octavo volume 

 by his son in 1773. This latter composition also contains an able 

 criticism on the style of Raffaelle, acute observations on the Cartoons, 

 and some valuable notices of the paintings by him in the Vatican : 

 they were unquestionably the best original critical essays on painting 

 which had appeared in the English language. In 1722, in conjunction 

 with his sou, he published ' An Account of some of the Statues, Bas- 

 Reliefs, Drawings, and Pictures in Italy, &c., with Remarks by Mr. 

 Richardson, sen. and juu. ;' and in 1734 they published together 

 ' Explanatory Notes and Remarks on Milton's ' Paradise Lost,' with a 

 Life of the Author and a Discourse on the Poem.' lu 1776 the son 

 published a volume of poems by his father, but they possess very little 

 literary merit. 



RICHARDSON, SAMUEL, the inventor of the modern English 

 novel, was born in Derbyshire in 1689. His father had been a joiner 

 in London, but had retired to the country, and fixed himself at 

 Shrewsbury, after the execution of the Duke of Monmouth, with 

 whom it appears he had been in some way or other connected. It is 

 stated that both his father and mother had been born in a superior 

 station to that in which they had come to move. At one time the 

 joiner hoped to have been able to educate his son for the church; but 

 a decline in his circumstances forced him to forego this ambition, and 

 young Richardson was in his seventeenth year bound apprentice to 

 Mr. John Wilde, a printer of London, after having had merely the 

 education in reading and writing to be obtained at a common village 

 school. He has informed us however, that long before this the pecu- 

 liar talents which he afterwards displayed in his novels had begun to 

 show themselves. He was noted while at school, he relates, for his 

 flow of invention; his schoolfellows used to make him tell them 

 stories, and were always most pleased with those he made out of his 

 own head. " All my stories," he characteristically adds, " carried with 

 them, I am bold to say, a useful model." But already, as throughout 

 his life, his most delighted listeners, and the associates who best drew 

 forth his powers, were of the other sex. " As a bashful and not 

 forward boy," he says, " I was an early favourite with all the young 

 women of taste and reading in the neighbourhood. Half-a-dozen of 

 them, when met to work with their needles, used, when they got a 

 book they liked, and thought I should, to borrow me to read to them, 

 their mothers sometimes with them ; and both mothers and daughters 

 used to be pleased with the observations they put me upon making. 

 I was not more than thirteen when three of these youug women, 

 unknown to each other, having a high opinion of nay taciturnity, 

 revealed to me their love secrets, in order to induce me to give them 

 copies to write after, or correct, for answers to their lovers' letters ; 

 nor did any one ever know that I was the secretary to the others." 

 This was an employment well suited lo nourish and strengthen 

 Richardson's wonderful faculty of entering into the feelings of other 

 hearts, and giving them trxie and natural expression. 



