approved by a majority of the legislature of the province, and a school bill which he drafted became law in 1846. Three years later the Baldwin-Lafontaine administration passed another act making radical alterations in Ryerson's scheme; but owing to Ryerson's representations the governor suspended the working of the act, and, in conjunction with Baldwin, Ryerson drafted a measure which retained the chief features of the 1846 act, and became law in 1850. Public education in Ontario is still directed on the lines there laid down. In 1853 he induced the government to pass a law revising the Grammar School Act, and he drafted the Education Bill of 1860. In 1854 he severed his connection with the Wesleyan methodist body, publishing his reasons in a pamphlet entitled ‘Scriptural Rights of the Members of Christ's Visible Church’ (Toronto, 1854, 8vo). In 1855 he established meteorological stations in connection with the county grammar schools throughout the province. He was created LL.D. by Middletown University in 1842, and D.D. by Victoria College in 1866. In 1876 he resigned his position as superintendent of schools; the office was abolished and its functions transferred to the minister of education. Ryerson died at Toronto on 19 Feb. 1882, and was buried in Mount Pleasant cemetery. A statue with an inscription to his memory was unveiled in the grounds of the education department, Toronto, in 1889.
Ryerson was twice married, first, in 1828, to a daughter of John Aikman of Barton township, who died without issue in 1832; and, secondly, in 1833, to a daughter of J. R. Armstrong of Toronto, who with a son, Egerton, and a daughter, Mrs. Harris, survived him.
Ryerson's chief works were: 1. ‘The Loyalists of America and their Times,’ 2 vols., Toronto, 1880, 8vo; containing much historical information (cf. Times, 31 Jan. 1882). 2. ‘The Story of my Life,’ Toronto, 1884, 8vo, completed and edited by J. G. Hodgins. He also contributed ‘First Lessons in Christian Morals’ and ‘First Lessons on Agriculture’ to the Canadian Series of School Books, 1867, &c.; edited ‘The Journal of Education [Toronto]’ from 1848 to 1876, and published numerous tracts, letters, and reports in reference especially to the clergy reserve and education questions.
His eldest brother, William Ryerson (1791–1882), born near Fredericton, New Brunswick, took an active part in the war of 1812–14; on its outbreak he received a commission as lieutenant in the 18th Norfolk regiment of Canadian militia, was present at the capture of Detroit on 21 Aug. 1812, and carried the despatches announcing the event at headquarters; he was incapacitated for several years by a wound received at the battle of Lundy's Lane. In 1819 he entered the ministry of the methodist church, and in 1831 was sent to England as a delegate to conference. There he met Edward Irving, and became a convert to his views; on his return to Canada he established the catholic apostolic church in that country, and acted as its head until 1872. He was thrice married, and left a numerous family. He died at his son's residence, 317 Church Street, Toronto, on 19 Dec. 1882 (Toronto Globe, 21 Dec. 1882).
[Story of my Life, ed. Hodgins, Toronto, 1884; Hodgins's Ryerson Memorial Volume, 1889; Toronto Globe, 20 and 23 Feb. 1882; Richardson's Eight Years in Canada; Appleton's Cycl. of American Biography; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopædia (Supplement); Allibone's Dict. English Lit.]
RYGGE, RIGGE, or RUGGE, ROBERT (d. 1410), chancellor of the university of Oxford, was a native of Devonshire, and possibly a relative of Thomas de Bitton, bishop of Exeter. He was elected fellow of Exeter College in 1362, and held that position till the autumn of 1372. Afterwards he was a fellow of Merton College, and was bursar in 1374–5. He may be the Robert Rygge who was going abroad in the suite of Sir John de la Pole in March 1378 (Napier, Swyncombe and Ewelme, p. 268). In March 1381 he had license, with other clerks, to alienate in mortmain to Merton College certain lands at Bushey, Hertfordshire (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Richard II, pp. 608, 611). Rygge was a secular priest, and had graduated as B.D. before 22 Sept. 1378 (Boase, p. lix), and as D.D. before the date of the condemnation of Wiclif by William of Berton [q. v.], probably in 1379–80 (cf. English Hist. Review, v. 329–80). As a member of Merton College, Rygge would naturally be inclined in favour of the Wiclifites; and his accession as chancellor of the university, on 30 May 1381, probably marked the temporary ascendency of the reformer's party (cf. Matthew, English Works of Wyclif hitherto unprinted, Introd. p. xxv).
In the spring of 1382 doctrinal questions at Oxford came to a head. Rygge, in effect if not openly, favoured Wiclif's followers, Nicholas of Hereford [q. v.] and Philip Repington [q. v.], and supported them against the Carmelite, Peter Stokes [q. v.] Eventually he appointed Hereford to preach the sermon at St. Frideswide's on Ascension day, 15 May.
