Dexter Richards
HON. DEXTER RICHARDS.
BY JOSEPH W. PARMELEE.
From the twelve immigrants of the name of Richards that originally came from England to this country, at different times, in the years from 1630 to 1728, have come, as may be seen by the records of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, in Boston, a great number of descendants, who, from the beginning, have borne a royal part in the toils and trials and hardships of our early time, and who are to-day represented in the learned professions, the arts, commerce, and manufactures, and general business of this great country.
The sixth of these immigrants, in point of time, was Edward Richards, a passenger in the ship Lion, from London, who landed in Boston, September 16, 1632. His brother, Nathaniel, was also a passenger. Nathaniel afterward joined the party of Rev. Mr. Hooker,—a memorable expedition,—and with it traversed the then howling wilderness to the valley of the Connecticut, and was among the founders of Hartford.
Edward Richards was, for a time, resident at Cambridge, Mass., where he married, September 10, 1638, Susan Hunting. He was afterward one of the sixty-two original proprietors of the town of Dedham, near Boston, where he lived, and died in 1684, and where many of his descendants are to be found at this time. We follow the descent of the line from Edward (1), through John (2), John (3), John (4), Abiathar (5), to Sylvanus in the sixth generation, who, about the beginning of this century, moved, with his family, to Newport, N. H., where he settled on a large tract of land in the western part of the township, on what is known as the old road to Claremont. The place is now (1882) in possession of Shepard H. Cutting.
Mr. Richards was, for some years, one of the largest land-holders and tax-payers in the town. In connection with his farming business he kept a way-side inn, where rest and refreshment awaited the dusty and chilly traveler,—man and beast. This was nearly three-quarters of a century before the scream of the locomotive was ever heard in this part of New Hampshire, a time when the people were mostly dependent upon their own resources, in regard to methods of travel and transportation.