William RIDLEY

RIDLEY, WILLIAM (b. Hartford End, Essex, England, 14 Sept 1819; d. Sydney, NSW, 26 Sept 1878). Missionary and Presbyterian minister.

Ridley studied law 1836-41. He graduated BA (Hons in Classics) from London University in 1842 and MA Sydney 1864. In 1842 he was inspired with the ambition of becoming a missionary but was rejected by the LMS because he had once held Plymouth Brethren beliefs. He went home to study theology and serve as a local preacher while assisting in his father's mill. In 1849 he accepted J D Lang's offer of the 'Professorship' of Greek, Latin and Hebrew in the Australian College as the best way to serve his missionary purpose.

Ridley arrived in Sydney in March 1850, was ordained by Lang's Synod of NSW on 10 April, and taught for eighteen months. At various times 1851-59 he sought unsuccessfully for calls to Dungog, Hanging Rock, New England and Manning River and developed preaching stations at Petersham and Canterbury. In June 1857 he was inducted minister of Portland, Vic, where he was 'greatly loved', but he demitted in Dec 1858. His weaknesses were serious deficiencies in pulpit presentation and an overhearing, slatternly wife never contented away from Sydney.

About the end of 1853, with general Protestant support, Ridley began an itinerant mission to the colonists and Aborigines of the central north-west of modern NSW and adjacent districts in Queensland. The native dialect, Kamilaroi, was spoken over a wide area where the nature of the country would limit the impact of colonisation. He travelled widely, stopping briefly to preach and distribute tracts or his Kamilaroi primer, the first published in an Aboriginal language. Failure of financial support caused his resignation in May 1856. The Anglican Board of Missions wanted him to conduct its planned mission but he refused to bow to Bp Barker's insistence on re-ordination.

In 1860 Ridley resigned from the Synod of NSW and turned to journalism. In 1861, although he had no charge, he was admitted as a minister of the Synod of Eastern Australia, seemingly to give the pro-union faction another vote. After union he preached at Kogarah and George's River and had a small church erected. In 1876 he became tutor in theology at St Andrew's College. In 1877 he was asked by the Presbytery of Sydney to learn Cantonese to superintend the Chinese Church in Sydney. In his later years he was spoken of as the hardest worked man in Sydney.

Ridley was a man of outstanding ability and attainments, said by the chancellor of Sydney University to put 'us all to the blush in his knowledge of everything'. He published on Aboriginal languages at government request and A P Elkin wrote of him as the second of ten 'fathers' of Australian anthropology. He was perhaps the only minister liked and respected in all sections of divided Presbyterianism, being a voluntaryist and a model of unworldliness, ecumenical in outlook, a peacemaker and, unlike most Scottish colleagues, a cheerful Christian.

Ridley's writings include On the Kamilaroi Tribe of Australians and Their Dialect, in a Letter to Dr. Hodgkin, Vice-President of the Ethnological Society, n.p. 1854; Report laid before the Moreton Bay Aborigines Friends' Society, of a journey along the Condamine, Barwon and Namoi rivers, Sydney 1855; The Aborigines of Australia. A Lecture delivered before the Young Men's Presbyterian Institute, in the Free Church, Macquarie Street, Sydney, September 14th, 1864, Sydney 1864; Kamilaroi Dippil and Turrubul; languages spoken by Australian Aborigines,Sydney 1866; Kamilaroi and other Australian Languages, Sydney 1875.

Ridley MSS in Mitchell and Dixson Libraries, Sydney; ADB 6; B J Bridges, Ministers, licentiates and Catechists of the Presbyterian Churches in New South Wales 1823-1865 (Melbourne, 1989)

BARRY BRIDGES