His elder brother was Sir John Dodderidge (1555–1628), of Bremridge, near South Molton, Devon, Justice of the King's Bench in 1612 and MP for Barnstaple in 1589 and for Horsham in 1604, whose splendid recumbent effigy exists in the Lady Chapel of Exeter Cathedral.

[3] In 1585 Richard bought a house in Cross Street from his fellow burgess Thomas Skinner, which descended in turn to his sons Sir John and to the latter's brother Pentecost Dodderidge (d. circa 1650.

[citation needed] Richard entered the shipping business and owned a 100-ton prize-ship named Prudence, a privateer effectively engaged in licensed piracy.

[6] Richard received at some time letters patent as one of six west country merchants licensed to trade with "the River of Senegal and Gambia in Guinea".

[7] Richard presented to the Corporation of Barnstaple "a great boale with its covering, wrought in silver and a silver-gilt table lamp".