Matthew Ridley

Matthew Ridley (14 November 1711 – 6 April 1778), of Heaton, Northumberland, was a barrister, country gentleman, brewer, coal magnate, owner of glass-works, and governor of a company of merchant adventurers in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was four times mayor of the borough and from 1747 to 1774 also represented it as a member of parliament in the House of Commons. Early life The Ridley family had belonged to the landed gentry of Northumberland since the early 15th century. Ridley was the eldest son of Richard Ridley of Heaton and Newcastle upon Tyne, by his marriage to Margaret White, a daughter of Matthew White of Blagdon. His father owned collieries at Heaton. The young Ridley was educated at Westminster School, where he arrived in 1724, St John's College, Oxford, where he matriculated in December 1727, aged sixteen, and Gray's Inn, to which he was admitted in 1728. He was created a Master of Arts at Oxford in 1730 and was called to the bar in 1732. On 2 November 1739, Ridley’s father died, and he succeeded him. Career Ridley was elected as Mayor of Newcastle in 1733. By 1739, the year of his father’s death, he was governor of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Company of Merchant Adventurers and was also a coal magnate, the owner of a brewery and a glass-works, and a leader of the Newcastle business community. He was elected as mayor three more times, in 1745, 1751, and 1759.