Chiverton was the eldest(?) son of Richard Chiverton (died 1621), of Trehunsey in Quethiock, Cornwall and Isabella (died 1631), daughter of —— Polwhele.
Chiverton of the Worshipful Company of Skinners was Lord Mayor of London in 1658. He was knighted on 22 March 1658 by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell at Whitehall.[5]
Chiverton officiated as mayor in proclaiming Richard Cromwell Lord Protector in September 1658. According to a long report in the Mercurius Politicus, (a newspaper which was sympathetic to the Commonwealth) the proclamation "was followed by loud shouts and acclamations of the people God Save the Lord Protector",[7] but this was not the universal support implied, and when three days later the proclamation was read in Oxford the Oxford dignitaries and troopers "were pelted with carrot and turnip-tops, by young scholars and others, who stood at a distance".[8]
He was the first Cornish Lord Mayor of London and did not fall out of favour at the Restoration as he was considered for membership of the Knights of the Royal Oak. and was knighted by Charles II on 12 October 1663.
Richard Chiverton was married and had a daughter called Elizabeth who married Sir John Coryton, bart.
There is an uncommon print of Sir Richard Chiverton, Lord Mayor of London, sitting in an elbow chair.
Register of St James's Church, Clerkenwell, burial 21 November 1679
Shaw 1906, p. 224 records that in the list of knights his name was spelt "Richard Chevedon (Chiverton)".
- Burton, Thomas; Goddard, Guibon (1828), Rutt, ohn Towill (ed.), Diary, of Thomas Burton, esq. member in the parliaments of Oliver and Richard Cromwell from 1656 to 1659 ...: With an ... account of the Parliament of 1654; from the journal of Guibon Goddard, vol. 3, H. Colburn, p. vii–viii
- Cherry, George L. (1966), The Convention Parliament, 1689: A Biographical Study of Its Members, p. 49
- Fairholt, Frederick William; Dekker, Thomas; Heywood, Thomas; Jordan, Thomas; Tatham, John (1844), Lord Mayors' Pageants: History of Lord Mayors' pageants, Percy Society, p. 65
- Gilbert, Charles Sandoe (1820), An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall: To which is Added, a Complete Heraldry of the Same, vol. 2:1, J. Congdon, p. 67
- Granger, James (1769), A Biographical History of England, from Egbert the Great to the Revolution: Consisting of Characters Disposed in Different Classes, and Adapted to a Methodical Catalogue of Engraved British Heads. Intended as an Essay Towards Reducing Our Biography to System, and a Help to the ..., vol. 2:1, T. Davies, p. 56
- Noble, Mark (1806), A Biographical History of England, from the Revolution to the End of George I's Reign;: Being a Continuation of the Rev. J. Granger's Work..., W. Richardson ..., p. 347
- R.R. (5 November 1859), "Titles conferred by Oliver Cromwell", Notes and Queries, Oxford University Press, pp. 382–383
- Shaw, William Arthur (1906), The Knights of England: A complete record from the earliest time to the present day of the knights of all the orders of chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of knights bachelors, incorporating a complete list of knights bachelors dubbed in Ireland, vol. 2, London: Sherratt and Hughes
- Stace, Machell (1810), "Whitehall Sept. 3", Cromwelliana. A chronological detail of events in which Oliver Cromwell was engaged; from the year 1642 to his death 1658: with a continuation of other transactions, to the restoration, Printed for Machell Stace, pp. 174–176
- Thornbury, Walter (1878), The Lord Mayors of London, vol. 1, London: Old and New, pp. 396–416
- "Sir Richard Chiverton (active 1657)", Lord Mayors of London, British National Portrait Gallery
- Sir Richard Chiverton (1616–1679) And the Cornwall Connection, retrieved 1 November 2013
- Wright, Thomas, ed. (1841), Political ballads published in England during the Commonwealth, Percy Society, p. 168 — a contemporary satirical song about a Lord Mayor from the Skinners Company (probably Chiverton).
- Reynolds, Edward, "To the Right Honourable Sir Richard Chiverton, Lord Mayor of the City of London, and the honourable Court of Aldermen —see also Sermon XII. (page 72.) 'The Rich Man's Charge')", The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Edward Reynolds, Lord Bishop of Norwich, vol. 5, pp. iv–vi, 72–105
