RICHMOND a town of Surrey, is situated on the south bank of the Thames, here crossed by a stone bridge of five arches, 8∣ miles west of Hyde Park Corner by road, and 9f from the Waterloo station of the South-Western Railway. The town, anciently called Syeηes and afterwards Schene and Sheen, until the name was in 1500 changed to Richmond by command of Henry VII., grew up round the royal manor house, which became a frequent residence of different sovereigns, but of which nothing more than a gateway now remains. Edward I. received the Scotch commissioners at his manor of Sheen in 1300. The palace was rebuilt by Edward III., who died there in 1377. It was frequently resided in by Richard IL, and here his wife Anne of Bohemia died, upon which he cursed the place and “caused it to be thrown down and defaced.” By Henry V. it was, however, rebuilt, and a great tournament was held at it in 1492 by Henry VII., who after its destruction by fire in 1499 restored it and named it Richmond. Henry VIII. gave it to Wolsey to reside in, after the latter presented him with the new palace of Hampton Court. James I. settled it on his son Henry, prince of Wales, who restored and embellished it at great expense. Charles I. added to it the new deer park generally known as Richmond Park, 2253 acres in extent, which is surrounded by a wall 11 miles in length. After the execution of the king, .the parliament presented the park to the citizens of London, who again presented it to Charles II. at the Restoration. Though partly dismantled, the palace was the residence of the queen dowager till 1665, and by J âmes II. it was used as a nursery for the young prince; but, gradually falling into decay, it was, about 1720, parcelled into tenements. In the old deer park extending northwards from the ...site of the palace towards Kew an observatory was erected in 1769, occupying the site of a Carthusian convent founded by Henry V., and a dwelling house in which Swift for some time resided. To the south-east of the town, at the entrance to Richmond Park, is Richmond Hill, from which is the famous view of the Thames with the surrounding country to the west. The White Lodge in Richmond Park is usually the residence of some member of the royal family. The town itself is without special interest, and consists chiefiy of one long and irregular street running north and south. The church of St Mary Magdalen is of considerable antiquity, but has been almost entirely rebuilt; it contains a large number of monuments to celebrated persons. The theatre, first established in 1719, was during his later years leased by Edmund Kean. The town has a Wesleyan theological college founded in 1834, a free public library, and public baths. The population of the urban sanitary district (area 1210 acres) in 1871 was 15,113, and in 1881 it was 19,066.
RICHMOND a borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, is finely situated on the Swale, at the terminus of the Richmond branch of the North-Eastern Railway, 44 miles north-west of York and 15 south-west of Darlington. The interest of the town centres in the castle, said to have been founded by Alan Rufus, son of Hoel, count of Bretagne, who is also said to have rebuilt the town on his obtaining the estates of the Saxon Earl Edwin, embracing two hundred manors of Richmond and extending over nearly a third of the North Riding. When Henry VII. came to the throne these possessions reverted to the crown. Henry VIII. gave it to his son Henry by a daughter of Sir John Blount, and Charles II. bestowed the title of duke of Richmond on his son by the duchess of Portsmouth. The castle is situated on a perpendicular rock rising about 100 feet above the Swale, and from its great strength was considered inaccessible. Originally it covered an area of 5 acres, but the only portions of it now remaining are the Norman keep, with pinnacled tower and walls 100 feet high by 11 feet thick, and some other smaller towers. A portion of it is now occupied by the North York Rifles militia. The old church of St Mary, chiefly in the Gothic style, though with some traces of Norman, has been restored under the direction of Sir Gilbert Scott. For the free grammar school founded by Elizabeth a Gothic building was erected in 1850, in memory of the Rev. James Tate, a former master. The tower of the Franciscan abbey founded in 1258 still remains. The chief modern buildings are the town-hall, the masonic hall, and the workmen’s hall. The principal trade is in agricultural produce, but there are a paper mill and an iron and brass foundry. The town received its first charter from Elizabeth. Under the Municipal Corporations Act it is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and tw r elve councillors. Up to 1885, when it ceased to be separately represented, Richmond was a parliamentary borough, returning two members till 1868, and one after that date. The population of the municipal borough (area 2520 acres) in 1871 was 4443, and in 1881 it was 4502.
RICHMOND a city of the United States, the county seat of Wayne county, Indiana, is situated in a fine agricultural region on the east branch of the White Water River (a sub-tributary of the Ohio), 68 miles east of Indianapolis. It is an important railway junction, has a city park 135 acres in extent, manufactures machinery, agricultural implements, &c., and contains a public library (15,000 volumes), a museum, two theatres, and two educational institutions (Earlham College, 1859) belonging to the Society of Friends, which is strongly represented in the city. The population was 9445 in 1870, and 12,742 in 1880. The city obtained its charter in 1845.
