RIDLEYS OF OXFORD, NORTH CAROLINA.
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son.
to Harriet Blacksheare, and died in Early County, Ga., leaving an only
His second wife was educated at Sparta, Ga., where Doctor Ridley
lived and practised his profession; she was an orphan and an heiress, and in
her right her husband had quite a fortune, which, said a member of the
family who is well acquainted, "did not last long.' Doctor Ridley was
a talented man and an eminent physician; lived respected and died de-
servedly lamented.
Dr. Robert Ridley² (1), third son of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in Ox-
ford, Granville County, N. C., about 1782; married to Sophia Cooper, of
Hancock County, Ga., where he settled in the practice of his profession,
and where he died. Doctor Ridley was considered a good physician; he
left an only son bearing his name, of whom hereafter.
Thomas Ridley2 (1), fourth son of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in Gran-
ville County, N. C., and was presumably a farmer; nothing is said in my
correspondence about a profession. He married twice: firstly, to Betsey
Blunt, who died without issue, and secondly, to a sister of his first wife,
Polly Blunt, who also died childless. Mr. Ridley lived and died in his
native County.
Betsey Ridley (1), eldest daughter of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in
Granville County, N. C., and married Mingo Burton, a lawyer of the same
County; they moved to Lebanon County, Tenn., and raised a large family.
Fannie Ridley2 (1), second daughter of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in
Granville County, N. C.; married to William-Morgan Snerd, clerk of the
county court of said County, and died childless in Mississippi.
Polly Ridley2 (1), third daughter of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in Gran-
ville County, N. C.; married a Scotchman by the name of James Hamil-
ton, a wealthy merchant in the city of New York, and had two children.
Sally Ridley2 (1), fourth daughter of Bromfield¹ (1), was born in Gran-
ville County, N. C.; married to Benjamin Blunt (presumably a brother
of the wife of her brother Thomas), and moved to Alabama, thence to
Mississippi, where she died.
THIRD GENERATION.
Dr. Charles-Lewis Ridley (1), eldest son of James² (1) and his wife,
Elizabeth-Taylor Lewis, was born at Oxford, Granville County, N. C., July
5, 1802; was educated at Chapel Hill, N. C., and graduated at the Penn-
sylvania Medical University in 1824. He married in Hancock County,
Ga., where he was then reading medicine with his uncle, Dr. Archibald
Ridley, in 1823, to Susan A. Bonner, a lady of Scottish descent, well allied
with highly respectable families, and settled in Jones County, Ga., where
he successfully practised his profession for nearly forty years; and when
he had accumulated a fortune resigned his professional duties and devoted
his attention to agricultural pursuits. He was a man of untiring industry
and perseverance; of quick, ardent temperament; of sterling and stirring
qualities, which gave him eminence as a physician and success as a farmer.
His theory was to work with the head and with the hands; that it was
the only way one could "enter the halls of learning or sit down with
honor in the palace of wealth." Endowed with high qualities of head
and heart, he was hasty in action but equally ready to make amends when
convinced that he had done wrong. Doctor Ridley continued to prosper
in his work until the Southern Rebellion, when his property shared the
same fate of nearly all wealthy planters in the line of march of armies.
When Sherman's army passed through Georgia, the soldiers visited Doctor
