The saga of my great grandparents, Edward and Emily RICHARDSON, began on 6 April 1868, when their marriage was solemnized at Saint Mary's church in Lewisham Parish, Kent County, England. At that time they were recorded living at nearby Brockley. Emily, eighteen or nineteen years old, the daughter of John and Mary Ann MILLS, was said by her daughter to have been born at Croydon, Surrey although the 1881 census gives her place of birth as Shoreby. Edward, age twenty-four, was reared at Hounslow Heath. The following year they were living at Norwood in Surrey County, southeast of London, when their first child was born. They were most probably with or near Emily's parents who were in the upper Norwood area. Edward was a bricklayer, contractor and builder, and it would be interesting to know how he got into that trade, as his father had been a shoemaker. His older brother, Walter, and his younger brother, William, were also bricklayers, as was Emily's brother, John Mills. In 1881, in Lewisham, Kent County, there was a young couple living with Edward and Emily's family, Alfred T. and Emily Blackford from Sussex, England. Alfred too was a bricklayer, but any familial relationship between them and the Richardsons is unknown. Edward's descendants have been bricklayers in each generation since.

  The Richardsons did lots of leaving, therefore the tune The Leaving of Liverpool seems fitting, from Barry Taylor at Taylor's Traditional Tunebook.

So faretheewell my own true love
I'm bound for Carolina with the tide
It's not the leavin' of Liverpool that's a-grieving me
But the thought of leaving you behind.

Edward realized that his economic future in England was unpromising, and with the five children growing up, he and Emily sought to improve their lot in Australia. They were living at 119 Malham Road, Forest Hill, London, England when they decided to emigrate. Three of Emily's brothers had already left for Australia and others of her siblings had gone to New Zealand. Family tradition is that Edward also had kinfolk in Australia. A granddaughter, Ivy Richardson Sanders, said that she was told their Richardson relatives there were jewelers, but two other grandchildren related that the jewelers were from their grandmother's family, the Mills.

My grandfather, Arthur Richardson, and his family sailed on The Dallam Tower when they emigrated to New South Wales, Australia in 1883. The image above is of the windjammer under jury masts. In his memoirs, Arthur wrote that the mast was replaced on their long trip from England to Australia. This ship appears to have been built about 1866, as that is when the first records of The Dallam Tower appear.

CLICK to read a dairy written on board the Dallam Tower in 1873

The Richardson family let leave of England in the summer of 1883, on a sailing ship, the Dallam Tower and arrived at New Castle, New South Wales, Australia three and one half months later. It was a harrowing voyage. Son Arthur wrote of the trip: "During a great storm the mast was blown down and they thought the ship was going down. Mother was sick all the way and we thought she would die. We arrived at New Castle, New South Wales and all along the beach were ships wrecked." Daughter Florence wrote of five burials at sea, the ship having a hole in it, losing a mast in a storm and being deliberately steered off course. The Dallam Tower arrived at Sydney, Australia on 1 November 1883, and then the Richardson family went on to New Castle, New South Wales.

Upon arrival, they were devastated to find there were no jobs available for bricklayers. A kind "Catholic person" accomodated the family until they could procure their own housing. Edward and Emily had five children when they arrived in Australia, my grandfather who was the youngest at age three, and the oldest, son Harry, age fourteen. Edward's children described him as a hard-working man and said that he tried to succeed by going into other lines of work, but failed. The Richardsons finally found a residence at Windsor Terrace, Layman Street and Edward procured work in his field. Here, the arrival of a "bonny curly headed" baby brightened their lives, but hearts were broken just a few months later when little Gertrude died. Edward built houses at New Castle and after four and a half years, work slacked and they all uprooted again.

The family headed for Melbourne, landing there on Christmas morning. They rented a house on the corner of Buckham or Buckingham Place. They lived at two or three other residences in Melbourne; Abbortsford, Richmond & Hawthorne Kew. Edward contracted to build a woman's college of 125 rooms and it was at that project that my grandfather Arthur apprenticed as a bricklayer. They lived in Melbourne for another four and one half years.

