In many versions, Sir Richard appears as a sorrowful knight whose lands will be forfeited because he pledged them to an abbot to get a loan he can not repay; Robin assists him with the money.
Later in the Gest, he reappears, now named, and gives Robin Hood and the Merry Men sanctuary from the Sheriff of Nottingham by hiding them in his castle, after they have nearly been caught in an archery tournament; this part of the tale features in fewer later versions.
[1]: 97 Other significant disorders occurred in Sherwood Forest to the south, and could have been "woven in" to the developing Robin Hood tales by mixing in Lancashire-Yorkshire folk memories of disruptions of the king's peace, according to Holt.
[1]: 92–3 Holt points out that Guy of Gisborne, a character in another early Robin Hood ballad (Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Child Ballad 118) takes his name from a village, (Gisburn), ten miles from Wryesdale east of the Bowland forest, in his opinion further bolstering the case for Lancashire and Yorkshire, especially the West Riding of Yorkshire supplying many of the personages and places mentioned in the A Gest of Robyn Hode.
The knight relates that he lives in this castle with a small group of loyal servants, his lady fair, and a son whom he loves dearly.
In order to save his son, the knight was forced to mortgage all his goods and landholdings to raise the sum of four hundred pounds from the abbot of Saint Mary's Abbey.
'He slewe a knyght of Lancaster, That shulde haue ben myn ayre, Whanne he was twenty wynter olde, In felde wolde iust full fayre.'
'My londes both sette to wedde, Robyn, Vntyll a certayn day, To a ryche abbot here besyde, Of Seynt Mari Abbey.'
Robin and his men are moved by the knight's tale, and they offer him wine, the needed sum, tack and full livery befitting his station.
The lovelorn knight, John of York, who appears in an episode of the second season of the 2006 BBC series Robin Hood is clearly based on Richard at the Lee.
Parallels to the story of Richard are that John claimed only to have 10 shillings, Robin tested his honesty and said he would assist him if he were telling the truth, and then gave him money to enable him to repay his debt.
Steven A. McKay's 2014 novella Knight of the Cross - a spin-off from the author's Forest Lord series - features Sir Richard-at-Lee battling ancient evil in medieval Rhodes.