Nathaniel Rich (merchant adventurer)

Sir Nathaniel Rich (1585–1636) was an English merchant adventurer and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1629.

Nathaniel Rich was (probably elder) son of Richard Rich of Leez Priory, Essex (an illegitimate son of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich) and his wife Jane Machell. In 1598 Nathaniel and his sister Margaret (afterwards Dame Margaret Wroth) were with their mother at their father's deathbed at Leez, attended by William Noyes, then 'minister of this place'. Nathaniel matriculated pensioner from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and graduated B.A. in 1604/05. He had a legal training, and was admitted a member of Gray's Inn on 2 February 1609/10, as of Ash, Essex.

In 1614 he was elected Member of Parliament for Totnes. He was knighted at Hatton House on 8 November 1617. He was a board member of the Somers Isles Company, and in 1619 bought shares in the Virginia Company. In November 1620, he was listed as one of the shareholders of the Plymouth Council for New England, a group that would open up colonization of New England. In 1621 he was elected MP for East Retford and sat on a royal commission in Ireland in 1622.

Rich became a prominent member of the Virginia Company, and when, in April 1623, there occurred the great split between two factions in the company, he took a leading part on the side of his cousin, Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick. In 1624 he was elected MP for East Retford and for Harwich and chose to sit for Harwich. He was specially attacked by the opposing faction of the Virginia Company when the dispute came before the House of Commons in May 1624, but he sat on the Virginia commission of July 1624.

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