Then, in 1892, they headed for Tasmania and moved three times while living at Hobart, a total of six years, eight months. Work finally became so scarce that Edward chose to sail to South Africa for employment. This time he went alone. He left in April 1896, and the trip by steamer took a month. Johannesburg was a rough place and life was hard, but he was content with the employment opportunities and high wages. His contentment was short-lived, however, as suddenly there was threat of war and Edward, father of five and in his fifties, was called to serve with the British army, in the beginnings of the Boer War. Fortunately that scare subsided and later on, one of his brothers from England joined him. That brother soon fell very ill with typhoid fever. Sometime during this period he sent for his son Richard to join him. The next son to go was my grandfather, Arthur. Finally the eldest son, Harry, went over and he also became seriously ill with typhoid fever. The three Richardson woman, mother Emily and daughters Florence and Agnes, remained in Tasmania as Edward always intended to return home.

Edward met his death in Africa from a fall while bricklaying. Scaffolding that had been poorly fastened, collapsed and he lived for only twenty-four hours. He died at the hospital where he had been carried, on March 5th 1897. His grave is in Johannesburg, Number 6383, on the corner of President and Small Streets. He was described as a very strong Christian man who loved to attend church service and enjoyed Bible reading. Perhaps this was the reason that his funeral was said to have attracted almost the entire town.

The image below is of Emily (Mills) Richardson, wife of Edward Richardson, and was contributed to this site by her great grandson, Tasman Richardson. My grandfather, her son, described her as having beautiful red hair.

Emily lived a transient life, crossing oceans and moving about London and Australia with her husband and five children. Sadly, her husband's life ended accidentally when he had finally found fruitful employment in South Africa. A daughter wrote that her mother had always wanted to return to England to be with her own people, so the three Richardson women left Tasmania on September 20th, 1897, more than six months after Edward's death. They traveled by steamer, a calm and pleasant journey in great contrast to the voyage of their immigration fourteen years prior, arriving at Tilbury Docks, London on the 29th of October. The three sons in Africa all returned to England to be with their mother and sisters. We know that my grandfather demurred, because he had become engaged to a young Johannesburg woman, but was pressured by his eldest brother who warned that their mother would be quite unhappy if he stayed.

Upon returning to England in 1897, they lived on Tilbury Road with Emily's parents, John and Polly Mills. Two of her children soon left England for Canada. About 1911, or so when the wife and newborn of son Dick died, he left his five children in the care of his mother and also emigrated to Canada. Emily was in her sixties then. About 1929, when in her eighties, Emily went to live with her daughter Agnes at 56 Siddons Road, Forest Hill, London. She was there about four years, until her death in 1933. Emily's final resting-place is Ladywell Cemetery, grave number 2211aA, in the same southeast London neighborhood where she and Edward began their life's saga.

The Richardsons were married for twenty-nine years, passing half of that time in Australia. Notwithstanding their seemingly disruptive environment, they kept all of their children with them for 28 years. They were undoubtedly a very close family. None of the children married until after the death of their father and their reunion with their mother and siblings in London. Emily lived the last three and one half decades of her life as a widow in London. The final resting places of Edward and Emily and their children span four continents and five countries.

			1	Edward William Henry RICHARDSON was born 19 March 1869, at Norwood, Surrey, England. He died on 9 September 1933, at Middlesex, England.
			2	Frank Richard RICHARDSON was born 23 April 1871, at Forest Hill, Kent, England. He died in June 1921, in Ontario, Canada.
			3	Florence Emily RICHARDSON was born 3 January 1873, at New Cross, Surrey, England. She died in January 1966 in Canada.
			4	Arthur James RICHARDSON was born 27 November 1879, at Forest Hill. He died on 28 March 1967, at Maryland, USA.
			5	Agnes RICHARDSON was born at Lewisham, England on 16 December 1882. She died on 26 August 1965, in England.
			6	Gertrude Alice RICHARDSON was born in September 1885, in New Castle, New South Wales, Australia. She died in January 1886, in New Castle, New South Wales, Australia.

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"RICHARDSONs from Hounslow Heath ~ Edward and Emily's Saga",
was created by Edna Richardson Barney.
The graphic designs are courtesy of Ritva's Gallery.
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~Modified 9/28/2007~