John Richards

     John Richards was born on 7 July 1736 at New Haven, Connecticut.^1,2 He was the son of John Richards and Anna Prentice.² His father was a merchant and often away. His wife joined him, and she died before their return. He remarried, but remained in New York with his new wife. John was owned and supported at New Haven, by regular remittances from his father, who, for good reasons, is believed to have resumed and continued his residence abroad. John, was aware of his father’s design to leave him the estate in New Haven, which had been his uncle Paul’s, and always regarded himself as fraudulently kept out of it; yet of the existence of the will and bequest he had no knowledge; and his perfidious step-mother and coexecutor John Van Rensselaer never executed the clause relating to him, but allowed his portion to remain in the hands of John Hubbard, who, according to tradition, had already for years pocketed the rent designed by the father for the support and education of the son.²

John Richards married Lydia Thomas, daughter of Charles Thomas and Lydia Augur, in 1763.



John Richards died on 31 March 1800 at West Haven, Connecticut, at age 63.^1,3,2