Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/69

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Ryland resigned to his son the care of the church, and removed his school to Enfield, where it grew and flourished. Ryland frequently preached in the neighbourhood. He is said to have once addressed from a coach-box, in a seven-storied wig, holiday crowds assembled on the flat banks of the Lea, near Ponder's End. He was massive in person, and his voice in singing was compared to the roaring of the sea. The degree of M.A. was conferred upon him in 1769 by Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. (founded 1765).

Ryland died at Enfield on 24 July 1792, and was buried at Northampton, his funeral sermon (two editions, 1792) being preached by Dr. John Rippon [q. v.] An elegy by ‘Legatus’ was published (London, 1792, 4to). He was twice married: first, on 23 Dec. 1748, to Elizabeth Frith of Warwick (d. 1779); and secondly to Mrs. Stott, widow of an officer. His sons by his first wife, John [q. v.] (1753–1825) and Herman Witsius [q. v.], are noticed separately. A portrait by John Russell (1745–1806) [q. v.], in full-bottomed wig and bands, engraved by Granger, is prefixed to his ‘Address to the Ingenuous Youth of Great Britain,’ London, 1792, 12mo.

Ryland's passion for book-making once or twice involved him in pecuniary difficulties. Neither printer, publisher, nor engraver could turn out their work half fast enough for him. As his friends James Hervey (1714–1758) [q. v.] and Augustus Toplady told him, he would have done more had he done less. With James Ferguson (1710–1776) [q. v.] he issued ‘An Easy Introduction to Mechanics,’ 1768, 8vo, and ‘A Series of Optical Cards.’ He contributed to the ‘Baptist Register,’ edited by John Rippon, wrote many of the articles for Buck's ‘Theological Dictionary,’ London, 1802, 8vo, and edited Edward Polhill's ‘Christus in Corde,’ Quarles's ‘Emblems,’ Jonathan Edwards's ‘Sermons’ (1780), and Cotton Mather's ‘Student and Preacher’ (1781).

His separate publications (all issued at London unless otherwise stated) were:

  1. ‘Memoir of J. Alleine,’ 8vo, 1766; 2nd ed. 1768.
  2. ‘Life and Actions of Jesus Christ; by Way of Question and Answer, in Verse,’ 1767, 12mo.
  3. ‘Scheme of Infidelity,’ London, 1770, 8vo.
  4. ‘A Contemplation on the Existence and Perfection of God,’ 1774, 8vo.
  5. ‘Contemplation on the Insufficiency of Reason,’ 1775, 8vo.
  6. ‘Contemplation on the Nature and Evidences of Divine Inspiration,’ Northampton, 1776, 8vo. These three, with additions, republished, Northampton, 1779, 8vo, with portrait, as ‘Contemplations on the Beauties of Creation;’ 3rd ed. 3 vols. Northampton, 1780.
  7. ‘The Preceptor or Counsellor of Human Life,’ 1776, 12mo.
  8. ‘A Key to the Greek Testament,’ 1777, 8vo.
  9. ‘Character of James Hervey, with Letters,’ 1790, 8vo.
  10. ‘A Translation of John Owen's Demonstrations of Divine Justice,’ 1790.
  11. ‘A Picture of Popery, prefixed to Luther's Discourses by Capt. Henry Bell;’ 2nd ed. 1791, fol.
  12. ‘A Body of Divinity,’ 1790, 12mo.
  13. ‘Evidences that the Christian Religion is of God;’ 2nd ed. 1798, 12mo.
  14. ‘Select Essays on the Moral Virtue, and on Genius, Science, and Taste,’ 1792.

[Ivimey's Hist. of Engl. Baptists, iv. 609; Sibree's Independency in Warwickshire, p. 128; Bogue and Bennett's Hist. of Diss. ii. 648; Gent. Mag. July 1792, p. 678; Evangel. Mag. October 1800, p. 397; Baptist Ann. Reg. 1790–3, pp. 124, 125, 329; European Mag. August 1792, p. 167; Morris's Biogr. Recoll. of Robert Hall, 1846, pp. 20–1; Newman's Rylandiana, 1835, passim; Cat. Sen. Acad. Univ. Brun. Providence, R. I., p. 47; Chaloner Smith's Brit. Mezz. Portraits, p. 685; Williamson's John Russell, R.A., 1894, pp. 47, 53, 163.]

C. F. S.

RYLAND, JONATHAN EDWARDS (1798–1866), man of letters, only son of John Ryland (1753–1825) [q. v.], by his second wife, was born at Northampton on 5 May 1798. His earlier years were spent in Bristol, and he was educated at the baptist college, over which his father presided, and at Edinburgh University, where he was a pupil of Dr. Thomas Brown. For a time he was mathematical and classical tutor at Mill Hill College, and for a short period he taught at Bradford College. He afterwards moved to Bristol, and in 1835 went to Northampton, where he remained for the rest of his life. The degree of M.A. was in 1852 conferred upon him by Brown University, Rhode Island. He died at Waterloo, Northampton, on 16 April 1866. On 4 Jan. 1828 he married Frances, daughter of John Buxton of Northampton.

Ryland was well acquainted with Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and German, but he was shy and reserved in manner, and did not do himself justice. He chiefly employed himself in editing and translating the works of others. His earliest compositions were inserted in the ‘Visitor’ (Bristol, 1823); he was a writer in the ‘Baptist Magazine,’ and he edited vols. ix.–xii. of the fifth series of the ‘Eclectic Review.’ He wrote for Kitto's ‘Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature,’ and he published in 1856 a ‘Memoir’ of Kitto. In 1864 he produced ‘Wholesome Words; or One Hundred Choice Passages from Old Authors.’ To the eighth edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’ he contributed memoirs of John