years was an extempore preacher. From 1692 he frequently took part in licensing and ordaining nonconformist ministers; he himself educated students for the ministry with aid (1693–6) of the presbyterian fund. But he held cordial relations with churchmen, particularly with his fellow-collegian, John Hall [q. v.], bishop of Bristol. Risley died in the early part of 1716, and was buried in the graveyard of Risley chapel; the inscription on his supposed tombstone is modern (since 1885). By his wife Catherine he left six surviving children, including two sons, Thomas and John (1691–1743), his successor at Risley Chapel.
He published only ‘The Cursed Family … shewing the pernicious influence of … prayerless houses,’ &c., 1700, 8vo, with a prefatory epistle by John Howe (1630–1705) [q. v.]
[Calamy's Account, 1713, p. 66; Calamy's Continuation, 1727, i. 98; Howe's Prefatory Epistle, 1700; Owen's Funeral Sermon, July 1716; James's Hist. Litig. Presb. Chapels, 1867, p. 665; Jeremy's Presbyterian Fund, 1885, pp. 12, 32; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1891, iii. 1260; List of Chapels claimed by Presbyterians (Tooting Case), 1889; Nightingale's Lancashire Nonconformity (1892), iv. 252 sq.; tombstones at Warrington and Risley; information from W. Innes Addison, esq., assistant clerk of senate, Glasgow.]
RITCHIE, ALEXANDER HANDYSIDE (1804–1870), sculptor, son of James Ritchie, a brickmaker, who amused himself with modelling, was born in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, in 1804. He was educated at the parish school, and showed such a taste for drawing and designing that he was induced by Leonard Horner to remove to Edinburgh, where he continued his art studies. He attended the school of design, and afterwards made a tour of France and Italy, studying at Rome under Thorwaldsen, and returning to Edinburgh about 1838. He was the sculptor of a large number of busts, statues, and groups (eleven of which were exhibited at the Royal Academy, London), and he was elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1846. He died on 23 April 1870.
As a sculptor Ritchie was possessed of no small amount of true feeling and skill. Among his best productions are busts of Lady Susan Hamilton and Kemp the architect of the Scott monument in Edinburgh; the Dickson statue group in St. Cuthbert's churchyard, Edinburgh; a statue of his friend, Dr. Moir, at Musselburgh; the Wallace statue at Stirling; and the ornamental figures on the Commercial and British Linen Banks in Edinburgh, the Commercial Bank in Glasgow, and the mausoleum at Hamilton Palace. He was also engaged for decorative sculpture for the houses of parliament.
Ritchie's younger brother, John Ritchie (1809–1850), sculptor, pursued his studies in Scotland under many disadvantages. The chief of his early works is the statue of Sir Walter Scott at Glasgow. He was subject to extraordinary dreams, and used to attempt to model his visions in clay. One of them was his fine group, ‘The Deluge,’ exhibited at Edinburgh in 1823, which attracted much attention. It was again exhibited in London, at the Royal Academy, in 1840. In the same year his ‘Sappho’ was exhibited at the British Institution. After the return of his brother from Rome, he became his assistant, and worked for him for some years. A Mr. Davidson, of London, who saw the model of ‘The Deluge,’ commissioned John Ritchie to execute it in marble. With this purpose he set out in September 1850 for Rome. He was already engaged on his work when he caught malarial fever, which proved fatal on 30 Nov. (notes furnished by Mr. Campbell Dodgson; Art Journal, 1851, p. 44).
[Irving's Eminent Scotsmen; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Report of Royal Scottish Academy for 1870; Cat. of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.]
RITCHIE, JOSEPH (1788?–1819), African traveller, born at Otley in Yorkshire about 1788, was son of a medical practitioner in the town. Following his father's profession, he became hospital surgeon at York about 1811, and there made the acquaintance of Samuel Ireland [q. v.], the Shakespeare forger, of whom he has left a lively description in a letter to his schoolfellow and friend, the Rev. Richard Garnett [q. v.] In 1813 he became surgeon to the Lock Hospital in London, where his scientific and literary abilities speedily introduced him to excellent society. Visiting Paris in 1817 with strong introductions, he obtained the notice of Humboldt, and was recommended to the English government as qualified to undertake the exploration of the Nigritian Soudan by way of Tripoli and Fezzan. Ritchie enthusiastically accepted the offer to direct an expedition. On his return to London, while occupied with preparations, he made the acquaintance of Keats, through Haydon, and, possibly from some association of ‘Endymion’ with the Mountains of the Moon, promised to carry the poem with him to Africa, and fling it into the midst of the Sahara. Writing about this time to Garnett, he says: ‘If you have not seen the poems of J. Keats, a lad of about 20, they are well worth your reading. If I am not mistaken, he is to be the great poetical luminary of the age to
