He was educated under the Reverend Edward Wilson, who taught the school of St John's in the Vale and was incumbent of its little church.
About 1857 he became master of the school, where he taught until partially disabled by a paralytic seizure about a year before his death.
He died on the fell side, near his residence, Bridge House, on 30 April 1886,[1] and was buried at the church of St John's in the Vale on 4 May.
[1][2] Richardson read seven papers to the Keswick Literary Society, which were printed in the Transactions of the Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science.
As a poet and songwriter he had a great local reputation, and his literary work often proved of conspicuous merit.