Richard Plater was likely born in England and arrived in Pasquotank Precinct, North Carolina by way of Maryland or Virginia by 1688. In February 1691 Plater was serving as the clerk of the Albemarle County Court. From 1695 to 1697 Plater served as the colony's comptroller of customs and beginning in 1696 he served as the colony's attorney general. In 1700 he became a justice on the colony's General Court, serving simultaneously as a justice and as attorney general before stepping down in 1703. He died in Pasquotank in about September 1705.