Richard Abell was a British politician.

The eldest son of William Abell, of East Claydon

East Claydon

East Claydon is a village and is also a civil parish in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is about miles south west of Winslow.The village name 'Claydon' is Anglo Saxon in origin, and derives from the + dun meaning 'clay hill'...

, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

, he was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...

. He was called to the bar as a member of the Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in 1714.

He entered Parliament at a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 in 1720 for Richmond, Yorkshire

Richmond (Yorks) (UK Parliament constituency)

Richmond is a constituency located in North Yorkshire, which elects one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting....

 as a Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

, in the interest of the Duke of Wharton

Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton

Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton , powerful Jacobite politician, notorious libertine and rake, profligate, and alcoholic, was one of the few people in English history, and the first since the 15th century, to have been raised to a Dukedom whilst still a minor and not closely related to the...

. He transferred to Aylesbury

Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Aylesbury is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party has held the seat since 1924, and held it at the 2010 general election with a 52.2% share of the vote.-Boundaries:...

 in 1722. He did not stand for Aylesbury again in 1727. In 1728, he sold the manor of East Claydon to the Viscount Fermanagh

Ralph Verney, 1st Earl Verney

Ralph Verney, 1st Earl Verney , styled The Honourable from 1703 to 1717 and subsequently known as The Viscount Fermanagh until 1742, was an Irish peer and Tory politician.-Background:...

, retaining a life interest in the property.