Editing Samuel Richardson (section)

===Early life===
The Richardsons were not exiled forever from London; they eventually returned, and the young Richardson was educated at [[Christ's Hospital]] grammar school.<ref name="Dobson"/> The extent that he was educated at the school is uncertain, and [[James Henry Leigh Hunt|Leigh Hunt]] wrote years later:

{{blockquote |It is a fact not generally known that Richardson... received what education he had (which was very little, and did not go beyond English) at Christ's Hospital. It may be wondered how he could come no better taught from a school which had sent forth so many good scholars; but in his time, and indeed till very lately, that foundation was divided into several schools, none of which partook of the lessons of the others; and Richardson, agreeably to his father's intention of bringing him up to trade, was most probably confined to the writing school, where all that was taught was writing and arithmetic.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hunt |first=Leigh |title=London Journal |chapter=Supplement |number=2 |year=1834}}.</ref>}}

However, this conflicts with Richardson's nephew's account that "'it is certain that [Richardson] was never sent to a more respectable seminary' than 'a private grammar school' located in Derbyshire".<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |4}}

{{quote box
|width=40%
|quote=I recollect that I was early noted for having invention. I was not fond of play, as other boys; my school-fellows used to call me ''Serious'' and ''Gravity''; and five of them particularly delighted to single me out, either for a walk, or at their father's houses, or at mine, to tell them stories, as they phrased it. Some I told them, from my reading, as true; others from my head, as mere invention; of which they would be most fond, and often were affected by them. One of them particularly, I remember, was for putting me to write a history, as he called it, on the model of Tommy Pots; I now forget what it was, only that it was of a servant-man preferred by a fine young lady (for his goodness) to a lord, who was a libertine. All of my stories carried with them, I am bold to say, a useful moral.
|source= — Samuel Richardson on his storytelling.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |4}}
}}
Little is known of Richardson's early years beyond the few things that Richardson was willing to share.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |4}} Although he was not forthcoming with specific events and incidents, he did talk about the origins of his writing ability; Richardson would tell stories to his friends and spent his youth constantly writing letters.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |5}} One such letter, written when Richardson was almost 11, was directed to a woman in her 50s who was in the habit of constantly criticizing others. "Assuming the style and address of a person in years", Richardson cautioned her about her actions.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |5}} However, his handwriting was used to determine that it was his work, and the woman complained to his mother.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |5}} The result was, as he explains, that "my mother chid me for the freedom taken by such a boy with a woman of her years" but also "commended my principles, though she censured the liberty taken".<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |5}}

After his writing ability was known, he began to help others in the community write letters.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |6}} In particular, Richardson, at the age of 13, helped many of the girls that he associated with to write responses to various love letters they received.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |6}} As Richardson claims, "I have been directed to chide, and even repulse, when an offence was either taken or given, at the very time that the heart of the chider or repulser was open before me, overflowing with esteem and affect".<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |6}} Although this helped his writing ability, he in 1753 advised the Dutch minister Stinstra not to draw large conclusions from these early actions:

{{blockquote |You think, Sir, you can account from my early secretaryship to young women in my father's neighbourhood, for the characters I have drawn of the heroines of my three works. But this opportunity did little more for me, at so tender an age, than point, as I may say, or lead my enquiries, as I grew up, into the knowledge of female heart.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |7}}}}

He continued to explain that he did not fully understand females until writing ''Clarissa'', and these letters were only a beginning.<ref name="Dobson"/>{{rp |7}}