AIRY, Richarda

1804 - 1875

As Richarda Smith, she was born at Edensor, Derbyshire on 31 December 1804 and baptised at Edensor on 25 January 1805, daughter of Richard Smith (died 1837), and his wife Charlotte née Holyoake (1776-1859), who married at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk on 10 October 1802. Richarda married at Edensor on 24 March 1830, [Sir] George Biddell Airy (1801-1892) and was the mother of Suffolk artists Annot Airy, Christabel Airy and Hubert Airy and the grandmother of Anna Airy. In 1838 Richarda was awarded a Literary Pension of £300. The family lived Flamstead House and The White House, Crooms Hill, Greenwich, London but in 1843/4 they purchased Church Cottage, Playford, Ipswich which they improved and enlarged and where they spent considerable periods but it was not until the First World War that it became the Airy's full time base and the house remained in the Airy family until the death of Anna Airy in 1964, and is now named 'Airys'. Richarda was an amateur artist and made a pencil drawing of her home in Playford in 1852. About 1870, Richarda was stricken with a paralytic stroke, being nursed by her unmarried daughters Annot and Christabel. Richarda Airy died at White House, Crooms Hill, Greenwich on 13 August 1875 and buried in the family vault at Playford.

---

Works by This Artist