John Grubb Richardson

John Grubb Richardson (13 November 1813 – 1891) was an Irish linen merchant, industrialist and philanthropist who founded the model village of Bessbrook near Newry in 1845, in what is now Northern Ireland. Five years later he founded a major Atlantic steamship line that significantly improved conditions for immigrant passengers fleeing Ireland after the Great Famine. He also founded Richardson Fertilizer Limited that remained in business under its original name until 2002.

Richardson was the second of ten children of James Nicholson Richardson (1782–1847), a wealthy Quaker linen merchant, and Anna Grubb, from a large Quaker family in Clonmel. The Richardson family originally came to Ireland from England in 1622 and the Grubb family also came from England in 1656. John Richardson was raised at Glenmore House, outside Lisburn, County Antrim. At the age of eleven, he boarded for three years at Ballitore, County Kildare (the same Quaker school attended by Edmund Burke) before attending another Quaker school at Frenchay, Gloucestershire.

In 1844, Richardson married Helena Grubb (27 March 1819 – 7 December 1849) of Cahir Abbey, County Tipperary, who was his second cousin, his mother, Anne Grubb, and her father, Richard Grubb, were first cousins. John and Helena's shared second cousin once removed was Thomas Grubb, founder of the Grubb Telescope Company. John and Helena had a son, James Nicholson Richardson before she died giving birth to a daughter, named Helena. In 1853, Richardson married Jane Marion Wakefield, of Moyallon House, County Down. A Quaker, John declined the offer of a baronetcy. With Jane, he had one son, Thomas Wakefield Richardson and seven daughters. He died at Moyallon House, an estate inherited through his second wife's family, near Gilford, County Down. His estate surrounding his Bessbrook home at The Wood House and Derrymore House (now a National Trust property) is a designated historic park.