The Revd. James Richardson

JAMES RICHARDSON - MAKER OF MELODY


The Rev James Richardson, after a short illness passed away on Tuesday 1st August 1922. Mr Richardson was one of those appointed to Madagascar after the burning of the national idols in 1867, and the consequent great increase of the native congregations . Besides his ministerial training at Cheshunt College, Mr Richardson had also received educational training; and after spending two years in Betsileo country in founding and directing the newly established mission in that province, he removed to Antananarivo in 1872 to take charge of the Normal School in the capital. Here he did a great work for many years in general education as well in the training of native school teachers. A great number of his lads were taught by him the solfa system of music, and in almost all parts of Madagascar there are men who wre instructed by him in that system and able to teach it to others. Mr Richardson was a gifted Malagasy scholar, and all students of the language are under deep obligation to him for the excellent Malagasy-English Dictionary which he edited (1885) and for his Malagasy for Beginners (1883) while the several valuable school books which he wrote have been for many years standard educational textbooks. He was constantly preaching in town or country, his services being greatly appreciated by the Malagasy. Many of the best hymns in the native language were written by Mr Richardson and he edited both hymn and tune books for the native churches. In the year 1877 he undertook a long exploratory evangelistic journey into the south west of the of Madagascar, collecting much valuable information about the then unknown tribes of that region; but on his return journey he was attacked by a band of brigands, who robbed him of all but the clothes he was wearing at the time, so that he escaped with difficulty, and endured many privations before reaching home. Soon after the French occupation Mr Richardson resigned his connection with the Madagascar Mission. In May 1899, he was appointed principal of the Central Training School for Bechuanaland, which the directors contemplated forming but the Boer War and othe circumstances delayed the establishment of the school. In 1903 Mr Richardson resigned his position as a missionary of the L.M.S. on acount of the condition of his eyesight, and settled in pastoral work in East London, South Africa. In 1906 he and his wife retired from active service. He and Mrs Richardson had the happiness of seeing two of their children devote themselves to missionary service , their son John having been a missionary for three years in Madagascar and later in Matebeleland, and their daughter Agnes going out to China in 1920.

J Sibree, Chronicle 1922

The Rev. James Richardson will ever be held in veneration and honour by the Malagasy -as the missionary who introduced the beloved form of vocal music under the Tonic Solfa notation,' which indeed has ever been a real tonic in the spiritual development of the people. To the music he added some of the most popular hymns in the language.

After a brief sojourn in Fianarantsoa he was removed to Tananarive and took charge of the Normal school, which appointment he held for twenty-five years until his resignation in I897. Outside the exacting work of training school teachers, he found relief for his tremendous energy in visiting distant parts of the island in the south as a pioneer missionary, often at the risk of his life, and also in carrying on a large Bible class said to be the biggest in the world, often numbering over I000, at a centre, outside the Capital. After leaving Madagascar, owing to the very peremptory way the French officials commandeered his school premises, he was sent to South Africa as Principal of the Central Training School for Bechuanaland. Here again he got into trouble, and his house was thoroughly sacked by the Boers before ever the work could be commenced. Subsequently he took charge of the Free Church at East London, and ultimately retired to England in 1906, with eyesight much impaired. He passed on to the higher service on August .1. 1922, in his 78th year.

(From W Huckett , Ten Year Review of the Madagascar Mission, page 159, 1921/ 30



REV JAMES RICHARDSON (1844-1922) and MADAGASCAR,

Memories by his son Rev CF Richardson on the occasion of the centenary of Furnace Hill Chapel, Crescent Road, Dukinfield 1905?

(Furnace Hill / Providence Chapel / Crescent Road) where he first received the call from God to go unto the heathen to preach unto them the Gospel. Here my grandfather (Farnsworth) laboured, here he was buried; here too lived my mother (Sarah Farnsworth), here she was born: not far from here my father (James Richardson) was born, 1844 , and through the streets of this town he laboured as a little errand boy. He told me how he studied that he might become a teacher, and how, when he was teaching, he heard of the need of the malagasy, of their heathenism and idolatry, and how he himself offered to go- though the task was not an easy one for him- and preach the Gospel that had done so much for him.

