Life

He was born at Tulse Hill

Tulse Hill

Tulse Hill is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in South London, England. It lies to the south of Brixton, east of Brixton Hill, north of West Norwood and west of West Dulwich.-History:...

 in July 1775 and started a legal career, but left it early for scholarly and literary pursuits. He kept a school on Clapham Common

Clapham Common

Clapham Common is an 89 hectare triangular area of grassland situated in south London, England. It was historically common land for the parishes of Battersea and Clapham, but was converted to parkland under the terms of the Metropolitan Commons Act 1878.43 hectares of the common are within the...

, and among his pupils there were Charles James Mathews

Charles James Mathews

Charles James Mathews was a British actor. He was one of the few British actors to be successful in French-speaking roles in France. A son of the actor Charles Mathews, he achieved a greater reputation than his father in the same profession and also excelled at light comedy...

, who assisted Richardson as a copyist, John Mitchell Kemble

John Mitchell Kemble

John Mitchell Kemble , English scholar and historian, was the eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and Maria Theresa Kemble....

, and John Maddison Morton

John Maddison Morton

John Maddison Morton was an English playwright who specialized in one-act farces. His most famous farce was Box and Cox . He also wrote comic dramas, pantomimes and other theatrical pieces.-Biography:...

, the dramatist.

Richardson gave up his school after 1827, and then lived at Lower Tulse Hill, Norwood

West Norwood

West Norwood is a place in the London Borough of Lambeth.It is primarily a residential suburb of south London but with some light industry near Knights Hill in the south....

. Before 1859 he moved to 23 Torrington Square in London. In 1853 a pension of £75 a year was granted to him from the civil list. He died at Feltham

Feltham

Feltham is a town in the London Borough of Hounslow, west London. It is located about west south west of central London at Charing Cross and from Heathrow Airport Central...

 on Friday, 6 Oct. 1865, and was buried in his mother's grave at Clapham. A bust of Horne Tooke at University College, London, by Francis Leggatt Chantrey, was bequeathed by him.

Works

Richardson was a philologist of the school of John Horne Tooke

John Horne Tooke

John Horne Tooke was an English politician and philologist.-Early life and work:He was born in Newport Street, Long Acre, Westminster, the third son of John Horne, a poulterer in Newport Market. As a youth at Eton College, Tooke described his father to friends as a "turkey merchant"...

. In 1815 he published ‘Illustrations to English Philology,’ consisting of a critical examination of Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

's A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language

Published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language....

and a reply to Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart

Dugald Stewart was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and mathematician. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh .-Life and works:...

's criticism of Horne Tooke's Diversions of Purley. The book was reissued in 1826.

In 1818 the opening portions of an English lexicon, by Richardson, appeared in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana In 1834 he issued the prospectus of a New English Dictionary, and the work itself was published by Pickering in parts between January 1835 and the spring of 1837. The dictionary is a republication of the lexicon, with improvements and additions. Richardson's principle was to rely on etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

. He was severely criticised by Noah Webster

Noah Webster

Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...

 in his Mistakes and Corrections (1837), especially for his ignorance of oriental languages. ‘Tooke's principle,’ wrote Webster, ‘that a word has one meaning, and one only, and that from this all usages must spring, is substantially correct; but he has, in most cases, failed to find that meaning, and you [Richardson] have rarely or never advanced a step beyond him.’ In quotations from authors the dictionary was far more copious than any previous work of its class in English. Despite many technical failings the work was commended by the Quarterly Magazine and the Gentleman's Magazine. An abridged edition, without the quotations, appeared in 1839, with a new preface, but uncorrected.

He also published a book on the study of language, an explanation of Tooke's Diversions of Purley (1854). He contributed papers to the Gentleman's Magazine, and wrote essays on ‘English Grammar and English Grammarians,’ and on ‘Fancy and Imagination.’

Family

He married Elizabeth, widow of Daniel Terry

Daniel Terry

Daniel Terry was an English actor and playwright, known also as a close associate of Sir Walter Scott.-Life:He was born in Bath about 1780, and was educated at the Bath grammar school and subsequently at a private school at Wingfield , Wiltshire, under the Rev. Edward Spencer...

the actor, whose son was at his school. She died in 1863, and to her daughter Jane he bequeathed his house at Tulse Hill.