Richard Cogdell (1724-1787) was a merchant and politician in Craven County, North Carolina. He was a prominent citizen in colonial New Bern who advocated for the establishment of a free school in 1764. Cogdell held several public offices over the course of his career: sheriff of Craven County (1761-1764), representative of Carteret County in the General Assembly (1766), justice of the peace for Craven County (1767-1774), and inspector of commodities for the port at New Bern (1767-1775), in colonial North Carolina. He returned to the military in 1771 to help quell the Regulator Movement. In additional to his official duties, Cogdell also worked as a lawyer and in 1775 he took on a case for Antonio Muray, an enslaved African American man who was petitioning for his freedom.