Little is known of Rich's early life. He may have studied at Cambridge before 1516. That year, he entered the
Middle Temple as a lawyer and at some point between 1520 and 1525 he was a reader at the
New Inn. By 1528 Rich was in search of a patron and wrote to
Cardinal Wolsey; in 1529,
Thomas Audley succeeded in helping him get elected as an MP for
Colchester. As Audley's career advanced in the early 1530s, so did Rich's, through a variety of legal posts, before he became truly prominent in the mid-1530s. Other preferments followed, and in 1533 Rich was knighted and became the
Solicitor General for England and Wales in which capacity he was to act under
Thomas Cromwell as a "lesser hammer" for the demolition of the monasteries, and to secure the operation of
Henry VIII's
Act of Supremacy. Rich had a share in the trials of
Thomas More and
Bishop John Fisher. In both cases his evidence against the prisoner included admissions made in friendly conversation, and in More's case the words were given a misconstruction that could hardly be other than wilful. While on trial, More said that Rich was "always reputed light of his tongue, a great dicer and gamester, and not of any commendable fame." Rich also played a major part in Cromwell's fall. As King's Solicitor, Rich travelled to
Kimbolton Castle in
Huntingdonshire in January 1536 to take the inventory of the goods of
Katherine of Aragon, and wrote to Henry advising how he might properly obtain her possessions.
Chancellor On 19 April 1536 Rich became the chancellor of the
Court of Augmentations, established for the disposal of the monastic revenues. His own share of the spoil, acquired either by grant or purchase, included
Leez (Leighs) Priory and about 100 manors in
Essex. Rich also acquired—and destroyed—the real estate and holdings of the Priory of
St Bartholomew-the-Great in Smithfield. He was
Speaker of the House of Commons in the same year, and advocated the king's policy. Despite the share he had taken in the
suppression of the monasteries, the prosecution of Thomas More and Bishop Fisher and the part he played under
Edward VI and Elizabeth, his religious beliefs remained nominally Catholic. Rich was also a participant in the torture of
Anne Askew, the only woman tortured at the
Tower of London. Both he and
Chancellor Wriothesley turned the wheels of the rack to torture her.
Baron Rich tower in Essex Rich was an assistant executor of the
will of King Henry VIII, and received a grant of lands. He became
Baron Rich of
Leez on 26 February 1547. In the next month he succeeded
Wriothesley as chancellor. He supported
Lord Protector Edward Seymour in his policies, including reforms in Church matters and the prosecution of his brother
Thomas Seymour, until the crisis of October 1549, when he joined with
John Dudley. He resigned his office in January 1552.
Prosecution of bishops . Rich took part in the prosecution of bishops
Stephen Gardiner and
Edmund Bonner, and had a role in the harsh treatment accorded to the future
Mary I of England. But upon her accession, Mary showed Rich no ill will. He took an active part in the restoration of the old religion in Essex under the new reign, and was one of the most active persecutors. His reappearances in the
privy council were rare during Mary's reign, but under
Elizabeth he served on a commission to inquire into the grants of land made under Mary, and in 1566 was sent for to advise on the question of the queen's marriage. He died at
Rochford in
Essex, on 12 June 1567, and was buried in Holy Cross Church in
Felsted. In Mary's reign he founded a chaplaincy with provision for the singing of
masses and
dirges, and the ringing of bells in Felsted church. To this was added a
Lenten allowance of herrings to the inhabitants of three parishes. These donations were transferred in 1564 to the foundation of
Felsted School for instruction, primarily for children born on the founder's manors, in
Latin, Greek, and divinity. The patronage of the school remained in the founder's family until 1851.
Descendants Richard Rich died in June 1567. Rich's descendants formed the powerful
Rich family, lasting for three centuries, acquiring several titles in the
Peerage of England and intermarrying with numerous other
noble families. By his wife Elizabeth Jenks (Gynkes) (d.1558) he had 15 children. Thirteen of them are shown in the Essex pedigrees. The eldest son, Robert (1537?–1581), second Baron Rich, supported the
Reformation. One grandson, Richard Rich, was the first husband of
Katherine Knyvet: another, the younger
Robert Rich, third Baron Rich (1559–1619) was created First
Earl of Warwick (of the third creation) in 1618, and was the father of
Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick, who was Commander of the
Commonwealth Navy during the
Interregnum. This line failed with the death of the
8th Earl on 7 September 1759. Rich had an illegitimate son named Richard (d. 1598) whom he acknowledged fully in his will with legacies and guardians for his minority, his education in the common law, and suitable marital arrangements. In this line of descent was his grandson the merchant adventurer
Sir Nathaniel Rich, and his great-grandson
Nathaniel Rich (nephew of the elder Nathaniel), a colonel in the
New Model Army during the
English Civil War. One of his distant descendants is
Rory Stewart. == Legacy ==