Legh Richmond English divine, was born on the 29th of January 1772, in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, and in 1798 was appointed to the joint curacies

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 of St. Mary's Church, Brading

St. Mary's Church, Brading

St. Mary's Church, Brading is a parish church in the Church of England located in Brading, Isle of Wight.-History:The church is medieval dating from the twelfth century. At this church the Revd Legh Richmond is thought to have originated the now globally popular idea of using boards with movable...

 and St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland

St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland

St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland is a parish church in the Church of England located in Yaverland, Isle of Wight.-Parish Status:The church is within a group which includes:*St. John the Baptist Church, Yaverland*St. Mary's Church, Brading-Organ:...

 on the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

. He was powerfully influenced by William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire...

's Practical View of Christianity, and took a prominent interest in the British and Foreign Bible Society

British and Foreign Bible Society

The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world....

, the Church Missionary Society and similar institutions.

In 1805 he became assistant-chaplain to the Lock Hospital, London, and rector of Turvey, Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, where he remained till his death on the 5th of May 1827. The best known of his writings is The Dairyman's Daughter

The Dairyman's Daughter

The Dairyman's Daughter is an early 19th century Christian religious booklet of 52 pages, which had a remarkably wide distribution and influence. It was a narrative of the religious experience of Elizabeth Wallbridge, who was the person after whom the book was named.-Elizabeth Wallbridge:Elizabeth...

, of which as many as four millions in nineteen languages were circulated before 1849. A collected edition of his stories of village life was first published in 1814 under the title of Annals of the Poor. He also edited a series of Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

 theological works, with biographies, in eight volumes called Fathers of the English Church (1807–12).

He is thought to have originated the now globally popular idea of using boards with movable numbers to indicate hymn numbers during church services, whilst at Brading

Brading

The ancient 'Kynges Towne' of Brading is the main town of the civil parish of the same name. The ecclesiastical parish of Brading used to cover about a tenth of the Isle of Wight. The current civil parish now includes the town itself and Adgestone, Morton, Nunwell and other outlying areas between...

.

External links

• Rev. Legh Richmond, A Sermon on the Sin of Cruelty Towards the Brute Creation, 1801 Quotes & Excerpts
• The Negro Servant in "Annals of the Poor. Containing The Dairyman's Daughter, (with considerable additions) The Negro Servant, and the Young Cottager." New Haven: Whiting and Tiffany, Sign of Franklin's Head, Corner of College Green, 1815.

Attribution