Born on 5 February 1846, Penzance (GRO). He is known to have exhibited paintings with Newlyn titles in the West Cornwall Arts Union exhibition of 1877, giving a Penzance address as home. 

In the 1881 Census, Richard Quance's wife is recorded as living in Penzance (he may have been away on the counting day). He is known to have acted as Secretary to the Penzance School of Art, Morrab Road, 1884, on behalf of Penzance Town Council.

Quance exhibited 1885-6 in Penzance, and at that time the artist was also a Town Councillor. In the 1891 Census Richard, along with wife Emily Jane (nee Vingoe) and their three children Richard (b 1873), Ethel Maud (b 1878) and Violet Vingoe (b1882), are listed as living together in Penzance (where all five were born) at 10 Victoria Place. 

In 1892 he and his family emigrated to South Africa on the Spartan. Though the passenger list identifies Quance as an artist, and due to Bednar he is now listed in various arts dictionaries devoted to art in South Africa, his death certificate records that his occupation was as a Steward at the Victoria Falls Power Station.  He died aged 75 at the Government Hospital at Boksburg.