RIDLEYS OF WILLIMOTESWICK, NORTHUMBERLAND.
431
The several pedigrees of the preceding family do not correspond in plac-
ing the children.
EIGHTEENTH GENERATION.
Rev. Gloster Ridley18 (1), D. D., grandson of Thomas¹6 (9), was born
at sea in 1702, on board the "Gloster," Indiaman, from which circumstance
he received his name. He was educated at Winchester School and be-
came Fellow of New College, Oxford, where he took his degree of B. C. L.
in 1739. He manifested a great partiality for the stage in early life, and
to this preference may be attributed the eloquence and graceful delivery
which he afterwards displayed in the pulpit. He obtained the living of
Westow, Norfolk, and the donation of Poplar, in Middlesex; and after
some years spent in the peaceful obscurity of a country curacy, he was at
last presented to a golden prebend in Salisbury, by Archbishop Secker,
who also conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He was an eminent
scholar and divine. His publications were not numerous; he wrote a
tragedy in four parts in early life, and afterwards a life of his kinsman,
Bishop Nicholas Ridley. He died Nov. 3, 1774, and had his virtues re-
corded in an epitaph by the learned Dr. Lowth. His widow died at
Hingham, in 1837, aged 91 years; they had a family of six children, of
whom hereafter. The following verses indicate his style of composition:-
VERSES ON PRAYER.
"Prayer is the manna, the celestial bread,
By which our hungry souls are daily fed.
Through life's wild wilderness by this sustained,
We reach the heavenly Canaan's promised land.
Bring then thy choicest lays, inspiring muse,
This glorious subject of my verse I chuse :
The various motions of the mind declare
How Heaven itself is stormed by fervent prayer,
And all the artillery of that peaceful war.
And first Contrition does the soul employ,
That pleasurable pain, that grief of joy;
Affliction's waters are of bitter kind,
And grate the palate of the mind;
But when God's grace, that Tree of Life, is cast
Therein, the streams forget their nauceous taste.
First on his knees the humble sinner falls,
And to the Lord for gracious succor calls;
He prays his God to melt his frozen soul,
To break his heart, and make, by breaking whole.
He prays his God to strike the friendly blow,
That from the rock once more the streams may flow.
The volume of his life is now displayed,
And every page impartially surveyed;
And now upon the ground behold him roll,
Expressing thus the posture of his soul;
Shame o'er his face her scarlet mantle spreads,
And his torn heart with inward anguish bleads;
His eyes of tears a grateful tribute bring,
"H. S. E. Glosterus Ridley, vir optimus integerrimus: Verbi Divini peritus fide-
lis indefensus: Ab Academia Oxoniensi pro meritus, et praeter ordinem, in Sacrâ
Theologia Doctorate insignitus. Poeta natus, Oratoriæ facultati impensius studuit
Quam fuerat in concionando fecundus, plurimonum animus diei insidebit; quam va-
ria eruditione instructus. Scripta ipsius semper testabunter. Obiit tertia die mensis
Novembris, A. D. 1774."
