Richard Hudson, son of William Hudson and Alice Turner, departed London August 10, 1635 aboard the Safety bound for the Virginia Plantation and settled in Accomac*, Virginia.

Richard's first wife's name is unknown, but he married a second time in 1638 to Mary Hayes, a widow about 30 years old. Along with his new wife Richard acquired two or more stepchildren and debts three times greater than the value of her estate.

Richard Hudson owned land on Hungars Creek (Hungars was one of the oldest settlements on the Eastern Shore*.), which he probably held from a very early period and appears to have been common knowledge.

Richard Hudson was possibly a coastal trader, for he is mentioned as a a mariner in 1642, Captain of his own ship and his Mate was Thomas Streete. His holdings of land, crops, a mill and warehouse, and livestock indicate his activities were likely local too.

His livestock mark was a "fleur de leis," a device associated with the Hudson coat of arms of Henry the Alderman. The fleur de leis was also the livestock mark of both Richard's sons, Henry and Nicholas, of Somerset County, Maryland.

Richard Hudson disliked Marylanders. Rivalry between Virginia and Maryland for the Chesapeake trade may have contributed, because other traders during this time were also having difficulties with the Marylanders.

Religious differences too may have contributed to his dislike of Marylanders, who were mostly Catholics. His sons, Henry and Nicholas, were closely associated with, if not themselves, Quakers. Nicholas' wife, Elizabeth Freeman, was a Quaker and Somerset County, Maryland, where they lived, was a Quaker refuge. Puritan and Catholic differences were rising in England at that time too.

According to the work of Roy D. Hudson, Richard the sailor, continued to live at Hungars Creek, married a third time to Barbara Jacob, and left a Nuncupative (spoken to witnesses) Will in 1659.