https://benbeck.co.uk/fh/collaterals/3Osiblings.html: relies on Memoirs of John Wigham Richardson 1911

1837. John Wigham Richardson was born to Edward Richardson & Jane Wigham on 7/1/1837 in Torquay, Devon

1838. Taken up to Aberdeen to see his ggrandfather, John Wigham

1841C.Edward Richardson , 35, tanner, was living Somerville Grove, St John, Newcastle upon Tyne with son, John, 4.

~1841. It was, I think, in this or the previous year that I remember playing in front of the houses in Summerhill Grove, which at that time was not a thoroughfare, when my father came on horseback to say good-bye to my mother before going out to East Law. I was then four and a half years old. I said, "Oh, papa, take me." He replied, "Why not?" and told the nurse to put me up behind me, and so we rode the twelve miles. I have no doubt that my father was tenderly solicitous, but none the less I more than once, when jolting behind him, rued my rash request and felt ready to cry.

1850-1852 at Bootham School, 20 Bootham, York

1851.taken by his father to see the Great Exhibition. Paid a visit to his grandfather in Edinburgh

1852. Spent August near Dublin

After the Irish trip some months were spent in more or less desultory study, and I having expressed some inclination for shipbuilding, an offer from Senhouse Martindale to instruct me in ship draughting at Liverpool was accepted.

1853-1856. Apprenticed to Jonathon Robson, a steam-tug builder in Gateshead

1856-1857. University College, London; studied Latin, German, English Literature, and Mathematics. Lodged at 13 Albert Street, Camden Town

1857. Lloyds' Register of British and Foreign Shipping, Liverpool

10th. month 30th. 1857.

I hereby certify that I have known John Wigham Richardson from childhood. He was an inmate at my house for some time, learning to model and draught vessels, and also to gain an insight into shipbuilding generally, and he soon became master of all he undertook in this line. I have much pleasure in recommending him as a draughtsman to any shipbuilder, believing him to be a competent, steady and obliging young man of strictly honest principles and unimpeachable character.

Senhouse Martindale,

Lloyds' Surveyor

1860 At the age of just 23, he founded the Neptune Works at Walker on Tyne, with a loan of less than £5,000 from his father. This was one of the world's first shipyards to build ships in steel, and the original steam engine on the site also provided electric lighting to the neighbourhood

1861C.Edward Richardson , 55, leather Manufacturer, employing 40 men & 10 boys, was living Ashfield Cottage Ashfield Villa 1, Elswick Lane, Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, with son, John Wigham Richardson, 24, Iron Sheet Builder employing 40 men & 10 boys

12/4/1864, he married Marian Henrietta Thöl, the daughter of a prominent Hamburg businessman, Nicolaus Johann Phillip Thöl, founder of J.P. Thöl & Co Merchants of London. at St Matthew’s pc, Brixton, Surrey, by licence; witnesses: Fr Lükas, J.P. Thöl, James P. Thöl, Theodore Waterhouse, Agnes Thöl

They had seven children, Philip William Richardson (1865–1953), Ernestine (1868–1953), Maurice Wigham (1869–1937), Cecil (1870–1885), Theodora Wigham (1871–1932), George Beigh Richardson (1872–1935), Felix Gabriel (1878–1894)

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1866. He moved from Rye Hill to Wingrove House

1871C. John W Richardson , 34. ship builder & chemical manufacturer, employing 1000 men, was living Wingrove House, Elswick. Newcastle

1876 While the shipbuilding business was expanding rapidly J.W.R. was, to use his own words, "working harder than any man has a right to work." His health, always frail, was severely taxed by overwork; moreover, he had fallen into the practice, so fatally easy to a busy man, of taking scarcely any exercise. In view of his rather reckless horsemanship and the uneven paving of some of the streets to be traversed, his friends had not been sorry, when he abandoned his custom of riding to and from the works. But the change had this disadvantage, that it encouraged the sedentary habits to which his way of life naturally inclined him. He now drove daily in a closed carriage to and from Walker, occupying himself the while with a book—for choice his beloved Ovid, and almost wholly neglected the physical exercise which became no longer compulsory.

Even his fiery energy could not indefinitely sustain him under such conditions, and in the autumn of 1876 he was laid aside with a severe attack of rheumatic fever. His sufferings were acute. For at least a fortnight, twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four were a mere blur of continuous pain. During the remaining twenty-fourth his senses were blunted by injections of morphia, and the prospect of this blessed respite supported him through the long period of consciousness. Recovery was long deferred and often interrupted.

1881C. John W Richardson , 34. ship & engine builder, employing 1200 to 1500 men, was living Wingrove House, Elswick. Newcastle

1890. True to his Quaker beliefs, John Wigham Richardson cared greatly for the workers in his company and was a founder of the Workers’ Benevolent Trust in the region, a forerunner to the trades’ union movement. In 1890 he became President of North East Coast Institution of Engineers & Shipbuilders.

1891C. Wigham Richardson was living Wingrove House, Elswick. Newcastle

1893. TREE PLANTING AT WALLSEND.

To Mr. Wigham Richardson, of the well-known firm of Messrs. Wigham Richardson and Co., shipbuilders and engineers, the Neptune Works, Newcastle, is due the honour of having introduced tree planting in the Mid-Tyne district long before that commendable form of modern ornamentation was dreamed of in connection with either the streets of Newcastle or the Town Moor. Mr. Richardson has done much in an unobtrusive way to give a stimulus to a love for the beautiful in nature and in art among the workmen of Tyneside by providing flower gardens in front of the workmen's dwellings erected by the firm of which he is the respected head [. . ., about the same amount of text in the remainder]

1901C. Wigham Richardson was living Wingrove House, Elswick. Newcastle

Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company,based in Wallsend

At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three powerful shipbuilding families: Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson.

The company was responsible for some of the greatest ships of the early 20th century, most famously RMS Mauretania which held the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of theAtlantic and RMS Carpathia which rescued survivors from RMS Titanic

In 1903, C.S. Swan & Hunter merged with Wigham Richardson (founded by John Wigham Richardson as Neptune Works in 1860), specifically to bid for the important contract to build RMS Mauretania on behalf of Cunard Their bid was successful, and the new company, Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, went on to build what was to become, in its day, the most famous oceangoing liner in the world. Mauretania was launched from Wallsend on 20 September 1906 by the Duchess of Roxburgh

The firm expanded rapidly in the early part of the twentiecompany merged with Swan Hunter's yard to become Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd, with initial share capital of £1,500,000. This Company became the most technically advanced ship building facilities anywhere and built the RMS Mauretania for Cunard which was launched in 1906 and held the Blue Riband as the fastest liner across the Atlantic for 26 years.th century, acquiring the Glasgow-based Barclay Curle in 1912.

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The shipyard . . . . . . . . Launch of the Mauritania in 1907

The Company owned three main yards:

In 1966 Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson merged with Smiths Dock Company to form Associated Shipbuilders, which later became Swan Hunter Group.

In 2006 Swan Hunter ceased vessel construction on Tyneside, but continues to provide design engineering services

1908. John Wigham Richardson,71, of Hindley Hall, Stocksfield died 15/4/1908 at 11 Nottingham Place, Mddx. He left £92000 .He died after an operation in a Home in London—Marian at Kew at the time.

To me also hast given hope to me!

.He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London

1910. His widow, Marianne Richardson, 65, dies Tynemouth Jun 1910. No probate and no Obituary

The company was likely taken over by George Beigh Richardson, but he was not living in Hindley Hall by 1911C

re Sir Philip William Richardson (1865–1953

)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Richardson

Richardson Index