Louisa Townsend Bakewell

Louisa Townsend Bakewell Richardson was born at Burton-on-Trent on October 3, 1838 and died at Brixton Deverell Rectory, July 25, 1926.  In 1861, at the age of 23, she married James Cope Richardson at Tamworth, Staffordshire.  With James Cope she had seven children, five sons and two daughters, Albert, Charles, Elsie, Louisa, Henry, Townsend and James.

Louisa and James children about 1875

Louisa remained at home and cared for the children when they were growing up.

When Louisa’s first great granddaughters, Phyllis and Margaret, were born, she sent Phyllis (the elder of the twins) a Baby’s Teething Whistle which had been given to her as a baby.

Etching of Louisa Townsend Bakewell Richardson

Louisa’s youngest son James was an artist of some note and prepared this etching to commemorate his mothers eightieth birthday.

James Cope Richardson

James Cope Richardson was born in 1840, the eldest son to Thomas Richardson, a solicitor of Uttoxeter. It was his intention to go to University with a view to follow Law or take Holy Orders, but the early death of his father when he was only 17, obliged him to abandon a professional career in order to supervise a small milling and artificial manure business in which his father had an interest.

In 1868, he moved to Lichfield and established the successful flour milling and baking business of which he was sole proprietor up to the year of his retirement in 1914 when he auctioned it off.
He was well known and respected in the trade as a shrewd, high principled business man. While in business, he was a member of the National Associations in both milling and baking, although he did not play an active role in either association. He also stayed out of municipal and political affairs, but he was an active and generous supporter of philanthropic, religious and temperance societies and institutions, not only in his life but also through his bequests at his death.

In 1861 James Cope married Louisa Townsend Bakewell. The couple had seven children, five sons and two daughters, Albert, Charles, Elsie, Louisa, Henry, Townsend and James.
Up until a short time before his death in 1919, of cerebral haemorrhage, he was actively employed in helping others whose circumstances, largely on account of the war, had become straitened. He was buried in the Brandwood End Cemetery, near Birmingham on Wednesday, May 7, 1919. James Cope Richardson Obituary was posted in the local paper on May 24, 1919.  The Last Will and Testament of James Cope was also registered.