Samuel W. Richards (1824–1909) was a religious and political leader in 19th-century Utah and in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Richards was the son of Phinehas Richards and his wife, the former Wealthy Dewey. He was born in Richmond, Massachusetts. He joined the LDS Church at age 14 shortly after his father was baptized. At age 18 he worked on building a railroad in the vicinity of Richmond, having learned the carpenter's trade from his father. He moved with his family to Nauvoo which is where he met his first wife, Mary Haskin Parker.
Richards worked on the building of the Nauvoo Temple, especially in joining. After ordinance work began there he served as an ordinance worker. He married Parker in the Nauvoo Temple in January 1846. Parker had joined the church in England, with Willard Richards, Samuel's uncle, having been one of the missionaries involved in teaching her the gospel. She had earlier, until she was ten, attended a school taught by Jeanetta Richards, whose father was the minister of the congregationalist Church Mary and her family belong to before joining the LDS Church. Jeanetta later married Willard, creating even more connection between Mary and the Richards family even before she married Samuel.
Samuel left on a mission to Great Britain in May 1846 while Mary traveled with Samuel's parents and lived in various locations in Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. On his mission Samuel served as president of the Scottish Conference. He returned in 1848. For a year Samuel and Mary lived in modern Fremont County, Iowa along the banks of the Nioshoba River on a farm Samuel had rented. This area was at the time claimed by and administered by Missouri.
In 1849 Richards, along with his wife and an infant daughter, went to Utah in a wagon company headed by Silas Richards. On reaching Utah Richards worked as a farmer and served as a member of both the Salt Lake City Council and the State of Deseret Constitutional Convention. He was also a member of the board of directors of the University of Deseret.
From 1851-1854 Richards again served a mission in Great Britain. For much of this time he served as president of the British Mission (succeeding his brother, Franklin D. Richards) and editor of the Millennial Star. He also oversaw the Perpetual Education Fund operations in Europe.
In 1855 Richards married his first plural wife. This was Mary Ann Parker, the niece of his first wife Mary Haskin Parker. Mark Haskin Parker was the daughter of John Parker Sr., while Mary Ann Parker was the daughter of John Parker Jr. Richards later married four additional wives and had a total of 19 children. Two of his five wives were widows with home he did not have any children. One of these was Elizabeth Whitaker, the widow of John Caine.
From 1855-1859 Richards served as a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature. In 1857 he was sent on a short mission to England to call missionaries home to protect their families from Johnston's Army. He also conducted espianoge on johnston's Army and delivered communications from Brigham Young to Thomas L. Kane to pass on to James Buchanan as part of this journey. In 1856 Richards had been accepted to practice law before the Supreme Court of Utah.
In 1860 Richards first wife, Mary Haskin Parker, died. Only three of her six children outlived her, and they were raised by their cousin and stepmother, Mary Ann Parker Richards. Mary Ann was Richards youngest wife. When he served as president of the Eastern States mission from 1895-1897 she accompanied him. By that point she was his only living wife. In addition to raising her aunts three children Mary Ann had ten children of her own.
In 1861 Richards was appointed Probate Judge of Davis County, Utah. He also served several more terms on the Salt Lake City Council. In 1871-1872 Richards served as a missionary in Massachusetts. He also did decorative work on the interior of the Salt Lake Temple, however in Utah he was generally more involved in farming and milling than in carpentry.