To him was born sometime between 1480 and 1490 a son whom he named Richard.He had a brother, Robert, whom Henry VIII granted a messuage in Bucklersbury[6] on 24 February 1539,[7] and who died in 1557.

By 1528 Rich was in search of a patron and wrote to Cardinal Wolsey; in 1529, Thomas Audley succeeded in helping him get elected as an MP for Colchester.

As King's Solicitor, Rich travelled to Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdonshire in January 1536 to take the inventory of the goods of Katherine of Aragon, and wrote to Henry advising how he might properly obtain her possessions.

His own share of the spoil, acquired either by grant or purchase, included Leez (Leighs) Priory and about 100 manors in Essex.

Despite the share he had taken in the suppression of the monasteries, the prosecution of Thomas More and Bishop Fisher and the part he played under Edward VI and Elizabeth, his religious beliefs remained nominally Catholic.

Rich took part in the prosecution of bishops Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner, and had a role in the harsh treatment accorded to the future Mary I of England.

In Mary's reign he founded a chaplaincy with provision for the singing of masses and dirges, and the ringing of bells in Felsted church.

These donations were transferred in 1564 to the foundation of Felsted School for instruction, primarily for children born on the founder's manors, in Latin, Greek, and divinity.

Rich had an illegitimate son named Richard (d. 1598[17]) whom he acknowledged fully in his will with legacies and guardians for his minority, his education in the common law, and suitable marital arrangements.

[19] Since the mid-16th century Rich has had a reputation for immorality, financial dishonesty, double-dealing, perjury and treachery rarely matched in English history.

[20] Rich is the supporting villain in the play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, which shows his slide into corruption.

The final line of the film notes that Rich "died in his bed" in juxtaposition with More's martyrdom and the other major characters' untimely deaths.

Rich is a supporting character in C. J. Sansom's Shardlake series of historical mystery novels, which are set in Henry VIII's reign.

Bryan Dick portrays him in the BBC television adaptation of the first two novels, and Tom Mothersdale in the last of Wolf Hall.