Original Printed Commission, completed in manuscript, signed by Lord William Cavendish Bentinck as Governor General, also by Metcalfe and Bayley, Councillors of the Presidency of Fort William, appointing Charles John Richardson to be Lieutenant of Infantry in the Service of the Honorable United East India Company on the Bengal Establishment by INDIA. East India Company Commission, 1829

Fort William, 27 March 1829. 9 x 15 inches, wafer seal affixed, in superb condition. Lord William Cavendish Bentinck (1774-1839), Governor of Madras (1803-1807), Governor-General of India (1828-1835). Charles John Richardson was born at Negapatam, Madras, on 30 September 1808, the son of Francis Richardson, Esq., Commercial Resident at Nagore, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Richardson, tenth daughter of the 1st Earl Winterton; and the grandson of William Richardson, Esq., sometime Accountant General of the Honourable East India Company. Commissioned Ensign on 13 May 1825, he was posted to the 57th Native Infantry, was promoted Lieutenant on 18 July 1828, and was appointed Instructor and Quartermaster of the Regiment on 22 May 1833. He subsequently served as Adjutant from 22 June 1836 until 21 May 1841, and was promoted Captain on 7 January 1841. He was present at the Insurrection in Bundelkhand in 1842, and the engagement near Jaitpur, where he was slightly wounded. Appointed Assistant to the A.G.G. Bundelkhand, specially attached to Jhansi State, on 20 February 1843, he served as Second in Command, 5th Infantry, Gwalior Contingent, from 13 January 1844, and was Commandant, 4th Infantry, Gwalior Contingent, from 9 November 1849 until going on furlough in 1856. Promoted to Brevet Major on 11 November 1851, he died at St. Leonards-on-Sea on 17 February 1857.