Ralph Richardson (1812–1897/1898) was a Member of the New Zealand Legislative Council. He lived in New Zealand for less than a decade, and retired to Devon in England, and later to London.

Biography

Richardson was born in

Capenhurst Capenhurst is a village and civil parish in Chester in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire England. According to the 2001 Census, Capenhurst had a population of 237, increasing to 380 at the 2 ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England in 1812. He was educated at

Chester Grammar School The King's School, Chester, is a British co-educational independent day school for children aged 4 to 18. It is one of the seven 'King's Schools' established (or re-endowed and renamed) by King Henry VIII in 1541 after the Dissolution of ...

, at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MD, and

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

(from where he graduated MA and became a fellow); Richardson never practised as a doctor. Aged 28, he married Marie Louise Seymour, a daughter of George Turner Seymour of

Wraxall, Somerset Wraxall is a village in North Somerset, England, about west of Bristol. Until 1811 the parish of the same name also included Nailsea and Flax Bourton. The village is now within the parish of Wraxall and Failand. History The origin of the name W ...

. They emigrated to New Zealand in 1851 on the ''Maori'' and first settled in Meadowbank near Blenheim. Arthur Seymour, Marie's brother, accompanied them to New Zealand and settled in Picton. Henry Seymour, who also returned to Nelson on that ship, was unrelated. By 1854, the Richardsons were living in Nelson. Richardson was appointed to the Legislative Council on 31 December 1853. He was a Member of the Executive Council in the first Fox Ministry from 24 May to 2 June 1856. He resigned from the Legislative Council on 13 December 1856. The Richardsons returned to England in 1858. According to Henry Sewell's diary, "Mrs Richarson like New Zealand, but the want of Servants asthe one intolerable grievance." They bought an estate in Devon where they lived until the 1880s. His wife died in 1880, and he later moved to London. After his son Ralph (who was a New Zealand MHR from 1871 to 1873) died in Nelson on 22 December 1889, he took in his daughter-in-law and her two small girls. Richardson died in 1897 or 1898.

References

;Sources * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Ralph 1812 births 1897 deaths Members of the New Zealand Legislative Council People from Nelson, New Zealand Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge People educated at The King's School, Chester Alumni of the University of Edinburgh 19th-century New Zealand politicians 19th-century New Zealand medical doctors