▶Date of birth:   (bapt) 2 July 1818       Place of birth:  Grantham, Lincolnshire

▶Father:   Joseph Richards    Mother:  Elizabeth

▶Spouse(s):  Mary Catherine Harvey    Date(s) of marriage:   13 July 1852      Place(s) of marriage: St John’s Church, Notting Hill

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican), Missionary; Author

▶Lifestory: Joseph Richards travelled with his wife as a missionary to India after graduation and ordination, before returning to clerical duties in Britain. He was born in Grantham, in 1818, the youngest son of Joseph Richards, schoolmaster, of Grantham, and his wife Elizabeth. He attended Grantham School and matriculated at Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1844, BA 1848, MA 1852. In 1850 he was ordained Deacon and Priest (both Winchester). He was licensed Curate of St James’s Church in Bermondsey in 1851.

In 1852 he married Mary Catherine, eldest daughter of William Harvey; they had two sons and two daughters. The couple then travelled to India so that Richards could conduct missionary work in the Subcontinent. From 1852 until 1855 he served as Rector of St Paul’s School in Calcutta, and published a sermon he delivered at St Paul’s Cathedral in Calcutta in 1854. In 1855 he was appointed an Assistant Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment of the East India Company, relinquishing his post at St Paul’s School but continuing to work in Calcutta, where in 1857 he was appointed Junior Chaplain at St John’s Church.

After Calcutta his mission was served in Darjeeling, where his son was born in 1856, and by the next year he was ministering in Bareilly. By 1874 he had risen to become a Senior Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment, but in that year the family returned to Britain.

He preached in Oxford later in 1874, and was said to be licensed Curate of Sandown, on the Isle of Wight. But his first significant role back home was as Incumbent at Holy Trinity Church, Cheltenham, which duties he assumed in 1875. Between 1877 and 1878, while serving at nearby Holy Trinity,  he lived at 2 Wellesley Villas (now Wellington House), Wellington Square in Pittville.

But by 1878 his health was beginning to fail, and he left Cheltenham to become Rector of Great Creaton in Northamptonshire, where he lived at the time of the 1881 census with his wife, one son, and one daughter. He died at the Rectory at Great Creadon in May 1881, having ministered in the village for only two years, and was buried at the village church.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Sandown, Isle of Wight      Moved from Pittville to: Creaton, Northamptonshire

▶Date of death:  5 May 1881      Place of death: Great Creaton, Northamptonshire

▶Date of burial:  10 May 1881       Place of burial: Great Creaton Church

▶Notes:        ID: 8435

Contributor(s):  John Simpson