Richard Peters, was born in Liverpool about 1704, the son of Ralph Peters, town clerk of that place. He was sent when quite young to Westminster School, where he finished before he was fifteen years of age. Instead of going to Oxford, his parents sent him to Leyden, and on his return to England he undertook the study of law, although against his will, for he had an inclination to take orders. He was five years in the Inner Temple, but his predilections for the ministry increasing with time, his father finally consented to his taking orders and he was ordained by the Bishop of Winchester 20 September, 1729, Deacon, and was ordained Priest 24 March, 1730. He became curate at Latham Chapel in the parish of Ormskirk, and subsequently became tutor of two young wards and kinsmen of the Earl of Derby, and lived with the latter until July, 1735. A youthful marriage which he contracted while at Westminster school, but which was not consummated, with a domestic, was the cause of his going to Leyden instead of Oxford; but the woman was supposed to have died about 1733, and he married in 1734 Miss Stanley, sister of his pupils. But within a few months, the information of the death of the woman having proven unfounded, he left England and his wife and came to Bristol, Pennsylvania, the residence of Andrew Hamilton's wife, whose first husband, Preeson, had been a maternal relative of his. He became assistant to the Rev. Archibald Cummings at Christ Church.
But in a brief space, dissensions arose between him and his Rector, and eventually the Bishop of London suspended his license. However, the Vestry showed their estimation of him in their letter of 28 July, 1737, to the Bishop, "though this gentleman," they say, for reasons which we humbly beg leave to say appear to us to be just, has thought fit to decline continuing to give his assistance * * * yet it is true that, during the time he has exercised his ministerial function in this city, he has given great satisfaction in general to our congregation, and has been of real service to the Church of England; to which, by his conduct, both in the pulpit and out of it, he has drawn great numbers of the more understanding Dissenters of all persuasions.
