AOSA CENTENARY HISTORY 1841 - 1941
page five
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Appendix
But Thomas Richardson’s interests did not wholly lie in farsighted business power, in the development of great projects, in the roar of industry. Quaker education in general and Ayton School in particular greatly concerned him. He contributed largely to the Flounders Institute where so many Quaker teachers received part of their professional training; he left money in the form of railway shares to Ackworth, Rawdon, Penketh, Sibford, and Wigton. The Cumberland school had a particular place in his heart for it was close to his wife’s birthplace, and he bought land for it and subscribed largely to the school’s new buildings.
He further in his will instituted a trust fund to be administered in perpetuity by his executors, John, Joseph and Henry Pease and their successors, and by representatives of the Quarterly Meetings of London and Middlesex, Durham, and Yorkshire. He directed that a sum of about £300 a year should be spent in the training of teachers, especially those in Friends’ Schools and in helping to promote the ‘comfort and moral and religious welfare’ as well as the education of those too poor to undertake the duty themselves.
But Ayton School always held the first and chief place in his affections. His immediate liberality had alone changed the plan of Jonathan Backhouse from fancy into fact. Five thousand pounds made all the difference between hopes and deeds. And to the school thus started Thomas Richardson never failed to accord the closest and most sympathetic attention and the constant and most practical help.
Few days passed when his familiar figure did not walk up the village from Ayton House or later down from Cleveland Lodge to the School to see what was going on. He did not let big needs close his eyes to small needs. Was the school short of doormats? He presented it with a dozen and one knee mat. Clothesbaskets appeared to be lacking, so half a dozen came from him accompanied as well by four knife-baskets. These were succeeded by a tool chest and tools for the boys, a gift which was balanced on the other side by a large linen chest. Two lamps and four fireguards did their own duties. The kitchen rejoiced in a large amount of cooking utensils costing £81 6s. 8d, and a cooking stove, boiler and appendages, ‘Thomas Richardson having kindly provided the apparatus aforesaid,' entailed a payment of £61 6s. 0d.
The total sum of his actual gifts in cash to the school between 1841 and 1853 amounted to £11,663, and George Dixon considered that ‘without his timely aid it never could have developed into its present dimensions but would probably have collapsed.’ Thomas Richardson’s initial purchase of the estate was supplemented by £600 towards enlarging the boys’ school, by £1,000 for buildings ‘for the purpose of promoting better training of girls in domestic duties, and school room to remove the boys further from the premises occupied by the girls,’ by £1,625 being the balance needed for the completion of the building fund in 1850. In addition he gave £286 towards the water works and £500 for the gas works as well as frequent odd hundreds or two hundreds to reduce the debt, or on account of the high price of provisions. In 1844 he contributed a bonus of £2 per scholar to prevent raising the charge for admission from £8 to £10, and three years later he handed over £l00 to provide for any deficiency which might arise in the admission of suitable children.
Indeed his interest in the School centred on the well-being of the children. The mere dispensing of bounty had to be humanised, the influence had to act on girls and boys. A gift of £10 enabled a promising apprentice to go to the Flounders Institute; a carriage drive aided the convalescence of an invalid child; he helped one of the girls to pay her expenses home and added a supplement for pocket money; the leavers used to have tea at Cleveland Lodge where they appreciated both generous hospitality and kindly advice.
The School Committee truly recorded in their memorial minute that ‘This meeting deeply sensible of the loss sustained in the removal of our valued Friend and liberal benefactor Thomas Richardson, who while at Redcar for the benefit of his health, was called from this state of being early this morning, 4th mo 25th 1853, desires to record its grateful sense of the blessing which in the loving kindnesses of the Most High has been vouchsafed to this Institution from its commencement.
‘Our loss is great; we have often had occasion to regard our late beloved friend as a willing and honoured instrument in promoting the welfare of this Establishment and we desire to cherish a lively trust, that, stimulated by his bright example for the best welfare of the interesting class for whom it was founded, there will not be wanting from time to time, those who will readily contribute towards the furtherance of an object, which for more than twelve years has obtained his cheerful and unswerving support.’
Edward Pease in his Diary noted that ‘My
dear cousin Thomas Richardson departed this life at 5 o’clock
this morning in the 82nd year of his life. He was a man of great integrity.
He had a kind, amiable, generous disposition. His end was peaceful
and his dispositions of love and peace increased with age:’ a
fit epitaph for the man.
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