Richard H. Cardwell (August 1, 1845 - ?) was born in Madison, North Carolina. Losing his father when he was only an infant, there were many difficulties in receiving an education. His mother taught him to read. As a youth, he attended local schools and worked on the family farm in the summers. He attended, for brief sessions, the Beulah Male Academy and the Madison Male Academy.

At sixteen, he enlisted in the junior reserves of North Carolina and served until the end of the war. He returned then to North Carolina but, in 1869, moved to Hanover County, Virginia and, four years later, to Doswell, where he lived for two years. Because he was devoted to the study of law, he carried on his education by studying at night and, for a while, in the office of Samuel C. Redd. He was admitted to the bar in 1874 and began practice in Richmond.

From 1881 to 1895, he was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Hanover and, in 1895, he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals where he remained until 1916. He was made president of the court on June 12, 1916, but resigned on November 6, 1916.

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