Henry Ryder

Monument to Bishop Ryder by Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey in Lichfield Cathedral

Henry Dudley Ryder (21 July 1777 Streatham, Surrey – 31 March 1836 Hastings, Sussex) was a prominent English Evangelical Anglican bishop in the early years of the nineteenth century. He was the first Evangelical to be raised to the Anglican episcopate.

Life

Ryder was the fifth son of Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby, by his wife Elizabeth Terrick, daughter of Richard Terrick, Bishop of London. Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby and the Honourable Richard Ryder were his elder brothers. He studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and became vicar of Lutterworth and of Claybrook. He was canon of Windsor in 1808.

He was successively Bishop of Gloucester, from 1815, and Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, from 1824. His kneeling statue by Francis Legatt Chantrey is in Lichfield Cathedral.

John Henry Newman, in his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, speaks of the veneration in which he held Ryder.

Family

Ryder married Sophia, daughter of Thomas March Phillips, in 1802. Their second son George Dudley Ryder was the father of the Very Reverend Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder. Their fifth son was Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Phillips Ryder. Their sixth and youngest son Spencer Ryder was the ancestor of the soldier and politician Robert Ryder. Ryder died in March 1836, aged 58. His wife died in August 1862.

Commemoration

After his death a bronze medallion was issued:

Bronze Medal 1836 in honour of Bishop Henry Dudley Ryder by Thomas Wells Ingram, Birmingham

Sourcces

Attribution

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Church of England titles
Preceded by George Isaac Huntingford	Bishop of Gloucester 1815–1824	Succeeded by Christopher Bethell
Preceded by The Hon James Cornwallis	Bishop of Lichfield 1824–1836	Succeeded by Samuel Butler