The family's surname was usually spelled "Brunson" in the early records of Hartford. Farmington, CT was founded by Hartford men in or about 1641, and Brownson was certainly there Mar 7, 1649/50.

Richard was one of the early settlers of Hartford CT and then Farmington, CT. Some dizzy "family historian" in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century invented a wholly imaginary "Old Richard Bronson" who was suppose to have come to CT "early" and to have been the father of Richard and his siblings. No such person as "Old Richard" appeared in any CT record whatsoever, and he is entirely fictitious. "Old Richard Bronson" has, nevertheless, been given unwarranted prominence as the first ancestor of this family in America in a good many printed genealogies, compendia, and first ancestor and articles in genealogical columns of the late Boston Evening Transcript and the extant Hartford Times, and because of this repetition many decedents believe in his existence. Furthermore, no descendant should take seriously the statements in Harriet Bronson Sibley, Bronson Lineage, 1636-1917 (Dallas, Oregon, 1917), p. 1, that "the name was originally 'de Braundeston' from the hamlet of this name two miles south of Burton on trent." there is no such place as 'Braundeston' in the vicinity of Burton-on-trent, which is in county Stafford; there is to be sure, a village named Braunstone, in county Leichester, about 20 miles southeast of Burton-on-trent, but this has nothing whatever to do with family under discussion, whose name Brownson, clearly a patronymic and not derived from a place name. Other errors in Sibley, Bronson Lineage, are the illustration of a "bronson coat of arms", which is also imaginary, since the Brownsons were a yeoman family and not at all armigarious; and the statement )p.5) that "the Bronson of whom we have any knowledge came to England from Scotland in May 1568 as a follower of Queen of Scots." Such statements should never have been made in the first place, but, having been made, should be promptly forgotten by all descendants of the CT settlers John, his brother Richard, and his sister Mary Brownson.

John and his siblings may well have sailed on the Defence (Edward Bostock, master), which departed from London "the last of July 1635" and arrived at Boston Oct 8, 1635. The passenger list of the Defence is incomplete, and though the Brownson' name does not appear on it, there is no reason to believe they did not come on that ship, and every reason to believe that they did since many of the passengers were from Earl's Colne, Essex, ENG.

Richard was not as prominent in civic affairs as his brother John. He seems to have been a landowner in Farmington in 1648. His (unnamed) wife joined a church at Farmington July 19,1653, when three of his children were baptized; Richard joined the church there April, 1654. He and his third wife were listed as communicants of the church there on Mar 1, 1679/80 ("Farmington Church Records, NEHGR, 11:323-6; 12:35). Richards will was dated Feb 27, 1684 (1684/85).