Richard Henry Darne was born in Loudoun County, Virginia on January 9, 1826 to James W. and Amelia Ward Kitchen Darne. He married his first wife, Ann Eliza Hastings, on April 5, 1857, but she died on January 13, 1880. He married his second wife, Octavia Oliver of Fairfax County, Virginia, on May 5, 1881 in Washington D.C. The couple had three children together.

Beginning in 1853, Darne contracted with the Post Office Department to transport mail from Washington D.C. to Georgetown and back again twice daily. By 1860, he transported mail from Washington D.C. to Langley to Leesburg and back, a 66 mile round trip.

For more than fifty years, Darne operated livery stables in Georgetown from 1855 until 1901 and he was recognized as the “Dean of the Liverymen”. He also owned a stagecoach line which ran from Georgetown to Leesburg over Old Georgetown Leesburg Pike. In the 1860s, he won a trotting race from Washington to Leesburg, winning the $500 stakes. While living in Georgetown, Darne also served as a mounted bodyguard at the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln.

Darne owned a 200 acre farm in Langley, Virginia near Merrywood that he called “Pinnet Grove”. In 1900, he gave a portion of his land for the right of way for the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad. Darne died on January 16, 1910, after injuring himself from a fall. He was buried beneath an apple tree he had planted on his farm as a sapling two miles from the Chain Bridge.