Glocester Ridley

Glocester (or Gloster) Ridley (1702–1774) was an English miscellaneous writer.

Life

Called 'Glocester' because he was born at sea in the Glocester East Indian in 1702, Glocester Ridley was a collateral descendant of Bishop Nicholas Ridley, and son of Matthew Ridley of Bencoolen, East Indies (now Indonesia). He was educated at Winchester College, becoming scholar in 1718, when he was described as of St. Alban, Wood Street, London. He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 14 October 1721, but was admitted a scholar of New College on 1 September 1722, becoming fellow on 18 June 1724, before the usual two years of probation had been completed. He graduated B.C.L. on 29 April 1729, and the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by diploma on 25 February 1767. While young he was fond of acting, and in 1728 he and four companions wrote the tragedy of The Fruitless Redress, each of them contributing an act. He afterwards composed the play of Jugurtha, but neither piece was produced on the public stage or printed. Theophilus Cibber, his contemporary at Winchester, is said to have called upon him at Poplar, and to have pressed him to adopt the stage as his profession. Verses and translations by him, apparently written while he was at college, are in the British Museum.[1]

Ridley was ordained in the English church, and was curate to William Berriman, D.D. He was Berriman's executor, and preached his funeral sermon. In 1733, he was appointed by his college to the small benefice of Weston Longueville, Norfolk, thereby vacating his fellowship in 1734. He was also chaplain to the East India Company at Poplar, where he chiefly resided, and lecturer at St. Ann's, Middlesex; and in 1751 he was presented by his college to the donative of Romford in Essex. When the Duke of Bedford was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1756, Ridley declined an offer of the first chaplaincy, although it was coupled with a promise of promotion in England. He remained without substantial preferment until May 1766, when he was appointed to the prebendal stall of Teignton Regis in Salisbury Cathedral by Archbishop Secker.[2] Ridley was known to many learned men, including Bishop Lowth and the poet Christopher Pitt. To the latter he presented a set of verses 'on his poems and translations.' With Joseph Spence, Alexander Pope's friend, he was especially intimate. Spence gave him Pope's cane, and made him his executor. Three letters from Ridley to Spence are in the appendix to Spence's 'Anecdotes' (1858 edition, pp. 320–7), and Ridley addressed to Spence his imitation of Horace's Ode 12, bk. iv. in Dodsley's Museum (i. 135–6). William Duncombe's translation of the second book of the Epistles of Horace is dedicated to him. He died on 3 November 1774, and was buried on 10 November in the cemetery at Poplar, the epitaph on his monument being written by Lowth. Ridley's library was sold by Benjamin White in 1775. He left a widow and four daughters. In his old age he lost both his sons, James Ridley and Thomas Ridley, a writer in the service of the East India Company at Madras, where he was no sooner settled than he died of smallpox. His daughter Mary (d. 1809), wife of Edward Evans (d. 1807), captain in the 23rd Foot, is said to have written several novels. Margaret Ridley, 'the last survivor of his family,' died at Hingham, Norfolk in 1837, aged 91.

Works

Some of his poems, including one on the death of George I and on the accession of George II from the Oxford set of verses on those events, appear in Nichols's ‘Collection of Poems’ (viii. 74–82, 112–34).

References

  1. ↑ Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28717.
  2. ↑ Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ix. 744
  3. ↑ Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. iv. 859

 "Ridley, Glocester". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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