Life

He was born at Oxford about 1590. He matriculated at St. John's College, Oxford, on 16 June 1610, at the age of twenty, and graduated B.A. on 23 May 1612, having already been ordained deacon by John Bridges

John Bridges (bishop)

-Life:He graduated M.A. at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge in 1560, having been a Fellow there since 1556. He became Dean of Salisbury in 1577.He was appointed Bishop of Oxford on the accession of James I of England, and took part in the Hampton Court Conference, in 1604....

, bishop of Oxford

Bishop of Oxford

The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford...

. A nonconformist, he went over to Ireland, where he was probably ordained presbyter by Robert Echlin, bishop of Down and Connor

Bishop of Down and Connor

The Bishop of Down and Connor is an episcopal title which takes its name from the town of Downpatrick and the village of Connor in Northern Ireland...

. On 7 July 1619 Echlin admitted him to the vicarage of Antrim

Antrim, County Antrim

Antrim is a town in County Antrim in the northeast of Northern Ireland, on the banks of the Six Mile Water, half a mile north-east of Lough Neagh. It had a population of 20,001 people in the 2001 Census. The town is the administrative centre of Antrim Borough Council...

, on the presentation of Arthur Chichester. He built up his church (founded 1596), and gained a reputation as a preacher. He has been described as a presbyterian, but Alexander Gordon

Alexander Gordon (Unitarian)

Alexander Gordon was an English Unitarian minister and religious historian. A prolific contributor to the Dictionary of National Biography, he wrote for it well over seven hundred articles dealing mainly with nonconformists....

 writing in the Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

disagrees.

About 1626 Hugh Campbell, a layman from Ayrshire

Ayrshire

Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, established a meeting on the last Friday of each month at his house in Oldstone, two miles from Antrim. Crowds of people attended, encouraged by James Glendinning, the vicar of Carnmoney

Carnmoney

Carnmoney is the name of a townland and electoral ward in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Carnmoney is within the urban area called Newtownabbey and the wider Newtownabbey Borough. It lies 7 miles from Belfast city centre....

. To counter Campbell Ridge began a meeting for preaching and conference on the first Friday of each month at Antrim, and called in the aid of Robert Blair, Robert Cunningham (d. 1637) of Holywood, co. Down, and James Hamilton

James Hamilton (minister)

James Hamilton was a Scottish minister of presbyterian views, active in Ireland until deposed from his living.-Life:He was second son of Gawen Hamilton, third son of Hans Hamilton, vicar of Dunlop. After receiving a liberal education at Glasgow he was appointed by his uncle, James Hamilton, 1st...

. This was the origin of the Antrim meeting, an advisory body claiming no jurisdiction. According to Alexander Gordon, it was influential, and furnished the model of the Worcestershire agreement framed by Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter

Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...

 in 1652, and adopted in numerous English counties in place of the parliamentary presbyterianism; and through John Howe, a member of the Antrim meeting (1671-5) became the parent of the county unions formed among English dissenters after the passing of the Toleration Act of 1689.

The fame of the meeting brought to Antrim, about 1628, a company of English separatists and an Arminian, John Freeman, but they were unsuccessful in making proselytes. Ridge was one of the five beneficed clergy who, at the primary visitation of Henry Leslie

Henry Leslie (bishop)

Henry Leslie was a Scottishman who became the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor from 1635 to 1661 and briefly Bishop of Meath from January to April 1661.-Life:...

 at Lisburn

Lisburn

DemographicsLisburn Urban Area is within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area and is classified as a Large Town by the . On census day there were 71,465 people living in Lisburn...

 in July 1636, refused to subscribe to the new canons, which were to assimilate the doctrine and ceremonies of the Irish church to those of England. The private conference which followed went unrecorded; in the public disputation with Leslie at Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 (on 11 August) Ridge took no part, but when called up for sentence on 12 Aug. he admitted that Leslie had given the five non-subscribers a fair, though not a full, hearing. Leslie thought his scruples arose from a melancholy temperament. He condemned him to 'perpetual silence within his diocese.' Alexander Gordon asserts that there had been no actual presbyterianism

Presbyterianism

Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...

 in Ireland to this point, and the question of the form of church government had not been seriously raised, and that was Leslie's action, prompted by John Bramhall

John Bramhall

John Bramhall was an Archbishop of Armagh, and an Anglican theologian and apologist. He was a noted controversialist who doggedly defended the English Church from both Puritan and Roman Catholic accusations, as well as the materialism of Thomas Hobbes.-Early life:Bramhall was born in Pontefract,...

, that laid the foundation of a revolt against episcopal authority.

The silenced clergymen, with the exception of Edward Brice

Edward Brice

Edward Brice or Bryce was a Scottish Presbyterian minister, the first Presbyterian with a living in Ireland.-Life:He was born at Airth, Stirlingshire, about 1569, and is named Bryce in the Scottish records, but Brice in the Irish records. He entered Edinburgh University about 1589, and studied...

, retired to Scotland. They were received at Irvine, Ayrshire, by David Dickson

David Dickson (professor)

-Life:He was the only son of John Dick or Dickson, a merchant in the Trongate of Glasgow, whose father was an old feuar of some lands called the Kirk of Muir, in the parish of St. Ninians, Stirlingshire. He was born in Glasgow about 1583, and educated at the university, where he graduated M.A., and...

 (1583?-1663). Here Ridge is believed to have died in 1637, but there is no record of his death or burial.

Family

He was married, and left daughters, one of whom, Susannah (d. 19 April 1693), was married on 30 September 1643 to Samuel Heathcote of Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

, and had ten children; the descendants of her eldest son, Samuel, are numerous.