I think you are just trying to take too big a jump by trying to look for Richards birth.
Best to go one step at a time.
After her marriage, have you found Emma on censuses? Where and when does she say she was born? Can you then work back to finding her birth, or finding her on 1851 and 1841? (If you are having trouble, then do tell us all you know about her from later censuses and we can help look)
IF you are successful in finding her with her parents, THEN you may find a birth year and place for Richard and can start thinking about looking for his birth - although it will be pre-1837 so there will not be any birth registration , you will be reliant on a Parish record of a christening, if he was christened, and once you know what sort of area to look in.
If you cant find her in earlier censuses, then worth looking for a chr for Emma, and seeing what siblings she had, that will give an idea of whether she was youngest or oldest, and maybe names of siblings will help find the family .
May also lead you to her parents marriage, which again might help take you back a stage.
Always worth remembering though, that ifyour research leads ypu to find that Emma was illegitimate she may have made up a fathers name for her marriage. There is also the possible scenarios of her using a stepfathers name.
One step at a time!
