The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Ridley, Rev. William
Ridley, Rev. William, M.A., was born at Hartford End, Essex, Sept. 14th, 1819, and educated at King's College and the University of London. He arrived in Sydney with Dr. Lang in 1850, and became a Presbyterian minister and Professor of Greek, Latin and Hebrew in the Australian College. He took pastoral charge at Portland Bay, Brisbane, and the Manning River; and subsequently devoted himself to missionary work amongst the aborigines. Returning to Sydney, he was connected with the Empire until its discontinuance; and for the last five years of his life he was chief editor of the Evening News, and a regular contributor to the Town and Country Journal. In 1877, at the request of the Presbyterian Synod, he acquired the Chinese language, in order to take charge of the Chinese Mission in Sydney. The work by which he will be principally remembered is that on the Kamilaroi and other native dialects, which was printed at the expense of the Government, and is highly esteemed by ethnologists and philologists. Mr. Ridley, who married Miss Isabella Cotter, died on Sept. 27th, 1878.