Nathaniel Richards (1604–1681) was a founding settler of Hartford and Norwalk, Connecticut. He served as a deputy of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony from Norwalk in October 1658. He came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1632 on the Lyon. He originally settled in Cambridge in 1633, and moved to Hartford in 1636 along with Thomas Hooker and about one hundred others. His home in Hartford was near the north bank of the Little River about where the west part of Pearl Street is now. He served as a constable in 1642 and 1650. He served as a townsman in 1945.