Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/59

 a Church Building Association in the diocese. Ryder's days were shortened by overwork. He died at Hastings, where he was buried, on 31 March 1836. A monument by Chantrey was erected in Lichfield Cathedral, and a memorial church, called Bishop Ryder's church, was built in Gosta Green, a populous suburb of Birmingham. In 1802 he married Sophia, daughter of Thomas March Phillipps of Garendon Park, Leicestershire, by whom he had ten sons and three daughters. His wife and all his children survived him except one son, Charles, who was drowned at sea in 1825. The seventh son was Sir Alfred Phillipps Ryder [q. v.]

Ryder's published works consist merely of single sermons and episcopal charges. His reputation for piety and energy was extraordinarily but deservedly high. The evangelicals of course rejoiced in the first bishop who was chosen from among their ranks. Wilberforce ‘highly prized and loved Bishop Ryder as a prelate after his own heart, who united to the zeal of an apostle the most amiable and endearing qualities, and the polished manners of the best society’ (Recollections of William Wilberforce). Charles Simeon ‘delighted’ in him; Hannah More is full of his praise; a person of a very different type, Dr. Samuel Parr, said ‘there is an halo of holiness about that man,’ and left him at his death a mourning ring in token of his respect, though he knew little of him except his public acts. It is a curious instance of the lax notions about pluralities which then prevailed that even so conscientious a man as Ryder thought it no shame to hold a deanery in commendam with a bishopric from 1815 to 1831, when ‘from conscientious motives’ (as his contemporary biographer puts it), he did not resign, but exchanged it with Dr. Goodenough for ‘a less lucrative prebendal stall at Westminster,’ which he held till his death.

[Christian Observer, May, August, and September 1836, and April 1837, containing long notices, equivalent to a volume in bulk, by a personal friend of Bishop Ryder; Annual Biography and Obituary, 1837, and Christian Keepsake (same accounts); Annual Register, 1836; Gent. Mag. 1836; Diocesan Histories, ‘Lichfield,’ by W. Beresford; Roberts's Life of Mrs. Hannah More; Recollections of William Wilberforce (Colquhoun); Overton's English Church in the Nineteenth Century (1800–1833).] 

RYDER, JOHN, D.D. (1697?–1775), archbishop of Tuam, son of Dudley Ryder, haberdasher, was born at Nuneaton, Warwickshire, about 1697. His grandfather was Dudley Ryder (d. 1683) the ejected rector of Bedworth. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1715, M.A. 1719, D.D. 1741. In 1721 he became vicar of Nuneaton, and held the living till his appointment to the see of Killaloe by patent of 30 Jan. 1742. He was consecrated in St. Bridget's, Dublin, on 21 Feb. Next year he was translated to the see of Down and Connor, and was further promoted, in March 1752, to be archbishop of Tuam and bishop of Ardagh. His views were evangelical and his disposition courteous and kindly. His latter years he spent at Nice, where he died on 4 Feb. 1775 from the effects of a fall from his horse. He was buried on 6 Feb. in a ground near the shore, purchased for protestant burials by the British consul, and since washed away by the sea. His portrait is at Queens' College, Cambridge.

His eldest son, John, born at Nuneaton in 1723, rector of Templemichael, co. Longford, prebendary of Tuam (1754), and dean of Lismore (1762), died at Nuneaton on 18 April 1791, and is buried in the parish church.

[Cotton's Fasti Eccles. Hibern.; Graduati Cantabr. 1823; Gent. Mag. 1832, i. 563; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, 1840, ii. 657; Colvile's Worthies of Warwickshire [1870], pp. 620 sq.] 

RYDER, JOHN (1814–1885), actor, born in the Isle of Thanet on 5 April 1814, had obtained in the country some recognition in the so-called ‘legitimate drama’ when he was engaged by Macready for Drury Lane Theatre, at which house he appeared as the Duke Frederick in ‘As you like it’ on 1 Oct. 1842. He took part in most of Macready's productions, and was (24 April) the original King in Sheridan Knowles's ‘Secretary.’ In September 1843 he accompanied Macready to America, supporting him, on a second visit in 1848, through an arduous and, as events proved, dangerous campaign. More than once in his ‘Diaries’ Macready expresses his contentment at his choice of a companion, saying that without him he ‘could not have got through’ (Reminiscences, ii. 222). Macready also owns to cutting down his parts. On 13 Oct. 1845, at the Princess's, Ryder was Claudius to Macready's Hamlet. On 20 May 1846 he was the original Sir Adam Weir in White's ‘King of the Commons.’ At the production (22 Nov. 1848) of Macready's abridgment of Taylor's ‘Philip van Artevelde,’ Ryder was Van den Bosch, and at that of Oxenford's version of Corneille's ‘Ariane,’ 28 Jan. 1850, he was Œnarus. In the opening performance at the Princess's under the Kean and Keeley management, on 28 Sept. 1850, he played