High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Sir Richard de Southchurch (Suthchirche, Suthcherch) (died 1294) was a knight and part of the landowning aristocracy of Essex in the thirteenth century. He was High Sheriff of Essex and of Hertfordshire in the years 1265–67, and as such became involved in the Second Barons` War (1264–1267). Southchurch has earned a special place in the historiography of the period due to an episode during the war where he allegedly planned to attack London with incendiary cocks.