William Richardson was an Irish landowner from Richhill, County Armagh

Richhill, County Armagh

Richhill is a large village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the townland of Legacorry , roughly halfway between Armagh and Portadown...

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He sat in the Irish House of Commons

Irish House of Commons

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

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

Armagh (UK Parliament constituency)

Armagh or County Armagh was a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons. It was replaced in boundary changes in 1983.The Act of Union 1800 provided for the Parliament of Ireland to be merged with the Parliament of Great Britain, to form the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, serving until 1820.

He was the great-nephew of another William Richardson

William Richardson (1656–1727)

William Richardson was an Irish politician. He was the MP for Armagh in 1692 and Hillsborough in 1703. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Reynell, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench for Ireland, in 1695.-References:...

, who was Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for County Armagh at the time of the Williamite War in Ireland

Williamite war in Ireland

The Williamite War in Ireland—also called the Jacobite War in Ireland, the Williamite-Jacobite War in Ireland and in Irish as Cogadh an Dá Rí —was a conflict between Catholic King James II and Protestant King William of Orange over who would be King of England, Scotland and Ireland...

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In 1775 Richardson married Dorothea ("Dolly") Monroe (b. 1754), a daughter of Henry Monroe of Roes Hall, Tullylish

Tullylish

Tullylish is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. It sits on the River Bann, along the main road between the towns of Banbridge and Portadown. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 105 people...

. She was a noted beauty who while staying in Dublin with her aunt Frances Lady Loftus

Henry Loftus, 1st Earl of Ely

Henry Loftus, 1st Earl of Ely KP, PC , styled The Honourable from 1751 to 1769 and known as Henry Loftus, 4th Viscount Loftus from 1769 to 1771, was an Irish peer and politician....

, had been courted by Henry Grattan

Henry Grattan

Henry Grattan was an Irish politician and member of the Irish House of Commons and a campaigner for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century. He opposed the Act of Union 1800 that merged the Kingdoms of Ireland and Great Britain.-Early life:Grattan was born at...

, Sir Hercules Langrishe

Hercules Langrishe

Sir Hercules Langrishe, 1st Baronet was an Irish politician.He was first elected to represent Knocktopher in the Irish House of Commons in May 1761, and sat until March 1800...

, Francis Andrews

Francis Andrews

Francis Andrews was an Irish politician.In 1758 he was appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1759 was elected to the Irish House of Commons for Midleton. From 1761 until his death he sat for the City of Londonderry...

, Provost of Trinity College

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, and the recently widowed Viceroy Lord Townshend

George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend

Field Marshal George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, PC , known as The Viscount Townshend from 1764 to 1787, was a British soldier who reached the rank of field marshal.-Early life:...

. She had also been painted by Angelica Kauffman and alluded to in a poem by Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...

. Richardson and Dorothea had no children and she died in 1793 age thirty-nine.

The following year Richardson married Louisa Magennis, of Waringstown

Waringstown

Waringstown is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland, two miles south-east of Lurgan. It lies within the parish of Donaghcloney, and in the barony of Iveagh Lower, Lower Half. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 2,523 people. It was built during the Plantation of Ulster and is typical 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

High Sheriff of Armagh

The High Sheriff of Armagh is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Armagh. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258...

), and when she died without heirs in 1881 the estate passed to the Richardsons of Rossfad, near Ballinamallard in County Fermanagh

County Fermanagh

Fermanagh District Council is the only one of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland that contains all of the county it is named after. The district council also contains a small section of County Tyrone in the Dromore and Kilskeery road areas....

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