Richard Waldron (February 21, 1694 – August 23, 1753) was an American politician and merchant who was major opponent of the Wentworth oligarchy in the Province of New Hampshire.

[2] He supported a continued political subordination of New Hampshire to Massachusetts and opposed moves to separation from this traditional senior partner.

Most of their six children died early, including Harvard-educated Richard, the eldest, who was lost at sea in 1745, aged 25;[4][5] this left only sons Thomas and George to live long into adulthood.

In the summer of 1694 the young Waldron and his parents narrowly escaped the massacre of his great aunt Cutt and household at the Pulpitt Farm.

[8] On the eve of commencement for 1711 he and another student "conducted themselves in such a manner that the scandalized authorities the next morning denied John Wainwright [who was a year older and ready to graduate] his degree.

"[13] "... [A] major opponent of the Wentworth oligarchy until his death in 1753," reads a caption to his portrait printed in Colonial New Hampshire - A History.

For the next thirty-five years he sought both to restore and to maintain himself, his family, and his friends in positions of leadership in New Hampshire during an era of economic and social change."

Indeed I opposed the oppropriating of the excise to the Governours salary, as it was a General Grant to the King by a perpetual Act, for answering the incidents of Government.

[26] These copies suffered at the hands of the children of later residents of the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion, who admitted they "mischievously touched up the [portraits] with fence paint!".