William Richardson (1749 – 23 March 1822) was an Irish landowner and Member of Parliament. He was the son of William Richardson (1710–1758) of Rich Hill, County Armagh, Ireland and succeeded him to the Richhill estate when only a minor. He was the great-nephew of another William Richardson, who was Member of Parliament for County Armagh at the time of the

Williamite War in Ireland The Williamite War in Ireland took place from March 1689 to October 1691. Fought between Jacobitism, Jacobite supporters of James II of England, James II and those of his successor, William III of England, William III, it resulted in a Williamit ...

. He was elected High Sheriff of Armagh in 1777 and sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

for

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

, between 1783 and 1797. In 1807 he was elected to sit for

in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 memb ...

, serving until 1820. In 1775 Richardson married Dorothea ("Dolly") Monroe (b. 1754), a daughter of Henry Monroe of Roes Hall, Tullylish. She was a noted beauty who while staying in Dublin with her aunt Frances, Lady Loftus, had been courted by

Henry Grattan Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 18 ...

, Sir Hercules Langrishe, Francis Andrews, Provost of Trinity College, and the recently widowed Viceroy Lord Townshend. She had also been painted by

Angelica Kauffman Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss people, Swiss Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered prima ...

and alluded to in a poem by

Oliver Goldsmith Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. A prolific author of various literature, he is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian e ...

. Richardson and Dorothea had no children. She died in 1793, aged thirty-nine. The following year Richardson married Louisa Magenis, daughter of Richard Magenis of

Waringstown Waringstown () is a large village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies southeast of Lurgan, within the parish of Donaghcloney, and the barony of Iveagh Lower, Lower Half. In the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census it had a population of ...

. They had three daughters, Elizabeth, Isabella and Louisa, who jointly inherited Richhill on their father's death. Only the youngest daughter married (to Edward Bacon, sometime High Sheriff of Armagh), and when she died without heirs in 1881 the estate passed to the Richardsons of Rossfad, near Ballinamallard in

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

References

* * * http://www.armaghorange.co.uk/no2.htm * http://www.poyntzpass.co.uk/Before_I_Forget/2003_No_9/Dolly_Monroe.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, William 1749 births 1822 deaths People from County Armagh High sheriffs of Armagh Irish MPs 1783–1790 Irish MPs 1790–1797 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Armagh constituencies (1801–1922) Tory MPs (pre-1834) UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Armagh constituencies