Rider, .John, an Irish prelate, was horn at Carring- ton, in Cheshire, about 1562, and entered Jesus (Jollege, Oxford, in 1.576, where he took his degree of A.M., and continued in the university for some years, teaching grammar chiefly. He was preferred to the living of Waterstock, Oxfordsliire, in l.')80, but resigned it in 1581. In 1.5«3 he was admitted to that of South Wo- kingdon, which lie resigned in 1590. He was also rector of .St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, and of Winwick, in I^ncasliire. lie was afterwards archdeacon of IMcath, in Ireland, dean of St. Patrick's, Duljlin, and in 1612 bishop of Killaloe. He died in 1632, and was buried in his cathedral. He was much respected for his piety and learning. His princi|)al work is, A I)ictionui~y, Knglish- Latin ami Latin- English (Oxf. 1589, 4to). It was the first L-itiu dictionary in which the English part
was placed before the Latin part. In addition are given, A Letter Concerning the News out of Ireland (Lond. 1601, ito) -.—Caveat to Irish Catholics (Dublin, 1602, 4to):— Claim of Antiquity in Behalf of the Protestant Religion (Lond. 1608, 4to). See Chalmers, Biog. Diet.; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, ami A mer. A uthors, s. v.
Ridge, the upper angle of a roof. It has usually, though by no means always, a piece of timber running along it, called the ridge-piece, upon which the upper ends of the rafters rest; the tiles with which it is cov- ered are called ridge-tiles. These are sometimes made ornamental, good instances of which are found at Great Malvern and Lincoln. — Parker, Glossary of Architecture, s. v. See KiB.
Ridge-piece, Llan Tysilio.
Ridgley, Thomas, D.D., an eminent English Inde- pendent minister, was born in London about 1667, and educated at an academy in Wiltshire. Entering the ministry, he was in 1695 chosen assistant to Mr. Thomas Gouge, near the Three Cranes, London, and about four years afterwards became his successor. In 1712 he, with Mr. John Eames, began to conduct an Independent academy in London as divinity tutor. He died iNIarch 27, 1734. His principal work is, .4 Body of Divinity, an exposition of the Assembly's Larger Catechism (1731- 33, 2 vols, fol.; new edition, with notes, bv John M. Wilson, Edinb. 1844, 2 vols. 8vo; Lond. 1845, 2 vols, 8vo ; N. Y. 1855, 2 vols. 8vo). He also published Ser- mons, etc. (Lond. 1701-25). See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authois, s. v.
Riding Committees were committees of the General Assembly sent to supersede a presbytery which had refused to ordain a presentee over a reclaiming par- ish. The first instance occurred in 1717, when a pres- bytery refused to ordain a Jlr. John Hay in the parish of Peebles, and the General Assembly passed an act "appointing certain brethren to correspond with the Presbytery of Peebles, and to act and vote in their meetings at their next ensuing diet, and thereafter, un- til the settlement of Mr. John Hay in the parish of Peebles be completed, and to concur with them in his ordination." By this device both the opposition of the people and the conscientious reluctance of the presby- tery were surmounted. The last instance of a settle- ment effected by means of a riding committee was that of Mr. Watson in the Presbytery of Linlithgow, May 30, 1751. — IZad'ie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v.
Ridley, Gloucester, D.D., a learned English di- vine, was born at sea, on board the Gloucester, an East- Indiaman, 1702. He received his education at Win- chester and New College, receiving the degree of B.C.L, April 29, 1729. For a great part of his life he had no other preferment than the small college living of Wes- ton, in Norfolk, and the donative of Poplar, in Middle- sex, where he resided. To these his college added, some years after, the donative of Romford, in Essex. In 1761 he was presented by archbishop Seeker to a golden prebeiKl at Salisbury. He published, Elr/ht Ser- mons on the Holy Ghost (1740-41 ; Lond. 1742, 8vo; new ed. Oxf. 1802, 8vo) : — De Syriacarum Novi Foederis Versionum Indole atqne Usu DUsertatio, etc. (Lond. 1761,4to):— Ai/e of Nicholas Ridley (1763, 4to) :— be- sides Letters, etc. See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. ; Hook, Ec- cles. Biog. ; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uth. s. v.
RIDLEY
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