Richard Bradley was born in about 1734 in England. In 1752 he emigrated to Chester County, Pennsylvania and was a Quaker. He married Elizabeth Sharpless in 1755 at a Quaker Meeting House and they moved to North Carolina with their daughter Lucy in 1758, eventually settling in Wilmington, North Carolina. Bradley likely later left the faith, as he served as a paymaster for the 1st and 3rd North Carolina Regiments of the Continental Line from 1777 to 1778. In 1780 his daughter Lucy married Col. Thomas Brown at their family home. He died in New Hanover County, North Carolina in about October 1782.