RIDLEY, Sir Matthew White (II), 4th bt. (1807-1877), of 10 Carlton House Terrace, London and Blagdon, Cramlington, Northumberland

A member of one of the most powerful dynasties in the north-east of England, Ridley brought to an end his family’s 89 year unbroken representation of Newcastle-upon-Tyne when, in 1836, he declined to offer for the vacancy created by the death of his father, Sir Matthew White Ridley, 3^rd bt. In addition to possessing significant land in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the family owned 30,000 acres in Northumberland, and held valuable investments in the coal, glass and brewing industries.1HP Commons, 1830-32, vi. 962. Traditionally, the Ridleys had been Whigs in their politics, but in 1835 Ridley’s father joined the ‘Derby Dilly’, a decision which outraged a significant portion of his constituency.2HP Commons, 1832-68 (forthcoming); A. Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th Earl of Derby. Volume i: Ascent, 1799-1851 (2007), 175, 179. Ridley shared his father’s new-found Tory sympathies, but his decision to decline the vacancy did not reflect a fear that his political principles would be rejected by the Newcastle electorate. Rather, upon inheriting the family estates, Ridley made a conscious decision to limit his social and financial connections with the town, except in coal, and turn his attention to his Blagdon estates from where he established himself as the principal manager of the Conservative party in the county. He was particularly instrumental in securing the return of two Conservatives for North Northumberland at the 1841 and 1852 general elections.3N. McCord and A.E. Carrick, ‘Northumberland in the general election of 1852’, Northern History, 1 (1966), 94-7. He also became known as a diligent landlord and skilled agriculturalist. He founded the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Farmers’ Club and was a prominent member of the Royal Agricultural Society.4T.J. Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms in reformed England: case studies from the North-East, 1832-74 (1975), 108-9; Newcastle Courant, 28 Sept. 1877. He also took a keen interest in sculpture,5http://www.blagdonestate.co.uk/about-blagdon/family-history. and in many of his subsequent contributions to debate in the Commons, he presented himself as an arbiter of the nation’s artistic tastes.

Having managed Conservative involvement in Northumberland North’s elections since 1841, Ridley offered himself at the 1859 general election for the vacancy created by Lord Ossulston’s elevation to the peerage. The rural, northern division of his home county, known for its aristocratic domination, was a perfect fit for Ridley, especially as he was unlikely to be opposed.6Nossiter, Influence, 108-9. Echoing the ambiguity of his father’s politics, Ridley insisted that in Parliament, ‘he should not find himself imbued with party spirit’, but he nevertheless stated his intention to give Derby his ‘independent support’. He was equivocal on the subject of parliamentary reform, attacking any ‘organic changes’ while conceding that the franchise ‘must meet the requirements of the age’. He opposed the ballot. He was more forthright on foreign affairs, calling for a strong and efficient navy, and denounced the conduct of the French emperor, Napoleon III.7Newcastle Courant, 22 Apr., 6 May 1859. Unsurprisingly, he was returned unopposed, and took his seat on the opposite side of the Commons to his younger brother, George Ridley, Liberal member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

An occasional attender, Ridley voted with the Conservatives on most major issues. He was especially loyal to Disraeli’s leadership, and in June 1861 he took the lead in inviting him to the Carlton Club for a dinner with other Conservative MPs, as a show of confidence in his role as party leader in the Commons.8Disraeli declined the invitation, concerned that it would give the misleading impression of showing ‘material want of concord in the Conservative ranks’: Disraeli to Ridley, 7 June 1861, Benjamin Disraeli letters: 1860-1864 (2009), ed. J. Alexander, W. Gunn, and M.G. Wiebe, 122. An unwavering defender of the established church, he voted against church rate abolition, 14 May 1862, and the tests abolition (Oxford) bill, 16 Mar. 1864. He consistently divided against an extension of the borough and county franchises along the lines proposed by Peter Locke King and Edward Baines. Reflecting his continuing distaste with Napoleon III, he was in a small minority that opposed Britain’s treaty of commerce with France, 9 Mar. 1860.

