Richard Rishworth, artist and sign writer, was baptised in 1799 at All Saints, in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He was the fourth child and third son of Thomas Rishworth and Sarah Marsh. At the time, Richard’s father worked as a bank clerk; by 1802, Thomas had opened his own bank in partnership with the Townend brothers, both solicitors at York and possible relatives. One of nine surviving children, eight of them boys, Richard was probably initially educated as his brothers at a West Riding Grammar School. Unlike the rest, he continued his education at Cambridge University, entering in 1820 and leaving BA in hand in 1824.
In December 1825 the bank in which his father was a significant partner failed and the Rishworth fortune disappeared. Where Richard was at the time is unknown; most likely he had removed from Cambridge to London and its environs. How he earned a living is also obscure; that he saw himself as an artist is attested by documents from a later period. An Algernon Graves, in his proposed Dictionary of Artists, lists Richard’s name among those having exhibited an oil painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1830, possibly in their summer exhibition. This is the sole known record of any painting of his.
In 1833 Richard wed a widow by name of Sarah Millard. Two years later a Parliamentary select committee investigating the Orange Order in England noted that he was on the Committee of the Grand Lodge.
In 1841 and 1851 (census years), he had himself recorded as a Painter and Landscape Painter and Artist respectively. By the latter year he noted that he was a widower. He also had formed the habit of shaving many years from his age. On the 31st May 1852, Richard disembarked in Geelong, Victoria, having sailed on an assisted passage from London three or four months earlier. He paid his way by acting as school master to the children on board.
Before 1856, when he wed a woman, Harriet Ann Durant, many years his junior, Richard had made his way to Ballarat, Victoria’s gold rush township. There he established a signwriting and decoration business. He also speculated in and acted as secretary for a gold mining company in 1862.
Richard and Harriet Ann had seven children; four survived into adulthood. Richard died in December 1883; Harriet Ann in January 1887. Both were buried in Ballarat Cemetery.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2013
