James Richardson was born on March 29, 1810, in Perthshire, Scotland.

He was a farmer, schoolteacher, and geologist. He immigrated to Canada in 1829, where he worked as a farm labourer in Lachine and later as a teacher in Beauharnois County, near Montreal. Then he was employed by the newly established Geological Survey of Canada as an assistant on surveys of Lake Superior in 1846 and 1847. During succeeding summers, he served as an assistant in the Geological Survey investigations of the geology of the Eastern Townships from the American border to the base of the Gaspé peninsula. Richardson played a major role in the collection of mineral specimens from the Ottawa and Quebec regions, which were included in the Canadian exhibit at the universal exposition in Paris in 1855. In 1856, he became a permanent “explorer” with the Geological Survey. In 1860, he became the first in Canada to use photography to record geological features. In the 1870s, he spent time exploring the coast of British Columbia. In 1878, Richardson Inlet in the Queen Charlotte Islands was named by George Mercer Dawson in recognition of Richardson’s contribution to the geological exploration of Canada. In 1880, he collected specimens for McGill College in Montreal. He also served for a period as cabinet keeper for the Geological Survey.

In 1831, he married Barbara McConnachay (1811–1885). He died on November 18, 1883, in Matane, Quebec.