152
RIDDELLS OF TROUGHEND, ENGLAND.
pendium in vogue when it appeared, combining, as it did, practice and
theory in luminous order. It forms a course of mathematics for the
nautical men, containing as much algebra and geometry as is necessary for
the demonstrations of the various problems which it comprehends. It is
a text-book in the Royal Navy. Mr. Riddle was noted for the surprising
quickness and accuracy with which he took celestial observations. Shortly
after his retirement in 1851, his bust in marble was presented to him by
his old pupils, officers in the Royal Navy, accompanied with the expression
of their high esteem for his worth as a public and private man.
The pre-
sentation was in the boys' department of Greenwich School, the Admiral
(Sir C. Adams) and all the officers attending in full uniform. These
were deserving honors for a long, useful, and honorable life. He retired
on full salary. Succeeded by his son. He died in 1856, aged 68 years.
4
FOURTH GENERATION.
Jane Riddle (1), eldest daughter of Edwards (3), was married in 1844,
to Captain Petley, Royal Navy. Has issue.
Prof. John Riddle¹ (2), eldest son of Edward³ (3), was born at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in November, 1816; married Georgiana
MacKenzie, daughter of Eneas MacKenzie of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the
Northumberland historian, and had issue seven children, of whom here-
after. At the early age of fifteen Mr. Riddle was appointed an assistant
master in the Greenwich Hospital Schools, and on the retirement of his
father in 1851, was chosen to succeed him as head master. In 1846, he
was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and from that
time till his death, was a regular attendant at its meetings, and an
occasional contributor to its papers. He was appointed in 1854 Examiner
in Navigation to the Science and Art department of the Committee of
Council on Education, and held for many years a similar appointment in
the Society of Arts. By both these Institutions his services were highly
valued. As a teacher Mr. John Riddle was perhaps unrivalled, and his
success in instilling into the minds of mere boys not only the practice,
but the theory of navigation was very remarkable. The influence he
possessed with his pupils was unbounded; and the good which he has
accomplished, by stamping on a vast number of the scientific officers of the
Royal Navy the impress of his own vigorous mind, was so great that his
untimely death, which occurred Oct. 11, 1862, was looked upon as no other
than a national loss.
Mr. Riddle was not only a good mathematician and a successful teacher,
but also an accomplished gentleman, with a great taste for poetry and the
arts. In society he was a universal favorite; and his urbane manner and
intellectual conversation will long be remembered by a large circle of
sorrowing friends.
His death was the result of a fall from a platform in his class room, which
produced concussion of the brain, from which, after lingering sixteen days,
he expired. The following is on a monument to his memory.
To
the memory of
John Riddle, Esq., F. R. A. S.,
late Head Master of the
Nautical School,
who died 11th of Oct., 1862,
in the 46th year of his age,
from injury to the brain, caused by
an accident in his class room.
