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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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JOSEPH RICHARDSON (1755 -1803) Richardson was born in Hexham and educated at Haydon Bridge school and at Cambridge. He studied law and was considered at that time to be 'a remarkably fine, showy young man'. Later in life, he was known as 'well-natured Richardson'. In London he concentrated on journalism and eventually became a proprietor of the Whig journal The Morning Post. He wrote social commentaries and satirical odes, particularly 'Jekyll, an Eclogue'. He was MP for Newport in Cornwall from 1796, but never spoke in the House, partly through shyness and partly because he thought his Northumbrian burr would cause him to be ridiculed. He assisted Sheridan in running the Drury Lane Theatre, and his comedy The Fugitive (1792) was a great success at the Haymarket theatre. It went through three published editions.
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