Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/68

 by J. Goldar and Granger. The degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by Brown University, Rhode Island, in 1792. Ryland married, on 12 Jan. 1780, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Tyler of Banbury, who died on 23 Jan. 1787, a few weeks after the birth of her only child. His second wife was Frances, eldest daughter of William Barrett of Northampton, whom he married on 18 June 1789. She survived him, with one son, Jonathan Edwards Ryland [q. v.], and three daughters.

Ryland's reading was ‘various and extensive;’ he was a profound oriental scholar, and he had a passion for natural history. Though not a great preacher, he possessed, through his learning and uprightness, a great influence among the baptists. His views were Calvinistic, but in middle life he grew to sympathise with the opinions of Jonathan Edwards, and was more tolerant towards those who differed from him. He is said to have preached no fewer than 8,691 sermons. A considerable number of manuscripts and sermons by him are at the College Street church, Northampton, and the baptist college, Bristol. Among his friends were William Carey, Dr. John Erskine, Andrew Fuller, Robert Hall, John Newton, Dr. John Rippon, and Thomas Scott.

Numerous sermons and charges were published by Ryland, and he drew up many recommendatory prefaces for religious works and for biographies of his friends. His chief works were: 1. ‘The Plagues of Egypt, by a School-boy thirteen years of Age,’ n. p. or d. [1766] (cf. and, Dict. of Anonymous Lit. iii. 1918). 2. ‘Serious Essays on the Truths of the Gospel,’ 1771 (consisting of 121 pieces in verse); 2nd edit. corrected and enlarged, 1775; 3rd edit. revised by the Rev. J. A. Jones, 1829. 3. ‘The Divine Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures; a Poem,’ 1772. 4. ‘The Faithfulness of God in His Word evinced,’ 1773 (a poetic rendering of the first argument of Robert Fleming the elder in his work on ‘The Fulfilment of Scripture’). 5. ‘Compendious View of the Principal Truths of the Gospel,’ 1774. 6. ‘Salvation Finished: a Funeral Sermon on Robert Hall senior; with an Appendix on the Church at Arnsby,’ 1791; 2nd edit. revised by the Rev. J. A. Jones, 1850. 7. ‘Earnest Charge of an Affectionate Pastor,’ 1794. 8. ‘Christianæ Militiæ Viaticum; a brief Directory for Evangelical Ministers;’ 2nd edit. 1798; 6th edit. 1825. 9. ‘Candid Statement of the Reasons for the Baptists,’ 1814 and 1827. 10. ‘Memoir of the Rev. Andrew Fuller,’ 1816 and 1818. 11. ‘Serious Remarks on the different Representations of Evangelical Doctrine,’ pt. i. 1817, pt. ii. 1818. Two volumes of ‘Pastoral Memorials,’ consisting of abstracts of some of his sermons, twenty-five of his hymns, and a short memoir, by his son, were published after his death (vol. i. in 1826 and vol. ii. in 1828).

Ryland was a popular hymn-writer. His earliest hymns appeared in the ‘Serious Essays’ (1771). Others appeared in the religious magazines between 1770 and 1790, and twenty-five were included in the ‘Pastoral Memorials.’ Ninety-nine ‘Hymns and Verses on Sacred subjects’ (mainly from unpublished manuscripts), with a biographical sketch, came out in 1862. Ryland's hymns are simple in thought and language, and lack passion or poetry. Thirteen of them are in common use (, Hymnology).

[Memoir added to Pastoral Memorials, vol. ii.; Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies, pp. 623–625; Tyerman's Oxford Methodists; Life of Rowland Hill, 1834, p. 92; Life of Simeon, p. 48; Cox's Baptist Missionary Soc. i. 1–290; Swaine's Men at Bristol Baptist Coll. passim.] 

RYLAND, JOHN COLLETT (1723–1792), divine, son of Joseph Ryland, a farmer and grazier of Lower Ditchford, Gloucestershire, and grandson of John Ryland, yeoman, of Hinton-on-the-Green, Gloucestershire, was born at Bourton-on-the-Water in the same county on 12 Oct. 1723. His mother, Freelove Collett, of Slaughter, was a collateral descendant of John Colet [q. v.], dean of St. Paul's. Ryland was baptised in 1741 by Benjamin Beddome [q. v.], who, perceiving him to be a lad of promise, sent him about 1744 to Bernard Foskett's academy at Bristol to prepare for the ministry. After undergoing much spiritual conflict he left Bristol in 1750 to be pastor of the baptist church at Warwick, where he had already preached for four or five years. Here he kept school in St. Mary's parsonage-house, rented of the rector, Dr. Tate, who, when remonstrated with on harbouring a dissenter, used to retort that he had brought the man as near the church as he could, though he could not force him into it.

In October 1759 Ryland left Warwick for Northampton, where he lived twenty-six years as minister and schoolmaster, his pupils often numbering as many as ninety. Among them was Samuel Baxter. It is his chief merit to have done more perhaps than any man of his time to promote polite learning among the baptists and orthodox dissenters. Twice his church was enlarged, and in 1781 his son, John Ryland (1753–1825) [q. v.], joined him as co-pastor. On 2 July 1784 he delivered at sunrise over the grave of Dr. Andrew Gifford [q. v.] in Bunhill Fields an ‘Oration,’ which was published, and has been twice reprinted (1834 and 1888). In 1786