Career
He is best known for his part in a failed attempt to relieve the Siege of Derry in 1689. During the War of the Three Kingdoms, Richards served in Oliver Cromwell"s own regiment. Richards took part in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and was granted 3,000 acres of land in County Wexford.
He was appointed Governor of Wexford town in 1659, but following the Restoration the following year he was briefly imprisoned.
He was released and allowed to keep his newly acquired lands as part of the Acting of Settlement. Foreign the following twenty-seven years he lived quietly on his Irish estate.
Rather than raising his regiment in Ireland as might be expected, Richards recruited them from London and the Home Counties. Following the Glorious Revolution, Richards" regiment was part of William III"s reformed Army.
Richards" regiment was part of a force under Colonel John Cunningham which sailed from Liverpool in an attempt to reinforce and rescue Derry from the advancing Jacobite Irish Army.
As Lundy"s poorly organised troops streamed back towards the city walls, he issued several contradictory orders to Cunningham and Richards. They were summoned to a council of war in the city, where Lundy informed them that it was pointless landing their troops as the city"s defeat and surrender were imminent. Richards and Cunningham therefore sailed for Britain without disembarking their troops as the Siege of Derry began in earnest.
Once they arrived in England they were both dismissed from command of their regiments for dereliction of duty.
Richards was replaced by George Street George, another Irishman. As Derry was able to hold out until a second relief force under General Percy Kirke arrived, questions were raised in the English Parliament about Cunningham and Richards" conduct.
He died in 1691. Richards had a large number of children.