RICHMOND a city of the United States, the capital of Virginia, is situated in Henrico county, on the north side of the James River, at the point where the lower falls (100 feet in 6 miles) mark the limit of the tide ascending from Chesapeake Bay. On the other side of the river, and in the county of Chesterfield, but connected with Richmond by bridges, is Manchester. By rail the city is 116 miles south-south-west of Washington. At mean high tides vessels drawing 14 feet of water can come up to Rocketts, as the lower district is called. The town proper occupies a group of hills—Gamble’s Hill, Shockoe Hill, Church Hill, &c.—and looks down over the river, from which it is separated by a strip of flat ground. Main Street is a typical street after the old Southern style, the large portion burned in 1865 having been rebuilt in keeping with the remnant that escaped. By far the most conspicuous edifice in the city is the Capitol, on the summit of Shockoe Hill, designed by Thomas Jefferson, after the Maison Carrée of Nîmes. Beneath the dome of the central hall stands Houdon’s marble life-size statue of Washington in the uniform of a pre-Revolutionary American general, and in the esplanade near the west gates of Capitol Square is Crawford’s famous bronze equestrian statue of the same hero (1858), surrounded by bronze figures of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, George Mason, Thomas Nelson, and Andrew Lewis. North of the Capitol stands Foley’s bronze statue of General “Stonewall” Jackson, the gift of English admirers of that great Confederate leader. A governor’s house, a State penitentiary, a custom-house and post office, a city-hall and almshouse, and two market-houses are among the principal public buildings. Libby prison, in which thousands of Federal prisoners were confined during the Civil War, was originally a disused tobacco factory, and is now scarcely distinguishable from the other dilapidated brick warehouses in its vicinity. St John’s Episcopal church on Church Hill was, in 1775, the meeting-place of the Virginia convention to which Patrick Henry addressed his famous “Give me liberty or give me death,” and in 1788 of another convention summoned to discuss the ratification of the Federal Constitution. Monumental Church (Episcopal) commemorates the disastrous burning in 1811 of the theatre which then occupied the site. The State Library, the Virginia Historical Society, Southern Historical Society, Richmond College, and the Medical College (1838) are institutions of note. Holywood Cemetery, occupying a district of great natural beauty to the west of the city, contains the graves of thousands of Confederate soldiers and the monuments of President Monroe and General J. E. B. Stuart, and the Confederate soldiers’ monument. Previous to the Civil War Richmond was the commercial capital of the South and a great entrepot for the produce of the Southern States, Cuba, South America, and Great Britain. Its clipper ships made fast voyages to the Pacific for tea, silk, and other Eastern wares. Its auction sales (monthly or even fortnightly) drew buyers from every part of the Union, even from the northern cities which now supply it with the very commodities they then visited it to purchase. When the war was over Richmond was without ships, merchants, or capital. The tea trade had gone to London, the South-American to New York and Boston, In recent years, however, a new period of commercial prosperity appears to have set in, and, while several of the old sources of wealth have disappeared, the city still remains the natural centre of some of the principal trades of the South. Before the war more tobacco was sold in Richmond than perhaps in any city of the Union (fifty-six manufacturers were numbered in 1857), and this still remains an important staple. The flour trade is also of great extent. There are a large number of iron works, including those of the Tredegar Company; and granite quarries are worked in the vicinity of the city. In 1857 the real estate of Richmond was assessed at $18,259,816, and the personal property at $10,287,278. By 1885 the corresponding figures were $34,502,903 and $15,000,000. The city is the owner of both gas and water works. The population, which was only 5737 in the beginning of the century, has increased as follows:—9785 in 1810; 12,067 in 1820; 16,060 in 1830; 20,153 in 1840; 27,570 in 1850; 37,910 in 1860; 51,038 in 1870; 63,600 in 1880 (27,832 coloured).
The first settlement on part of the site of Richmond is said to date from 1609; and Fort Charles was erected as a defence against the Indians in 1644-45. But the real origin of the town, which was incorporated in 1745, was Byrd’s warehouse, erected by Colonel William Byrd in the close of the 17th century. It was still a small village when in 1779 it was made the capital of the State of Virginia. From May 1861 till April 1865, when it was occupied by the Federal army, Richmond was the seat of government of the
Confederate States. On the capture of Petersburg by General Grant the Confederate leaders thought it impossible to hold the city, in spite of the strength of its fortifications; and Ewell, who commanded the rear-guard of the retreating army, set the great tobacco factories and Hour-mills and the arsenal on fire; the conflagration lasted till the evening of the following day. In September 1870 part of the city was laid under water by the floods of the James river.
RICHMOND Legh (1772-1827), writer of tracts, was born 29th January 1772 at Liverpool, where his father was a physician. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1794 and M.A. in 1797. In 1798 he was appointed to the joint curacies of Brading and Yaverland in the Isle of Wight. Through the perusal of Wilberforce’s Practical View an evangelical bias was given to his mind, which led him to devote himself with great earnestness to the reclamation of the masses. He took a prominent interest in the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Church Missionary Society, and various other institutions of a similar kind. In 1805 he became chaplain to the Lock Hospital, London, and in the same year was presented to the rectory of Turvey, Bedfordshire, where he remained till his death, 8th May 1827. He was also appointed chaplain to the duke of Kent. The best known of the tracts of Legh Richmond is the Dairymanhs Daughter, of which as many as four millions in nineteen languages were circulated before 1849. A collected edition of his tracts was first published in 1814 under the title of Annals of the Poor. He was also the author of Domestic Portraiture, and Memoirs of his Three Children·, and he edited a series of the Fathers of the English Church.
See Memoirs by Grimshawe, 1828; Life by Bedell, 1829.
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