general, and conducted with moderation the prosecutions of the Jacobites after the rebellion of '45. A good lawyer, he was raised to the chief justiceship of the king's bench in 1754. He died suddenly on the 24th May, 1756, on the evening of the very day on which the king had signed a warrant for his elevation to the peerage. His grandfather's prediction was amply fulfilled, for Sir Dudley Ryder's brother became archbishop of Armagh, and the present earl of Harrowby is a great-grandson of the chief-justice.—F. E.
RYLAND, John, D.D., an eminent divine of the Baptist denomination, son of the Rev. J. C. Ryland, principal of the Enfield academy, was born at Warwick in 1753. His precocity was remarkable, and he is said to have read a chapter in the Hebrew Bible to the celebrated James Hervey before he was five years old. He entered the ministry in 1771; was first associated with his father at Northampton, then sole pastor, and afterwards removed to the Broadmead chapel, Bristol, in 1793, where he became president of the Baptist college. He was one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society, of which institution he was senior secretary from 1815 to his death in 1825. In the course of his ministry he preached eight thousand six hundred and ninety-one sermons in two hundred and eighty-six distinct localities. Some of his discourses have been published, and are highly valued; but his principal work is the "Life of the Rev. Andrew Fuller," published in 1816, in 1 vol. 8vo. A funeral sermon on the occasion of his death, with a sketch of his character, is to be found in the first volume of the works of the Rev. Robert Hall.—W. B. B.
RYLAND, William Wynne, a good English engraver, was born in London in 1732, and was apprenticed to Ravenet in London, and studied some years under Le Bas in Paris. Soon after his return to England, he was appointed engraver to George III., with a salary of £200 per annum. Ryland, however, mixed up the business of print-selling with the art of engraving, and some pecuniary difficulties seem to have led him into the false and fatal step of extricating himself, by his art certainly, but by the extraordinary proceeding of forging a bill for £210 on the East India Company. A true bill was found against him, and he was tried at the Old Bailey, July the 26th, 1783, and was executed two days afterwards. Ryland asserted his innocence, but circumstances were against him. The reader will find the case fully stated by the writer of this notice in the supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia. Ryland was a very able engraver, especially in the chalk or stipple method, which he introduced into England. As an etcher, or where the needle and the graver are combined, he was also excellent. Some of his unfinished plates were generously completed by his brother engravers, Sharp and Bartolozzi, for the benefit of his widow. Very many of the plates in Rogers' collection of prints in imitation of drawings, &c., are engraved by Ryland.—R. N. W.
RYMER, Thomas, the learned editor of that well-known and important work called the Fœdera—a collection of documents relating to the transactions of England with foreign powers, was born in Yorkshire in 1638 or 1639. His father, Ralph Rymer, was executed for his share in the northern insurrection of 1663. Thomas was educated at the grammar-school of Northallerton, was afterwards admitted to Sydney Sussex college, Cambridge, and became a member of Gray's inn in 1686. He appears, however, to have devoted himself to the study of polite literature, rather than of the law. In 1677 he published a play, entitled "Edgar, or the English Monarch." This was followed by a "View of the Tragedies of the Last Age," 1698; a tract on the "Antiquity, Power, and Decay of Parliament," 1684; his "Short View of Tragedy," 1693; a translation of Rapin's Reflections on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie, 1694, and various minor tracts. His poems and criticisms were alike devoid of merit, but his antiquarian and historical productions are of great value. In 1692 Rymer was appointed historiographer to King William in the room of Shadwell, with a salary of £200 a year. He Wiis employed to carry into effect a magnificent scheme, which had been proposed by Montague and Lord Somers, for the publication of a collection of the documents connected with the transactions between England and other states, and performed the task with great industry and care. The first volume appeared in 1703, under the title of "Fœdera Conventiones et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliæ et alios Principes," &c. Seventeen volumes, folio, of this valuable series were prepared and published by Rymer; and after his death three volumes more were added by Robert Sanderson. The whole was reprinted at the Hague in 10 vols., 1739. The work was abridged by Rapin in French, and inserted in Le Clerc's Bibliotheque, a translation of which was made by Stephen Whatley, in 4 vols. 8vo, in 1731. The publication of the documents contained in this work produced a complete change in the histories of our country. The learned auther died in poverty, 14th December, 1714, in London, and was buried in the church of St. Clement Danes.—J. T.
RYSBRACK, Michael, a distinguished sculptor, was born at Antwerp in 1693, and was taught his art by M. Vander Vorst. He came to London in 1720, and here for many years met with extraordinary success, until the establishment of Scheemaker and Roubiliac, who eventually supplanted him in the public favour. He died January 8, 1770. His works are very numerous in England, and he is seen to great advantage in Westminster abbey, where is his monument to Sir Isaac Newton.—R. N. W.
RYVES, Bruno, an eminent Anglican divine, born in Dorsetshire; clerk of New college, Oxford, 1610; chaplain of Magdalen, 1616; and afterwards chaplain to Charles I. Cruelly persecuted during the puritan rebellion, he was rewarded with the deanery of Windsor and the rectory of Acton on the Restoration, and made secretary of the garter. He is said to have assisted Bryan Walton in the Polyglot Bible. His writings for the most part consist of "Mercuries," or brief periodicals recounting the horrible cruelties inflicted by the puritans on the clergy, the spoliation of cathedrals, &c. He died in 1677.—T. J.
RYVES, Sir Thomas, a celebrated civilian, educated at Winchester school, and afterwards fellow of New college, Oxford, 1598; D.C.L. 1610; in 1618 a mastery in chancery, and judge of the prerogative court in Ireland. Charles I. knighted him, and he was a fervent royalist during the civil war. He assisted that unfortunate monarch in the treaty of the Isle of Wight. He died in 1651. His works have long been buried in the dust of libraries. He wrote "The Vicar's Plea, or a competency of means due to vicars out of the several parishes, notwithstanding their impropriations;" "Regiminis Anglicani in Hiberniâ Defensio, adversus Analecten, lib iii.;" "Imperatoris Justiniani Defensio adversus Alemannum;" "Historia Navalis Antiqua;" and "Historia Navalis Media."—T. J.
RZEWUSKI, Wenceslas, a Polish nobleman and general, was born in 1705, and was descended from one of the oldest families of Poland. Having in 1733 embraced the cause of Stanislaus Leckzinski, which proved unsuccessful, he went into voluntary exile, and did not return until Stanislaus had released him from his oath. Created a general by Augustus III., Rzewuski re-established the discipline of the army, and greatly ameliorated the condition of the soldiers. When Stanislaus Poniatowski was elected king of Poland in 1767, Rzewuski, disapproving of a choice dictated by Russia, joined in the protestation of the assembly of Radom, and was in consequence arrested on the demand of the Russian ambassador, and confined for six years in Smolensk. On his release he retired to his estates, but he was reinstated in his rank as general, and the office of castellan of Cracow was forced on his acceptance. Nothing, however, could induce him to quit his retreat. He died in 1779. Rzewuski was remarkable not only for his patriotism, but also for his extensive knowledge of the laws of his country, and of literature, philosophy, and the arts. He was the author of some tragedies and comedies; of a number of miscellaneous treatises and poems, both in the Latin and Polish languages; and of a translation of the Odes of Horace, and of the Psalms.—J. T.
