on 27 May 1615, and in 1617–18 he served the office of vice-chancellor of the university. In 1618 he wrote some Latin verses which are prefixed to the second edition of Dalton's ‘Country Justice.’ He died at Cambridge on 20 April 1625, and was buried in Trinity College chapel (Heywood and Wright, Cambr. Univ. Transactions, ii. 325).
He was a benefactor to Emmanuel College, and gave 100l. towards building the new court at Peterhouse.
[Information from J. W. Clark, esq., M.A.; Addit. MSS. 5843, pp. 62, 63, 91, 5857 p. 355, 5879 f. 10 b; Baker MS. 26, f. 153; Cat. of Cambr. Univ. MSS. iii. 35; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, iii. 72 n.; Hacket's Life of Williams, pp. 24, 25, 26, 32, 33; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), iii. 606, 656, 668, 699; Nichols's Progresses of James I, iii. 229, 838; Plume's Life of Hacket, 1675, p. vi; Wells's Drainage of the Bedford Level, ii. 92; Winwood's Memorials, iii. 459; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss) i. 336.]
RICHARDSON, JOHN (1580–1654), bishop of Ardagh, was born near Chester in 1580. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, graduated M.A., and became a fellow in 1600. In the same year he was selected with James Ussher (afterwards primate) and another as lay preacher at Christ Church Cathedral. Richardson's part was to preach on Wednesdays, and explain the prophecies of Isaiah. He afterwards took holy orders, and was created D.D. in 1614 (Cat. of Graduates, Trinity College, Dublin).
Richardson held many preferments. He was appointed vicar of Granard, in Ardagh, in 1610; rector of Ardsrath, Derry, in 1617; archdeacon of Derry in 1622 (reappointed in the new charter of 1629); and prebendary of Mullaghtrack, Armagh. On 14 May 1633 he was elected bishop of Ardagh in succession to Bishop Bedell, who had resigned the see because he disapproved of pluralities. Richardson, however, obtained leave to hold the archdeaconry in commendam; but he was shortly afterwards deprived of his rectory and archdeaconry by Bishop Bramhall, who found his titles unsound.
On the outbreak of the Irish rebellion in 1641, Richardson fled to England, and settled in London, where he died on 11 Aug. 1654.
Richardson's chief work, published posthumously by Archbishop Ussher, was ‘Choice Observations and Explanations of the Old Testament … to which are added further and larger Observations upon the whole Book of Genesis,’ London, 1655, fol. He also contributed remarks on Ezekiel, Daniel, and the lesser prophets to the second edition of the Westminster assembly's ‘Annotations,’ published in 1657. Cotton says that his correspondence with Bishop Bedell exists in manuscript. He bequeathed money to Trinity College, Dublin. His portrait, engraved by T. Cross, is prefixed to his ‘Choice Observations,’ 1655.
[Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii. 49, 52, 183, 231, 257, 337; Lloyd's Memoires, 1668, p. 607; Elrington's Life of Archbishop Ussher, i. 15, 18; Burnet's Life of Bedell, p. 5; Vesey's Life of Bramhall, 1677; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, i. 334; Ware's Hist. of Ireland, ed. Harris, i. 255, ii. 341; Orme's Biblioth. Bibl.; Rose's Biogr. Dict.; Fuller's Worthies, i. 185.]
RICHARDSON, JOHN, D.D. (1664–1747), Irish divine, the son of Sir Edward Richardson, knight, was born at Armagh in 1664. After private tuition, he was entered, on 23 Jan. 1682, at Trinity College, Dublin, where his tutor was St. George Ashe. He became a scholar in 1686, and graduated B.A. in 1688. He was ordained, and in 1693 was appointed to the rectory of Annagh, a parish in Cavan, which includes the town of Belturbet. He lived in a house built after the siege of Belturbet, and called Manse Maxwell from Robert Maxwell, D.D., prebendary of Tynan, at whose charge it was built. He was a friend of Philip MacBrady [q. v.], vicar of Innishmacgrath, co. Leitrim, and from him and from John O'Mulchonri received much information on Irish literature and history. He lived constantly in his parish, where he had service daily, and often preached in Irish. He was appointed chaplain to James, duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and in 1710 visited London to obtain help in printing religious books in Irish. He published in Dublin in 1711 ‘A Proposal for the Conversion of the Popish Natives of Ireland,’ in which he advocated the ordination of Irish-speaking ministers, the distribution of Irish bibles, prayer-books, and catechisms, and the establishment of charity schools. In London, in 1711, he published ‘Seanmora ar na Priom Phoncibh na Chreideamh,’ printed by Elinor Everingham in well-formed Irish type, a volume containing a long sermon of his own in Irish, a sermon by Archbishop Tillotson translated into Irish by Philip MacBrady, and three sermons by William Beveridge, bishop of St. Asaph, translated into Irish by John O'Mulchonri. In 1712 he issued from the same press ‘The Church Catechism explained and rendered into Irish,’ with which were printed ‘Ornaigh le haghaidh usaide na scol charthanais,’ prayers for charity school children, and brief ‘Elements of the Irish Language.’ In the
