Richard Hudson 1770 - 1821 and Patience Todner 1767 - 1848

Richard Hudson, the father of George Hudson, was born on 10 March 1770 in Numbers Garth, a street in the town of Sunderland, but in the parish of Bishopwearmouth, Co Durham. His parents were Lancelot and Elizabeth Hudson. He was baptised in St Michael's Church, Bishopwearmouth on 14 May 1770.

Richard was only fourteen when his father died, but by then had probably been working for a few years, following his father's trade and working as a keelman.

Patience Todner was born in late 1767 in Chartershaugh, a mining village in the parish of Chester-le-Street (now an empty field on the edge of Washington New Town, though the name lives on in the bridge crossing the river Wear by the field). Her parents were Ralph and Mary Todner. Ralph was a coal miner, though later on he worked as a water man (probably running a ferry across the river Wear).

On 30 April 1787 seventeen year old Richard married nineteen year old Patience at Holy Trinity Church, Washington, Co Durham. The couple settled in Sunderland and their first child, a boy called Lancelot after Richard's father, was born barely four months later. They went on to have a further 11 children, the last, George, being born in 1810. All the children were born in Sunderland.

Richard continued to work as a keelman, but also worked as a running fitter (in charge of organising a fleet of keelboats), ran a tavern, and for the last few years of his life, was the harbourmaster at Sunderland.

Richard died at the age of 51, on 10 June 1821, and was buried in Holy Trinity Churchyard, in Sunderland.

Patience survived him by twenty-seven years. In the years following Richard's death, she continued to run the Lifeboat Tavern - the pub the couple had run together. Later, it was inherited by one of their daughters. In 1841, Patience was living with one of her sisters (the Todner women were long-lived) running another pub, this time back at Chartershaugh. Patience died in Sunderland on 7 January 1848, and was buried alongside her husband at Holy Trinity.


Their children were:

Lancelot Hudson 1787-1854
Ralph Hudson 1789-1852
Elizabeth Hudson 1792-1863
Richard Hudson 1794-??
Thomas Hudson 1796-1799
Margaret Hudson 1798-??
Jane Hudson 1800-1870
Patience Hudson 1802-1857
Thomas Hudson 1804-1810
William Hudson 1806-1875
Ann Hudson 1808-1809
George Hudson 1810-1869