- this church here , in sending out my father and mother to do the work they have done, first of all in Madagascar, and now in South Africa ought to feel proud of those two workers that they have sent forth. I know there is nothing I value so much in my ministerial life as the thought that I have of the faithful way in which my father has obeyed the call of God, and is still, in spite of failing health and infirmity discharging it. He has had a very rough time of it, as it is called in these latter days. He had to go through that Boer War: he had to suffer much of the inconvenience caused by that war, and in the midst of it his health broke down, and he had to give up the work that he loved so well under the London Missionary Society (1903). He was entitled to a pension from that society , and to come back home and have quiet and peace and rest, but he wrote to me and said: “I cannot bear the idea of retiring on a pension when the Society is in such need of funds and so long as I have strength to earn my living by doing work I shall atleast save the Society these pounds every year.” I can assure you, during these last four or five years he has laboured when he ought to have been resting. He has given his services, he has founded a new church in South Africa, in Cape Colony ....... The church at East London, ....a place where there was no Congregational Church before. And I am sure you will be pleased to know that the result of four years labour is that he has built there a church, and a minister’s house, and there is being gathered together a Church of Jesus Christ, and that this has been done when he might have been enjoying a well-earned rest that, I am sure, he has earned for the services he has done in Madagascar and South Africa.



...He is one of the sons of this church, and for 25 years he laboured in Madagascar. He set the education of the natives upon a sound footing. He gave the natives and the native teachers a good grounding for their work, and I remember very well how he said to me, when he got that new Normal School there, there are many, many schools in England that are not better equipped than this school of mine, by my efforts; for he begged from his friends and did not by any means draw from the Society for all the equipment and materials in that school. He said,” This is as good a school as you can find in many parts of England. And he took a pride in that work of education in Madagascar, which compared very favourably with the education that was given to the children in England. I know very well that those who went out as preachers and teachers in Madagascar could speak English and could write English as well and better than many youths in England. And then he had the desire to make the work as thorough as possible. I remember very well when he opened that Normal School of his in Antananarivo, and I remember the way in which the Prime Minister and the Queen of Madagascar came, in order, that they might show their appreciation of the work of the London Missionary Society in that Normal School.

Information from ‘History of LMS 1795 -1895’ The Madagascar Mission p.767

The Normal School

…..From1869 to 1872 Mr. Barker was at its head, and, in the latter year, upon Mr. Barker's retirement it passed into the capable hands of the Rev.J. Richardson, by whom it was most ably superintended until 1897.

The school was designed for youths, above fifteen years of age, who came with recommendations from their church and pastor, and also the approval of the missionary in charge of the district. If able to pass a somewhat searching entrance examination they were received on six months' probation, and afterwards for a three years course in reading, writing, composition, arithmetic, scripture, grammar, geography, school management, and an honours course in English drawing, first book of Euclid, and elementary Algebra. The numbers in recent years have varied from 100 to 304, the smaller numbers falling in the years troubled with war disturbances.

The building in which the school was carried on is of two storeys, with five rooms on the first floor, and one large room on the second, and was erected in 1878 at a cost of £1000. The grant from the Society for the work of the school has been £100 per annum , and in some years it has been worked for a smaller sum. This economy in working has been made possible because in their last year many of the students became teachers of the junior classes. In the ten years, 1880 – 1890, 201 youths passed through the school and there is abundant testimony that many of them became the hopeful and useful workers as teachers in the day schools and Sunday schools, and also as native preachers. In 1888 a very active and useful infant department was initiated with great success to carry on the teaching of English but the conquest of the island has practically put an end to this work.

Girls Central School

This was begun in 1872 by Mrs Richardson and Miss Cameron. It was first held in two rooms of a native house at Andohalo where as many as 90 girls were taught.