In his first Parliament, Ridley made occasional and brief contributions to debate, mostly on matters directly affecting his county, but failed to ‘distinguish himself as a speaker’.9Newcastle Courant, 28 Sept. 1877. In a debate on the mines regulation and inspection bill he argued against shortening the hours of child labour, insisting that children were not overworked, 22 June 1860, and he successfully moved an amendment to delay Sir John Trelawny’s county rates and expenditure bill.10The parliamentary diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858-1865 ed. T.A. Jenkins (1992), 164. Displaying his Tory colours, he opposed the legislation on the grounds that it was unwise to ‘infuse new principles into ancient institutions, which were the growth of centuries, and the practical working of which had not been proved to be defective’, 20 Mar. 1861.

Ridley reserved his most colourful contributions for artistic matters, especially sculpture. He was fervently against further state grants for the erection of statues of former British sovereigns in Parliament, declaring that it was not the government’s responsibility to ‘give a helping hand to mediocre talent’ or fund ‘works which did not excite the sympathies of those who looked upon them’. He had little time for the statues of Fox, Pitt and Burke in St. Stephen’s Hall, thinking them ‘as bad statues as were ever perpetrated’. For Ridley, artists should be commissioned to sculpt ‘great incidents in our history, or noble passages in the poets’ that appealed to the ‘perceptions, the sensibilities, the sympathies, or the national feelings of those who beheld them’, 3 Apr. 1862. He was also an outspoken critic of the decision to appoint Sir Edwin Landseer to oversee the installation of Nelson’s lions in Trafalgar Square, dismissing Landseer as a painter, not a sculptor.11Hansard, 8 June 1863, vol. 171, cc. 546-53; 30 May 1864, vol. 175, cc. 844-69.

At the 1865 general election Ridley declared his support for the ‘dignified but conciliatory administration of foreign affairs’, restated his call for the efficiency of the army and navy, and was returned unopposed.12Newcastle Courant, 7 July 1865. Although he suggested that he would not withhold his support from the Liberal government if he ‘conscientiously’ approved of their policy,13Ibid. his Commons votes displayed little ambiguity concerning his party loyalties: he consistently backed Disraeli on all major issues, including the key clauses of the Derby ministry’s representation of the people’s bill. He opposed Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish church, 3 Apr. 1868.

Ridley spoke more frequently in his second Parliament, devoting most of his attention to his twin interests of agriculture and art. He was a particularly stern critic of the Russell ministry’s handling of the cattle plague crisis, 6, 20 and 22 Feb. 1866. He sat on the 1866 select committee on the home and foreign trade in animals, where he was an assiduous questioner, and his expertise was further evident when he served on the select committees on the metropolitan foreign cattle market bill.14PP 1866 (427), xvi. 430; PP 1867-68 (227), xii. 2. Ridley is also known to have sat on select committees on the cleansing of the Serpentine, the highways bill, and metropolitan local government: PP 1860 (102), xx. 2; PP 1862 (226), xvi. 640; PP 1866 (186), xiii. 172. In the debates on the Derby ministry’s representation of the people bill, he pressed unsuccessfully for the enfranchisement of Durham University graduates, 13, 17 June 1867, and opposed the defraying of returning officers’ costs by county rates, 27 June 1867.

At the 1868 general election Ridley made way for his eldest son and namesake. Thereafter he devoted his energies to the management of his estates at Blagdon, and continued to hunt three days a week. He died suddenly and ‘somewhat unexpectedly’ at Blagdon Hall in September 1877.15The Times, 27 Sept. 1877. The press reported the cause of death as ‘heart disease’, though a recent official family history states that he died at St. George’s hospital, Morpeth, following a fall from the roof of a farm building.16Newcastle Courant, 28 Sept. 1877; http://www.blagdonestate.co.uk/about-blagdon/family-history. Ridley was succeeded by his eldest son, Conservative MP for Northumberland North, 1868-1885, and for Blackpool from 1886 until his elevation to the peerage in 1900, who served as home secretary under Salisbury from 1895 to 1900. Ridley’s papers are held by the Northumberland record office.17Northumb. RO, Ridley (Blagdon) Mss.