Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Ridley, Matthew White
RIDLEY, Sir MATTHEW WHITE, fifth baronet and first Viscount Ridley (1842–1904), home secretary, born at Carlton House Terrace, London, on 25 July 1842, was elder son in a family of two sons and one daughter of Sir Matthew White Ridley, fourth baronet, of Blagdon, Northumberland (1807–1877), M.P. for North Northumberland. His mother was Cecilia Anne, eldest daughter of Sir James Parke, Baron Wensleydale [q. v.]. Edward, the younger brother (6. Aug. 1843), became a judge of the high court in 1897. The Ridleys were an old Border family, originally of Williemoteswick and Hardriding. On 18 Nov. 1742 Matthew Ridley of Heaton married Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew White, who had purchased of the Fenwicks the estate of Blagdon, and owned much other landed property. Her brother Matthew was created a baronet in 1756 with special remainder in the absence of issue of his own to his sister's son, Matthew White Ridley. The latter in 1763 succeeded as second baronet, and inherited Blagdon and other of Matthew White's estates.
Ridley was at Harrow from 1856 to 1861. There he was in the football and shooting elevens, and became captain of the school in 1860. In the same year he gained a classical scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, and matriculated on 12 Oct. 1861. Taking a first class in classical moderations in 1863 and in the final classical school in 1865, he in the latter year graduated B.A., and was elected a fellow of All Souls, proceeding M.A. in 1867. He vacated his fellowship in 1874, after his marriage. Destined for a political career, Ridley in 1868 succeeded his father in the conservative interest as member of parliament for North Northumberland; his colleague was Lord Percy, afterwards seventh duke of Northumberland; they were returned unopposed. In 1874 they were again returned without a contest. On his father's death on 21 Sept. 1877 he succeeded as fifth baronet and owner of the family estates. Next year under Lord Beaconsfield's administration he received his first official recognition, becoming under-secretary to the home office. At the general election of 1880 he was returned for the third time with Lord Percy, but now after a contest with a liberal opponent. The conservative government was defeated at the polls and went out of office. Ridley remained a private member until the summer of 1885, when in Lord Salisbury's first short administration he was made in September financial secretary to the treasury, retiring with his colleagues in Jan. 1886. Meanwhile the Redistribution Act of 1885 changed the Northumberland constituencies, and at the general election in Nov. 1885 Ridley stood for the Hexham division, where he was beaten by Miles Maclnnes. At the next general election of July 1886 he stood for Newcastle-on-Tyne with Sir William Armstrong, but both seats were won by the liberal candidates, Mr. John Morley and James Craig. In the following August a bye-election at Blackpool gave Ridley an opportunity of returning to parliament, and he retained the seat until he was raised to the peerage in 1900. Lord SaUsbury's second administration had been formed in the previous July. Ridley remained a private member until 1895. He was, however, created a privy councillor on the resignation of the conservative government in 1892.
Although Ridley took little part in the debates of the house, he won its respect, and early in 1895, when Arthur Wellesley (Viscount) Peel retired, was put forward on 10 April as the conservative candidate for the speakership, being proposed by Sir John Mowbray and seconded by John Lloyd Wharton, in opposition to the liberal candidate, William Court Gully (afterwards Viscount Selby [q. v. Suppl. II]. On a division Gully was elected by 285 votes against 274 for Ridley. It was asserted at the time that in the event of a change of government after the approaching general election, Sir Matthew would at once be placed in the chair. But when Lord Salisbury returned to office on 25 June, Gully was not disturbed, and Sir Matthew became home secretary in the new government. This post he filled until the dissolution of 1900. Ridley's administration of the home office was thoroughly safe and consequently attracted little attention. In 1897, when he released from prison some men convicted of dynamite outrages, he defended himself with effect against an attack from his own side, led by Mr. (later Sir) Henry Howorth and James Lowther [q. v. Suppl. II], but he was not otherwise molested. When the government was reconstituted after the general election (Sept. 1900) Sir Matthew, who was left a widower a year earlier, retired from political life. His last years were mainly spent at Blagdon.
Ridley was always active in the administration of his property. Throughout the north of England, where his influence was great, he was known as an extremely capable man of business. He was long a director of the North Eastern railway, and on the resignation of Sir Joseph Pease in 1902 he became chairman. He especially devoted himself to the development of the town of Blyth, which, originally part of the estates of the Radcliflfe family forfeited to the Crown after the rising of 1715, had descended to Ridley with the other estates of Matthew White. In the eighteenth century it was an important place of export for coal, and from 1854 was under the control of the Blyth Harbour and Dock Company; but owing to shallowness of entrance and increase in the size of ships, trade fell off, and in 1883 amounted to only 150,000 tons. Ridley, after succeeding to the baronetcy, carried a bill through parliament for the creation of a board of commissioners with powers to develop the place. As chairman of this board Ridley soon transformed the harbour and dock. Trade returned, and ultimately reached a yearly average output of four million tons of coal. As principal proprietor Ridley benefited largely, but he contrived that the inhabitants should share in the prosperity. He gave an open space for public recreation, which in the year of his death he opened as the Ridley Park. He had already given sites, either as a free gift or at a nominal rent, for a mechanics' institute, a church, and a hospital, and he was occupied until the end on a large scheme of planting trees in convenient places. Ridley was chairman of the Northumberland quarter sessions from 1873, and of the county council from 1889; but he resigned both offices in 1895, when he became home secretary. He was also president of the National Union of Conservative Associations, and was president of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1888, when the meeting was at Nottingham; he joined the society in 1869. He was D.L. and J.P. for Northumberland, Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for Northumberland from 1885, and he commanded the Northumberland yeomanry from 1886 to 1895.
Ridley died at Blagdon on 28 Nov. 1904, and was buried there. He married on 10 Dec. 1873 Mary Georgiana, eldest daughter of Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, first Lord Tweedmouth; she died on 14 March 1899, leaving two sons and two daughters. Ridley was succeeded as viscount by his elder son, Matthew (b. 1874), conservative M.P. for Stalybridge from 1900 to 1904.
A portrait of Ridley by Sir Hubert von Herkomer is at Blagdon. A cartoon by 'Ape' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1881.
[The Times, and Daily Chronicle, 29 Nov. 1904; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; private information.]