Nicholas, bishop of London, and a martyr to the Reformation, was descended of an ancient family, and born in the beginning of the 16th century, at Wilmotswick in Northumberland. From the grammar-school at Newcastle upon Tyne, he was sent to Pembroke-hall in Cambridge, in the year 1518, where he was supported by his uncle Dr Robert Ridley, fellow of Queen's college. In 1522 he took his first degree in arts; two years after, was elected fellow; and, in 1525, he commenced master of arts. In 1527, having taken orders, he was sent by his uncle, for further improvement, to the Sorbonne at Paris; from there he went to Louvain, and continued abroad till the year 1529. On his return to Cambridge, he was chosen under-treasurer of the university; and, in 1533, was elected senior proctor. He afterwards proceeded bachelor of divinity, and was chosen chaplain of the university, orator, and magister glomeris. At this time he was much admired as a preacher and disputant. He lost his kind uncle in 1536; but was soon after patronized by Dr Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, who made him his domestic chaplain, and presented him to the vicarage of Herne in East Kent; where, we are told, he preached the doctrine of the Reformation. In 1540, having commenced doctor of divinity, he was made king's chaplain; and in the same year, was elected master of his college in Cambridge. Soon after, Ridley was collated to a prebend in the church of Canterbury; and it was not long before he was accused in the bishop's court, at the instigation of Bishop Gardiner, of preaching against the doctrine of the Six Articles. The matter being referred to Cranmer, Ridley was acquitted. In 1545, he was made a prebendary of Westminster abbey; in 1547 was presented, by the fellows of Pembroke-hall, to the living of Solihull, to the diocese of Norwich; and the same year was consecrated bishop of Rochester. In 1550 he was translated to the see of London; in which year he was one of the commissioners for examining Bishop Gardiner, and concurred in his deprivation. In the year 1552, our prelate returning from Cambridge, unfortunately for himself, paid a visit to the Princess, afterwards Queen Mary; to whom, prompted by his zeal for reformation, he expressed himself with too much freedom: for she was scarcely seated on the throne when Ridley was doomed a victim to her revenge. With Cranmer and Latimer he was burnt alive at Oxford, on the 16th of October 1555. He wrote, 1. A treatise concerning images in churches. 2. Brief declaration of the Lord's Supper. 3. Certain godly and comfortable conferences between Bishop Ridley and Mr Hugh Latimer, during their imprisonment. 4. A comparison between the comfortable doctrine of the Gospel and the traditions of the Popish religion; and other works.

Ridley, Dr Gloster, was of the same family with the preceding. He was born at sea, in the year 1702, on board the Gloucester East Indiaman, from which circumstance he obtained his Christian name. He was educated at Winchester school, and afterwards obtained a fellowship at new College, Oxford. He paid his court to the muses at an early period, and laid the foundation of those solid and elegant acquisitions which afterwards distinguished him so eminently as a divine, historian, and poet. During a vacation in 1728, he joined with four friends in composing a tragedy called "The Fruitless Redress," each undertaking an act agreeably to a plan which they had previously concerted. It was offered to Mr Wilkes, but never acted, and is still in manuscript. Dr Ridley in his youth was extremely attached to theatrical performances. The Itrdress, and another called Jugurtha, were exhibited at Midhurst in Sussex, and the actors were chiefly the gentlemen tlemen who assisted him in their composition. We are informed that he played Mark Anthony, Jaffier, Horatio, and Moneses, with very great applause, which may be readily inferred from his graceful manner of speaking in the pulpit.

During a great part of his life he had only the small college living of Westow in Norfolk, and that of Poplar in Middlesex, which was the place of his residence. His college added to these some years after, the donative of Remford in Essex, which left him little or no time for what he considered as the necessary studies of his profession. Yet in this situation he remained in the possession of, and satisfied with domestic felicity, and enjoyed the intimate friendship of some who were equally distinguished for worth and learning.

The eight sermons which he preached at Lady Mover's Lecture in 1740 and 1741, were given to the public in 1742. In the year 1756 he was invited to go to Ireland as first chaplain to the duke of Bedford, but declined to accept of it. In the year 1763 he published the life of Bishop Ridley, in 4to, by subscription, from the profits of which he was enabled to purchase L.800 in the public funds. In the concluding part of his life he lost both his sons, who were young men of considerable abilities. The elder, called James, was author of Tales of the Genii, and some other literary performances; and his brother Thomas was sent as a writer to Madras by the East India Company, where he suddenly died of the smallpox. In the year 1765, Dr Ridley published his review of Philips's Life of Cardinal Pole; and as a reward for his labours in this controversy, he was presented, in 1768, by Archbishop Secker with a rich prebend in the cathedral church of Salisbury; the only reward he received from the great during a long and useful life. He was at last worn out with infirmities, and died in 1774, leaving behind him a wife and four daughters. By his elegant epitaph, written by Bishop Lowth, we are informed that the university of Oxford, for his merits, conferred upon him the degree of D.D. the highest literary honour which that learned body has to bestow.