was appointed to the prebendal stall of Teignton Regis in Salisbury Cathedral by Archbishop Secker (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ix. 744). Ridley was known to many learned men, including Bishop Lowth and Christopher Pitt, the poet. To the latter he presented a set of verses ‘on his poems and translations.’ With Spence, 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’ (ed. 1858, pp. 320–7), and Ridley addressed to Spence his imitation of Horace's Ode 12, bk. iv. in Dodsley's ‘Museum’ (i. 135–6). Duncombe's translation of the second book of the ‘Epistles of Horace’ is dedicated to him. He died on 3 Nov. 1774, and was buried on 10 Nov. 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 [q. v.] 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 in 1837, aged 91.
Ridley wrote, in addition to many single sermons and three collected volumes of them (in 1736, 1742, and 1746 respectively): 1. ‘Jovi Eleutherio, or an Offering to Liberty’ [anon.], 1745; this subsequently (1748) appeared in Dodsley's ‘Collection of Poetry,’ iii. 44–58. 2. ‘De Syriacarum Novi Fœderis Versionum indole atque usu dissertatio,’ 1761, dedicated to Archbishop Secker; it is reprinted at the end of Semler's edition of J. J. Wetstein's ‘Libelli ad crisen atque interpretationem Novi Testamenti’ (Halæ, 1776), p. 247. Ridley had received four manuscripts from Mesopotamia, two of which contained ‘binas versiones Cyriacas Novi Fœderis tabularum,’ and although he was without a preceptor, and even lacked a knowledge of the letters, he applied himself to a study of the language and learnt it. The manuscripts were left by him to New College, Oxford, and they were printed at the expense of the delegates of the Clarendon Press in 1778, by the Rev. Joseph White, D.D. (Nichols, Illustrations of Lit. iv. 859). 3. ‘Life of Bishop Nicholas Ridley,’ 1763; the success of this volume enabled him to invest 800l. in the funds; the greater part of it was reprinted in ‘The Voice of the Church,’ 1840, vols. i. ii. 4. ‘A Review of Mr. Phillips's History of the Life of Reginald Pole,’ 1766. 5. ‘A Letter to the Author of the Confessional’ [anon.], 1768; this was followed in the same year by second and third letters, and all three, in which Archbishop Secker assisted, were bound up together with a general title. Francis Blackburne, the anonymous author of ‘The Confessional,’ subsequently replied to them, and so did ‘A Country Clergyman’ (said to be the Rev. T. Gwatkin). 6. ‘Melampus: a Poem in Four Books, with Notes, by the late Gloster Ridley,’ 1781. On the title-page is a medallion portrait of the author, painted by Scoule, and engraved by John Hall. Prefixed is Ridley's poem of ‘Psyche,’ which had previously appeared in Dodsley's ‘Museum’ (iii. 80–97) and in Dodsley's ‘Collection of Poetry’ (iii. 33–43). The publication was effected by George Steevens for the benefit of Ridley's widow and family.
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).
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Lysons's Environs, iii. 457–8, iv. 197; Terry's Old Romford, pp. 225–7; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. i. 230; Kirby's Winchester Scholars, p. 227; Gent. Mag. 1774, pp. 505–8, 542, 554 (where some extracts from ‘Jugurtha’ are given), 1775 passim (on the authorship of the ‘Confessional’), 1809 i. 587, 1837 i. 332; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, i. 641–9, iii. 689, vi. 455, viii. 410; Ridlon's Ancient Ryedales, pp. 431–5; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 675; Blomefield's Norfolk, viii. 292; information from Dr. Sewell of New College.]
RIDLEY, HUMPHREY, M.D. (1653–1708), physician, son of Thomas Ridley of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, was born in 1653. He matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, on 14 July 1671, but did not take a degree at Oxford, though he there studied medicine; in September 1679 he graduated M.D. at Leyden, maintaining a thesis ‘De Lue Venerea.’ He was incorporated M.D. at Cambridge in 1688. He settled in London, became a candidate or member of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1691, and was elected a fellow on 30 Sept. 1692. He gave the Gulstonian lectures in 1694. He published in 1695 ‘The Anatomy of the Brain,’ dedicated to the president and fellows of the College of Physicians. The book was formally approved by the censors' board on 7 Sept. 1694, and, although following so soon after the important writings of Thomas Willis and Raymond Vieussens, contains additions to their accounts of the brain. He
