Charlotte Caroline Richardson (15 May 1796 – 29 March 1854) was a minor British poet and writer. Her life was shaped in part by the publication ''

The Ladies' Diary ''The Ladies' Diary: or, Woman's Almanack'' appeared annually in London from 1704 to 1841 after which it was succeeded by ''The Lady's and Gentleman's Diary''. It featured material relating to calendars etc. including sunrise and sunset times an ...

''.

Her parents and the magazine

Charlotte's father was Robert Richardson, a regular writer for the magazine ''

''. He admired a fellow contributor to the magazine called Elizabeth Smales, who wrote enigmas in verse. Richardson had been so intrigued by "Betty Smales" that he wrote letters of admiration, and from these and a short correspondence, they were later married. This kind of exchange seems to have been encouraged by the character of the magazine that combined poetry with mathematics against the structure of an almanac. Prizes were offered to the answers to charades, verse enigmas and mathematical puzzles. Her parents' meeting and marriage via poetry was included in a later poem, "Jonah Tink", that was published by John Atkin in 1823: :I took the book, within it gaz'd, :The more I read, the more amaz'd; :I saw the name of Betty Smales, :Prefix'd to entertaining tales, :Of Richardson, her rhyming beau...

Life

Charlotte Richardson was born in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

on 15 May 1796 to Elizabeth and Robert Richardson. She was the youngest of three daughters. Richardson was educated at the Grey Coat School in York.Charlotte Richardson
Poetry Foundation, retrieved 9 April 2015 After her father's death in 1804, her mother decided to open a boarding school in

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...

for the dual purpose of earning an income as well as ensuring her two oldest children could be educated. She decided to temporarily send her youngest, Charlotte, to live with an aunt who, for unknown reasons, failed to return her for a decade. It was neither Charlotte or her mother's idea that she should spend her childhood in

Hinderwell Hinderwell is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough (borough), Scarborough district of North Yorkshire, England which lies within the North York Moors National Park, about a mile from the coast on the A174 road between the towns of Loft ...

, Yorkshire.J. R. de J. Jackson, "Richardson, Charlotte Caroline (1796–1854)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 9 April 2015
/ref> In an attempt to reconnect with her family, Richardson wrote a poem in ''The Ladies' Diary'' in 1815, explicitly referring to her mother. Her mother replied in verse a year later, and Richardson reunited with her immediate family in London. All of Richardson's family (her mother and her two older sisters) regularly wrote contributions for the ''Ladies' Diary''. In 1841, her mother died, and five years later, Richardson and her sister Elizabeth made a memoir of her life titled ''Poems'', which was derived from her mother's contributions to ''The Ladies' Diary''. Her first publications were ''Waterloo, a Poem on the Late Victory'' and ''Isaac and Rebecca'', published in 1817. The following year Richardson published ''Harvest, a Poem, in Two Parts: with other Poetical Pieces'', which she dedicated to the editor of ''The Ladies' Diary'', the mathematician Charles Hutton. In 1823 she published a

Gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

, ''The Soldier's Child, or, Virtue Triumphant'', and ''Ludolph, or, The Light of Nature, a Poem''. In 1827 she married a

wharfinger Wharfinger (pronounced ''wor-fin-jer)'' is an archaic term for a person who is the keeper or owner of a wharf. The wharfinger takes custody of and is responsible for goods delivered to the wharf, typically has an office on the wharf or dock, and ...

, John Richardson. Charlotte Richardson died in

on 29 March 1854.

Works

;Poetry *''Waterloo, a Poem on the Late Victory'' (1817) *''Isaac and Rebecca'', 1817 *''Harvest, a Poem, in Two Parts: with other Poetical Pieces'' (1818) *''Ludolph, or, The Light of Nature, a Poem'' (1823) ;Novels *''The Soldier's Child, or, Virtue Triumphant'' (1823)

Name confusion

The Dictionary of National Biography noted in its 48th volume in 1896 that this person had frequently been confused with other women with similar names, including Mrs. Caroline Richardson (1777–1853), who was also a poet. The more modern version of this biography (''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'') and this article differ substantially from the DNB version. The ODNB notes however that confusion is still possible.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Charlotte Caroline 1796 births 1854 deaths 19th-century English women writers English women novelists English women poets People from Lambeth Writers from the London Borough of Lambeth Victorian poets Victorian women writers Writers of Gothic fiction 19th-century English novelists