RIDLEYS OF WILLIMOTESWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND. 417
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​EIGHTH GENERATION.
Odard Ridleys (2), presumed to be son of Hugh' (1), was living in
1424.
NINTH GENERATION.
Nicholas Ridley' (3), presumed to be son of Odards (2), married Anne,
daughter of Eglesfield, of Eglesfield, in County Cumberland; deceased be-
fore 1467.
TENTH GENERATION.
Sir Nicholas Ridley10 (4), son of Nicholas (3), was of Willimotes-
wick, Northumberland, and styled "Esquire of the King's Body." He
married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Corwin, of Workington, de-
scended from Orne, second son of Ketd, son of Ivo de Talbois, daughter
of Ethelbred, King of England. He (Nicholas) had letters of safe con-
duct from the King of Scotland.
Thomasine Ridley10 (1), daughter of Nicholas' (3), married Thomas
Carnaby, of Halton Castle, Northumberland.
Sir Hugh Ridley10 (2), a son of Nicholas (3), was styled "of Ham-
stead Hall and Willimoteswick, Northumberland." He was high sheriff
for his County from 1508 to 1511.
ELEVENTH GENERATION.
Sir Nicholas Ridley¹¹ (5),* eldest son of Nicholas¹0 (4), was successor
to Willimoteswick. He married Mary, daughter of Simon Musgrave, of
Eden Hall, and Joanna his wife, daughter of Sir William Stapleton. He
was styled the "broad knight," probably in consequence of his gigantic
physical proportions. He was high sheriff of Northumberland in the
first, second, third, and twenty-third years of the reign of King Henry
VI, and in first, second, and third of King Henry VIII. He was also
commander of a division of the marauding army which invaded Scotland
under Lord Dacre, in 1513,- the same year in which the battle of
Flodden was fought. He was frequently engaged in border raids and
family and district quarrels, which were of common occurrence in those
times. He was chief of the clan when they murdered Sir Albany Feather-
stonhaugh, as appears on a view of the body by the coroner of Northum-
berland that year - 1530. In 1552, Nicholas Ridley was one of the war-
dens appointed by Lord Wharton to have the oversight and search of the
fords through the Tyne, "under the Ridley-hall, Haltwhistle, Thorngraf-
ton, Walltown," and other places in Tynedale. In the same year he was
appointed one of the Commissioners for Enclosures and Hedges from
Hexhamshire to the waters of the Irthing, on both sides of the South Tyne
as far as the middle marches went. His name stands at the head of the
list in these commissions, followed by that of "Albany Featherstonhaugh,"
probably the son of that Albany to whose violent death he had contributed
a few years before. He was one of the "overseers" of the river guards,
in which several members of the clan were represented in subsequent
years. This was the Sir Nicholas addressed by the Martyr Bishop when
imprisoned at Oxford as the "bell-wether" of the Ridley family, and is
faithfully admonished by his pious nephew and namesake respecting his
religious faithfulness. He had issue two sons and four daughters whose
names have reached us, of whom hereafter.
There was a Richard de Ridley amongst the early descents of the family, but I
cannot connect him with this pedigree.
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