William Richardson (antiquary)

William Richardson FSA (1698–1775) was an English academic and antiquary, Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1736.

Born at Wilshamstead, on 23 July 1698, he was son of Samuel Richardson, vicar of Wilshamstead, near Bedford, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Bentham, rector of Knebworth and Paul's Walden, both in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Oakham and Westminster School, and was admitted on 19 March 1716 as a pensioner at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was elected scholar. In 1720 he was a Johnson exhibitioner. He graduated B.A. in 1719, M.A. in 1723, and D.D. in 1735.

Richardson was ordained deacon in September 1720, and priest in September 1722. On the resignation of his father he was appointed prebendary of Welton Rivall in Lincoln Cathedral on 19 October 1724, and held that prebend until 1760. He acted as curate at St. Olave's, Southwark, until 1726, when he was elected lecturer there.

Richardson was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 19 June 1735; William Stukeley noted he had a good coin collection. He was a Tory in politics; and his residence at Cambridge for his research led to his election as Master. On 10 August 1736 he was unanimously, and without his knowledge, chosen Master of Emmanuel College, although he had never been a Fellow. In 1737 and in 1769 (on this occasion after a contest with Roger Long) he was elected vice-chancellor of the university, and from 1746 to 1768, when he resigned the post, he was one of the king's chaplains.

Richardson died at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 15 March 1775, after a lingering decay, and was buried in the college chapel by the side of his wife, who had died on 21 March 1759. A portrait of him was Cambridge, depicted in old age, somewhat stern, seated with a pen in his hand.

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