| AdminHistory | The Richards family came to Henley from Astwood Bank. In the 19th century they lived at Camp Hill Cottage, Beaudesert, and later at Lithia Place. The early 19th century accounts of Joseph Johnson Richards contain entries for the sale of bottles of Constitution Water which he prepared at Camp Hill Cottage and sold as a cure for strangury, gravel and stone. He also seems to have had a farm interest. The Constitution Water business was carried on by later members of the family into the 20th century. Other members of the family ran the Post Office and were tradesmen in the town. There was an American connection; at least one son settled in America early in the 19th century and one of his children, William Washington Richards, returned to Henley as a young man, married his cousin and spent the remainder of his life in England. This small archive contains letters from his family in America and letters and papers in connection with his attempt to draw an American pension for disabilities suffered whilst in the New York Militia in 1861. Later on, his daughter Grace was to be a nurse at the V.A.D. hospital in Henley during the First World War. |