James Richardson (1819–1892)

James Richardson
Born	1819 Aughnacloy, Northern Ireland
Died	1892-11-15 Kingston, Ontario
Occupation	Tailor, grain merchant, and politician
Father	Daniel Richardson
Mother	Janet Armstrong
Partner	Roxanna Day Susannah Wartman

James Richardson (1819 – (1892-11-15)15 November 1892) was an Irish-born Kingston grain merchant, tailor, and municipal politician who founded the commercial dynasty that became James Richardson and Sons, one of Canada's leading grain-trading firms.

Early life

Richardson was born in 1819 in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, in what is now Northern Ireland, the son of Daniel Richardson and Janet Armstrong. Between 1822 and 1823 he immigrated to Upper Canada with his father, a sister, and a half-sister named Elizabeth. The family settled in Adolphustown, but after his father's death in 1826 the family relocated to Kingston by 1829.

Richardson apprenticed with Kingston tailor John Dawson. In 1841 he was fined £5 for unlicensed hawking and peddling alongside a William Sanderson. He briefly partnered with a Mr. Little before establishing his own independent merchant tailoring business in 1844. By 1848, at age twenty-nine, he owned property with both a business and merchant tenants.

Business career

Tailoring and early trade

Richardson married his first wife, Roxanna Day, on 1 March 1845 in Kingston Township, Upper Canada. She died in 1848, leaving a son who died in infancy and one daughter. He married his second wife, Susannah Wartman — a niece of his first wife — on 11 March 1850 in Kingston. They had two sons, George Algernon Richardson and Henry Wartman Richardson.

In 1856 Richardson stood as guarantor for the construction of the Kingston custom house. The contractor, Thomas C. Pidgeon, failed to complete the work, and co-guarantors James O'Reilly and Samuel Smyth defaulted on their obligations. Richardson completed the work himself by September 1858 at a personal loss exceeding £1,700. To finance this, he mortgaged his Brock Street property on 31 December 1856 to his half-sister for £750.

Grain trade

Richardson entered the grain trade, and the family firm's own history traces its founding to 1857. The first directory listing of "Richardson & Sons, Grain Dealers, Commercial Wharf, foot of Princess St." appeared in the Kingston directory of 1873–74, by which time his sons George Algernon and Henry Wartman had become full partners.

The firm's growth coincided with the Upper Canadian barley boom of the 1860s onward, concentrating on the Bay of Quinte region. American manufacturers sought high-quality barley at premium prices until the American tariffs of the 1890s destroyed that trade. Richardson operated a fleet of rented and company-owned sloops and schooners ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 bushel capacity, as well as a "mosquito fleet" of hookers working the shores from the Bay of Quinte to the Rideau Canal. Grain was unloaded at the Kingston dock or stored in a grain elevator for trans-shipment to American or European markets.

In 1868 Richardson purchased waterfront property at the foot of Princess Street, Kingston. In 1882 he built the Richardson No. 1 elevator, with a capacity of 60,000 bushels; it burned in 1897 and was replaced by a 250,000-bushel elevator. The firm exported grain to Britain, the United States, Holland, Switzerland, France, Norway, and Argentina, and also traded in potash, hay, furs, apples, coal, lye, and maple syrup.

Fort William and western grain

Recognizing the rising potential of the Prairie grain regions, the firm extended its operations to the Lake Superior head-of-the-lakes. Richardson's grandson, James Armstrong Richardson, stated in 1923 that the first Western Canadian wheat shipped from Fort William was in autumn 1883, and that the Richardson firm shipped it to the Atlantic Seaboard in the winter of 1884, consigned to a Liverpool firm. Edward O'Reilly, a Wolfe Island resident, managed the firm's western business after moving to Manitoba in the early 1880s. This shipment through Fort William marked an early step in what became the city's defining role as a grain-handling centre.

Other investments

Richardson invested in the Kingston and Pembroke Railway, the Kingston Street Railway Company, a Kingston locomotive works, a local woollen mill, the Kingston Hosiery Company, and the Kingston Oil and Enamel Cloth Company. In 1881 he became president of the Kingston Cotton Manufacturing Company. He also initiated mineral development in the Canadian Shield north of Kingston: in the 1880s he acquired a feldspar mine in Bedford Township, and the Richardson Mine of the Kingston Feldspar Mining Company commenced operation in 1900. His son George Algernon Richardson testified in 1889 before a provincial royal commission on mineral resources regarding familiarity with the Frontenac district mines and phosphate mine products.

Municipal and public life

Richardson was an active figure in Kingston civic affairs. He attended the inaugural meeting of the Kingston Board of Trade on 22 August 1851. He served as councilman for St. Lawrence Ward in 1860, alderman for St. Lawrence Ward in 1861, and alderman for Victoria Ward from 1870 to 1874. He was a Conservative, with a close relationship to Kingston's member of Parliament, Sir John A. Macdonald. In 1889 the Prime Minister wrote: "The Richardsons are & always have been strong & influential friends of mine," and cautioned an associate not to get him "into a scrape with the Richardsons. They are my pillars in Kingston."

In his religious life Richardson was a devout Wesleyan Methodist, a member of Sydenham Street Church in Kingston, where he taught Sunday school and contributed financially. He was also active in harbour improvements; in May 1872 he served on a committee that recommended dredging and the construction of a breakwater extending half a mile from shore near Murney Tower at a cost of $40,000.

Death and legacy

Richardson died on 15 November 1892 in Kingston, Ontario. Under the terms of his will, most of his share in the firm was left to his wife Susannah, with provision for the sons upon her death. His son George Algernon Richardson served as company president from 1892 to 1906, followed by Henry Wartman Richardson from 1906 to 1918. The firm shifted from traditional commercial grain trading toward investment in the new industrial economy, establishing the foundation for one of Canada's most significant twentieth-century corporate enterprises.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography