Collection search - Michael Richards fonds [textual record]

Record information – Brief
1
Michael Richards fonds [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1696-1703.

Reference:

R17642-0-3-E, MG21-StoweMSS.463, MG21-StoweMSS.464

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

104831

Context of this record:

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Michael Richards fonds
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Record information – Details

Fonds includes:

2 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1696-1703.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

6 cm of textual records (352 p.) : transcripts.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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The material transcribed (352 pages) consists of Newfoundland journals and a Newfoundland letterbook, 1700 to 1703.

Provenance:

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Richards, Michael, 1673-1721

Biography/Administrative history:

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Richards, Michael, 1673-1721 : Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.

Brigadier-General Michael Richards (1673-1721) was the son of Jacob Richards of Solsborough, County Wexford, Ireland. He was the brother of Colonel Jacob Richards ([1660]-1701), of Major-General John Richards (1669-1709), and of Elizabeth (d. 1711), wife of postmaster-general James Craggs the elder (1657-1721). With his brother Jacob, he was employed in the artillery train under Ginkell in Ireland in 1691. He received a lieutenant's commission in 1692 and saw service with the artillery train in Flanders, where he so distinguished himself that he was appointed to be the chief engineer of the train in the 1697 expedition to Newfoundland under Colonel Sir John Gibsone (1637-1717) and Captain Sir John Norris (ca. 1671-1749).

On 7 June 1697, he landed at St. John's, where he surveyed the harbour and, despite great difficulties, built the barracks and began work on the fort. He left Newfoundland with Gibsone in October 1697 but later returned, probably with Commodore Fairborne, in 1700 and was promoted captain on 1 September 1701. In the course of the next three years, he carried on the work of building a redoubt covering the entrance to the harbour. He returned to England in the autumn of 1703 with the squadron of Vice-Admiral John Graydon (d. 1726).

After leaving Newfoundland, Richards served successfully under the Duke of Marlborough in the Netherlands, 1704-1706. He was appointed Galway's chief engineer in Spain, 1707, and served in many of the great engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1711, he was promoted brigadier-general and appointed chief-engineer of Great Britain. On 19 November 1714, he was appointed Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. In 1716, at his instance and under his direction, the ordnance train was converted into a regiment (later, the royal artillery) independent of the king's engineers, while that corps was itself enlarged and reorganized. In 1720, he founded the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He died, unmarried, on 5 February 1721.

Finding aid:

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Textual records (Electronic) The finding aid provides a descriptive list of the contents of the letterbook in Stowe MSS. 464. MSS0599-5 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002413.pdf

Additional information:

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General note:

Documents created in: London, England.

Custodial history:

The Stowe Manuscripts formed part of the collection of manuscripts made by the Grenville family at Stowe, their Buckinghamshire family seat. When Richard Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1797-1861), was forced to sell his library in 1849, it was purchased by the 4th Earl of Ashburnham, whose son Bertram, 5th Earl of Ashburnham (1840-1913), sold it to the nation in 1883. The part of the manuscript collection that went to the British Library is kept as a separate collection, catalogued as Stowe MSS. 1-1085. Stowe MSS. 447-480 comprise the military collections of the three Richards brothers., In 1912-1914, the National Archives of Canada transcribed Add. MSS. 463-464, which contain the journals and letterbook of Michael Richards, relating to his service in Newfoundland.

Location of originals note:

Originals with the British Library, London, England.

Source:

Private

Former archival reference no.:

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MG21-StoweMSS.463
MG21-StoweMSS.464
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [MG21 Stowe Mss. 463] 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

Volume [MG21 Stowe Mss. 464] 1

[Consultation 90 Open]

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Date modified:: 2024-06-12