Family and Education

b. c.1676, s. of Edward Richards of Yaverland and Collingbourne Kingston, Wilts. by Jane, da. and coh. of Sir Francis Pile, 2nd Bt.†, of Compton Beauchamp, Berks.  educ. Exeter, Oxf. matric. 9 Nov. 1693, aged 17, BCL 1699.  m. Jan. 1710, Rachel (d. 1737), da. of Sir Edmund Warneford of Sevenhampton, Wilts., 1da.  suc. fa. 1678.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Berks. 1717.

Biography

The fortunes of the Richards family had been laid by German Richards, vice-admiral of the Isle of Wight, who by 1567 had acquired a third of the manor of Yaverland, his son Edward buying the other two-thirds in 1573. Richards himself inherited Yaverland and property in Collingbourne Kingston from his father, and the manor and manor house of Compton Beauchamp from his mother. Returned for Newport in the second election of 1701 on the interest of Lord Cutts (John*), governor of the Isle of Wight, he was classed as a Whig by Robert Harley*. He did not stand again and died early in 1729. In his will, proved 8 May 1729, in which he mentions lands in the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Dorset and Wiltshire, he left all his property to his only daughter, Anne Richards, and the Latin and Greek books in his library to Exeter College, Oxford.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. VCH Berks. iv. 523–5, 528; PCC 17 Reeve.
• 2. VCH Hants, v. 206, 207–8; PCC 146 Abbot.