Richardson began life in the workhouse at Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, in which town he subsequently filled several menial situations.
Here he formed theatrical tastes and aspirations, joining in 1782 in a club-room in the Paviour's Arms, Shadwell, the travelling company of a Mrs. Penley.
In the same year he made at Bartholomew fair his first experiment as a showman, exhibiting a rude dramatic performance on a platform built out of a first-floor window, which was approached by a flight of stairs from the street; stalls for the sale of gingerbread stood beneath the structure.
He also engaged Oxberry from a private theatre in Queen Anne Street, Saville Faucit, Barnes, the favourite pantaloon, Wallack, and many others who subsequently rose to distinction.
Mark Lemon describes a somewhat cheerless performance he once saw, with the rain coming through the canvas, of the ‘Wandering Outlaw, or the Hour of Retribution,’ concluding with the ‘Death of Orsina, and the Appearance of the Accusing Spirit.’ Richardson employed as scene-painters Grieve and Greenwood.
In Richardson's later days his performance consisted of a tragedy, a comic song usually by a person in rustic dress, and a pantomime.
A careful and abstemious man, Richardson put by money which enabled him, after expending a good deal in charity, to leave over 20,000l.
Three days before his death he was, reluctantly, removed, by order of his medical attendant, into the house, where, at the reputed age of seventy, he died on 14 November 1837.