RIDLEYS OF WILLIMOTESWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND. 441
TWENTY-SECOND GENERATION.
Sir Matthew-White Ridley22 (4), eldest son of Matthew" (3), was
born Sept. 9, 1807; married, Sept. 21, 1841, to Cecilia-Anna Parkes, daugh-
ter of the well-known judge, Baron Parkes, since created Lord Wensley-
dale. By this union there were three children, of whom hereafter. Lady
Ridley died in 1845. Mr. Ridley was educated at Westminster School
and Christ Church College, Oxford; he took his degree of B. A., at his
graduation, in 1828. He succeeded as the third baronet of the Ridley
family, at the death of his father, on July 15, 1836. Such an affection ex-
isted between the father and son, that when the latter was suddenly called
upon to assume the family title and honors, he was plunged into such pro-
found sorrow that he declined, for a time, to discharge any but the most
pressing public duties. Upon the death of his father he was immediately
nominated for the seat which had been-occupied by his father, grand-
father, and great-grandfather; but when he was called upon to present an
address of acceptance, he disappointed his friends by the following:-
"Gentlemen: - In consequence of the application of many kind friends
to know my views as to tendering my services as your representative, I
am bound not to delay addressing you, incompetent as I feel to enter upon
the painful subject. In declining to offer myself to your notice, believe
me, that no one can possibly entertain a higher idea of the honor of the
situation than I do; and, at a happier moment, with a mind not weighed
down with affliction, I assure you it would have been my pride to offer
myself as a successor to one who felt that, while holding the situation of
your representative, he had the most honorable of all trusts committed to
his charge."
And so the family seat was lost to Blagdon, and the baronet retired for
a time from political life, devoting himself to the cultivation of his pater-
nal acres and extensive mining property, and to the oversight of the bank-
ing firm of Sir Matthew-White Ridley & Co., of which he was head. In
1839 the banking establishment ceased to have a separate existence, being
incorporated into the Northumberland and Durham District Banking
Company. The duties of the magistracy and of the administration of
County business, which had always secured his attention, soon claimed a
nearer interest, and he rapidly rose to the most eminent places which they
commanded. In 1841 he was found discharging the duties of high sheriff
of Northumberland. For many years previous to 1845, Sir Matthew had
kept a well-appointed pack of hounds, and in 1843 was entertained at a
banquet in the Assembly Rooms, Newcastle, by the members of the North-
umberland Hunt, to testify their esteem and admiration of his conduct as
an M. F. H. In 1845 he disposed of his hounds in London, and soon after
obtained a commission in the Newcastle and Northumberland Yeomanry
Cavalry, now the Northumberland Hussars. For a long time he held the
rank of major in this regiment, and upon the retirement of Mr. Matthew
Bell from the command, in 1867, he was promoted to the chief position in
the corps. In 1852 he was created a deputy lieutenant of the County of
Northumberland. In 1859 he was elected to a seat in parliament, and
for seven sessions was continued. He was elected again in 1865, and con-
tinued a faithful representative till 1868, when he resolved to retire, and
early in August of that year presented his farewell address to the electors,
intimating that "illness of a grave character was the cause which pre-
vented him from appealing once more for their suffrages." Being once
more outside the troubled vortex of political life, when his health was re-
