402
RIDLEY FAMILY OF ENGLAND, - EARLY ANCESTRY.
Hall after the death of Standley, till the year 1509, when, at the accession
of Henry VIII, he presented Ralph Egerton, who was then gentleman
usher of the king's chamber, with all the former possessions of Sir Wil-
liam Standley in Cheshire and Flint, which included the manor of Ridley,
a mill and certain lands in Farndon, and the Lordship of Tattanhall; and
on the 11th of February, 1514, the manor of Ridley was entailed by patent
to the heirs male of Ralph Egerton by the same king. This representa-
tive of the Egerton family had been created a knight by King Henry
VIII, for services in the army in France in 1513, and was made standard-
bearer for life, with a salary of one hundred pounds a year, after the bat-
tle of Flodden Field. He was afterwards made Marshal of Chestershire,
thus having jurisdiction in office commensurate with his predecessor at
Ridley, Sir William Standley, who had also been Marshal of the County.
Egerton died in 1527, and was buried at Ridley. How came the family of
Egerton to have possession of the manor of Ridley? In the absence of spe-
cific documentary evidence, I conjecture the connections to be as follows:
As the main line of the family of Ridley had ended in Alice, the wife of
Robert Danyel, and the representation consequently devolved upon their
son and heir, who became the knight-follower of William Standley, when
this son was put out of sight in some mysterious way, his County Mar-
shal got possession of his property, being then in great favor with the
king. Meanwhile a junior branch of the Ridley family of Chestershire,
undoubtedly the legal claimants at the death of Sir Robert Danyel, being
nearest of kin, had ended in an heir female, Margaret Ridley, who became
the wife of Richard Egerton, and had a son Thomas Egerton, her heir.
As Standley was now out of the way, the Egertons, represented in that
generation by Sir Ralph, put in their rightful claim to the manor of Rid-
ley, and were successful in its possession, with all the costly improvements
on the estates made by William Standley. The singular circumstances
show that this ancient property, once evidently wrested from the real heirs
unjustly, came back to the legal representative after many years, so much
increased in value as to almost make good the loss of possession during the
occupancy of its unlawful holder. It will be seen by reference to the pedi-
grees of the Ridley family following this article, that the alliances between
the families of Ridley and Egerton had been cemented by several mar-
riage bonds. Sir William Grosvenor, of Eton, had married Susan Ridley,
and their daughter or granddaughter became the wife of one Sir Ralph
Egerton. There had also been intermarriages between the families pre-
vious to the death of the last heiress of the junior branch of the Ridley
family.
The manor of Ridley continued in the Egerton family from 1509 to
1603, when it passed by sale to Orlando Bridgeman, Bart., Lord Keeper
of the Great Seal to King James I, thence into the possession of the fam-
ily of Pepheys, in the early part of the seventeenth century, and is now
owned by William Pepheys, Earl of Cottenham. This family have never
made Ridley Hall their residence. During the civil wars the ancient house
was garrisoned by the Parliament; an unsuccessful attack was made upon
it on the 4th of June, 1645, by a party from the garrison at Beeston Cas-
The Hall was burned in the year 1700.
tle.
"Ridley Chancel" was kept in repairs by the Pepheys to 1873, when
they threw it upon the wide world, their liability to keep it longer in good
condition being at that time repudiated.
The town of Ridley is in the first division of the Hundred of Edisbury,
