He was born in Dowth in County Meath, second son of Luke Netterville, judge of the Court of King"s Bench (Ireland) and Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Luttrell, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. His father died in 1560. As he was the son and grandson of judges and a younger son with his liveliehood to earn, it was an obvious career choice for Richard to go to the Irish Bar.
He was noted for his willingness to oppose the Crown, especially on its taxation policies, and as a result was imprisoned several times. He was at the Inns of Court in London in 1561-1562, and was one of several Irish law students who compiled a book on the misgovernment of the Pale. He had returned to Ireland by 1564 to practice law.
The cess, a tax levied for the military upkeep of the Pale, was always unpopular with the Anglo-Irish gentry on whom it was levied, and the book to which Richard as a student had contributed in the early 1560s was partly an attack on lieutenant
Matters came to a head in 1576 over the plans of the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney to reform and extend the cess. Richard was one of three barristers chosen to go to London to protest against the ruinous cost of the plans, the others being Henry Burnell and the former Attorney General for Ireland, Barnaby Skurloke.
The mission turned out badly: Elizabeth was angered by the attack on the royal prerogative, and imprisoned them in the Fleet Prison. In Netterville"s case her attitude was probably influenced by Sidney"s deep dislike of him.
The Lord Deputy wrote to the Queen-
The Queen in the end dealt leniently enough with the three lawyers: as opposition mounted to Sidney"s plans his position in the Irish government weakened.
The lawyers, having made an abject apology, were released from the Fleet and soon pardoned. Nettterville"s imprisonment does not seem to have lessened his willingness to oppose the authority of the Lord Deputy (whoever might hold the office), and in time he clashed with Sidney"s successor Sir John Perrot. Perrot had drawn up an ambitious program of law reform for the 1585 Irish Parliament.
Netterville, who was elected to the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin County, was one of the leaders of the opposition, who thwarted the Deputy at every opportunity.
To Perrot"s fury they even demanded to see his accounts. He complained-
lieutenant angers me to make this bibble-babble account, fitter to be told to boys than any that have wit or judgment, and I think foul scorn they should put me to lieutenant"
He retaliated by imprisoning Nettterville and some of his colleagues, but failed to get his reforms through Parliament.
In 1606 Netterville, despite his age, was imprisoned yet again. Netterville"s imprisonment seems to have been brief.
He died on 5 September 1607 and was buried at Donabate.
