Locating a birth record from Bradford in mid nineteenth century

[heywood]

There are newspaper snippets but whether it is your man:

Patent (as mentioned) 1898 William Whitehead Richardson, Blackburn

1880 William Whitehead Richardson, Rainford being sued. He is 19 yrs old.

[emilywilsonmcfarland]

Yes I looked in to that. It's a typo unfortunately.

William Whitehead Richardson of Rainford, Lancashire in the St. Helens Examiner in 1880. He is being sued by a draper as his son, Kemp Richardson, ordered a cricket jacket and trousers under his father’s name. When he was sent the bill he refused to pay as he did not authorise his son to buy these items.

I found Kemp Richardson - born in Rainford, Lancashire 1861 -  to a Richard Whitehead Richardson (either newspaper or baptismal record is incorrect). His family are living in Rainford in the census’ but no sign of a son named William. There is a son called Henry William but wrong birth dates. The father is listed continuously as Richard so I assumed a mistake in the paper. He was a brewer from Lancashire and married Emma Kemp in 1850.

[heywood]

What was his occupation?

Have you looked at William Richardson b 1864, Selby mmn Thompson.
It’s not Bradford though.

He seems to disappear from censuses after 1891 3877/9

1881 he is an Engineer
1891 he is a Steam Engine Maker

[emilywilsonmcfarland]

Yes there's a thought. Is he living in Bradford in the censuses? In his daughter's diary she says her father learnt his engineering skills 'on the floors of the Bradford workshops', so Bradford definitely plays a part in his story.

[heywood]

Perhaps she meant Blackburn too.

What kind of an engineer was he? I see the patent references tubular poles.

[emilywilsonmcfarland]

He was a mining engineer, and worked for various mining companies in Malaysia, Singapore and Bolivia.

Blackburn is a strong suggestion, but it doesn't rule out the 1921 census birth place of Bradford, and his daughter mentioning it too.