‘The Case and Argument against Sir Ignoramus of Cambridge’ (London, 1648). Subsequently the poet Cowley warned poets not to quarrel with scholars, ‘lest some one take spleen and another “Ignoramus” make.’
In 1620, when he was third in seniority among the members on the foundation of the college, Ruggle vacated his fellowship. He seems to have left Cambridge to become tutor at Babraham to the two sons of Toby Palavicino, and grandsons of Sir Horatio Palavicino [q. v.] His will, dated 6 Sept. 1621, was proved 3 Nov. 1622. He directed that all his papers and paper books should be burnt, but more than one copy of ‘Ignoramus’ had already been made. One copy has long been in the library at Clare College. It was first printed in 1630 by John Spencer (London, 12mo), with a fanciful portrait of ‘Ignoramus’ as frontispiece. Misprints are numerous, and before the end of the year a second and revised edition appeared. In 1658 a third edition professed to be corrected in six hundred places—‘locis sexcentis emendatior.’ Editions dated in 1659 and 1668 are both called the fourth. Others appeared in 1707, 1731, 1736 (Dublin), and 1787. The last is elaborately annotated by John Sydney Hawkins. English translations by Robert Codrington [q. v.] and Edward Ravenscroft [q. v.] were issued in 1662 and 1678 respectively. That by Codrington is a fairly literal rendering, that by Ravenscroft is an adaptation. The latter was acted in 1678 at the Royal Theatre, under the title ‘The English Lawyer,’ a comedy. The piece, in the original Latin, was acted by the scholars of Westminster in 1712, 1713, 1730, and 1747. A new fifth act, specially prepared for the Westminster performance, appears in the editions of 1731 and 1787.
John Hacket's ‘Loiola’ has been wrongly assigned to Ruggle, and, according to a manuscript note made in 1741 in a copy of ‘Ignoramus’ by John Hayward, M.A., of Clare Hall, Ruggle wrote two comedies, ‘Re vera, or Verily,’ and ‘Club Law.’ Neither is known to be extant. A manuscript play somewhat doubtfully identified with the latter, which attacked the puritans, belonged to Dr. Farmer.
[An elaborate memoir of Ruggle is prefixed to J. S. Hawkins's edition of ‘Ignoramus,’ 1787.]
RUGGLES, THOMAS (1737?–1813), writer on the poor law, the son of Thomas Ruggles, by his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Joshua Brise of Clare, Suffolk, was born about 1737. He inherited Spains Hall, Essex, on the death of a cousin in 1776, and became deputy-lieutenant of Suffolk and Essex. He married, in 1779, Jane Anne, daughter of John Freeland of Cobham, Surrey, by whom he had issue three sons and three daughters. He died on 17 Nov. 1813. His wife died in 1823. His eldest son, John (1782–1852), assumed the name Brise, in addition to Ruggles, and his son, Col. Sir Samuel Ruggles-Brise, succeeded to Spains Hall. Ruggles published: 1. ‘The Barrister; or Strictures on the Education proper for the Bar,’ 1792, 8vo; 2nd ed. corrected, London, 1818, 12mo. 2. ‘The History of the Poor, their Rights, Duties, and the Laws respecting them. In a Series of Letters,’ 2 vols. London, 1793–4, 8vo; new edition, London, 1797, 4to. This work is not of much value, but contains some materials useful to the economic historian. It was translated into French by A. Duquesnoy.
[Berry's County Genealogies (Essex), p. 84; Gent. Mag. 1807 i. 278, 1813 ii. 625; Burke's Landed Gentry; McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy.]
RUGLEN, Earl of. [See Douglas, William, third Earl of March and fourth Duke of Queensberry, 1724-1810.]
RULE, Saint (fl. 8th cent.?) [See Regulus.]
RULE, GILBERT, M.D. (1629?–1701), principal of Edinburgh University, was born about 1629, probably in Edinburgh, where his brother Archibald was a merchant and magistrate. He was educated at Glasgow University, where he gained repute as a regent, and in 1651 he was promoted to be sub-principal of King's College, Aberdeen. About 1656 he became perpetual curate of Alnwick, Northumberland. At the Restoration Major Orde, one of the churchwardens, provided a prayer-book. Rule, however, preached against its use, whereupon Orde indicted him (August 1660) at the Newcastle assizes for depraving the common prayer. Before the trial Orde lost his life by a fall from his horse at Ovingham, Northumberland, and, in the absence of a prosecutor, Rule was acquitted. Ejected from Alnwick by the Uniformity Act (1662), Rule returned to Scotland, and thence by way of France made his way to Holland, where he studied medicine, and graduated M.D. at Leyden in 1665. He practised with great success at Berwick, preaching at the same time in conventicles, often at much peril. At Linton Bridge, near Prestonkirk, Haddingtonshire, Charles Hamilton, fifth earl of Haddington (1650–1685), fitted up for him a meeting-house, which was
