Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Earl of Londonderry

Thomas Ridgeway, 1st Earl of Londonderry (1565? – 1631) was an English administrator active in Ireland, in particular in the

Origins

He was born in about 1565 either at Torwood House in his father's

During the next few weeks, he was engaged with Sir John Davies and the commissioners for Irish affairs, before the lords of the council, in assisting to make a selection from the long lists of servitors willing to plant, transmitted by Chichester, and in deciding as to the most suitable districts for locating the principal Irish. In the discharge of these and other duties connected with the grand movement in Ulster, he was in London until the beginning of July. Meanwhile, new commissioners, of whom he was one, had been appointed to carry the scheme into execution; and Ridgeway, as soon as he was relieved from attendance on the council, sailed over in a small boat of seven or eight tons.

His arrival caused things to move briskly. He himself was assigned, as an undertaker, two thousand acres (8 km²) in the precinct of Clogher, County Tyrone, lying on the south-eastern border of the barony of Clogher, adjoining the parish of Errigal Trough in County Monaghan, and represented on the map as well-wooded and containing little bog or wasteland. To this were subsequently added on 22 April 1613 the lands around Augher. Further, as a servitor, there was assigned to him another estate of two thousand acres (8 km²) in the precinct of Dungannon, County Tyrone, lying along the upper course of the Blackwater, and represented as abounding in woods and bog land. He was one of the first to take out his letters patent, and from a report made of the state of the plantation in 1611, he appears to have been fairly active in fulfilling his obligations as an undertaker.

The settlement of Ulster having caused a great drain on the English exchequer, it was suggested to James I in 1611 that there were many gentlemen who would willingly pay for a hereditary title, and that the money thus obtained might be used for the support of the army in Ulster. The king's consent having been obtained, one of the first to take advantage of the new order thus created was Ridgeway, who for the payment of £1,200 was created a baronet on 25 November 1611.

In anticipation of the intended calling of a

Ridgeway died in London in 1631, and was buried in the south aisle of the parish church of Tor Mohun, Devonshire, where as a young man he had erected a grand monument with an effigy of his father adorned with three inscribed tablets to the memory of his father and grandfather.

Family

He married Cicely (sometime maid of honour to

Robert Ridgeway, who married Elizabeth Weston, daughter of Sir Simon Weston, and succeeded him as the 2nd Earl of Londonderry.^[7][8] Elizabeth Weston was cousin of Thomas Yale Sr., of the Yale family who went to America with Gov. Theophilus Eaton, and the niece of Chancellor David Yale, nephew of Chancellor Thomas Yale.^[9]

Cassandra Ridgeway, who married Sir Francis Willoughby in 1610, son of Sir Percival Willoughby of Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.^[10]

Their son, Francis Willughby, became the father of the Duchess of Chandos, Cassandra Willoughby of Wanstead Hall, later of Wanstead House. Francis's second son, Thomas Willoughby, 1st Baron Middleton, ended up inheriting Wollaton Hall and Middleton Hall.

As well as Edward, Macwilliam — and another daughter —Mary, who died in her infancy.

The peerage became extinct on the death of Robert, fourth Earl of Londonderry, in 1714.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Ridgeway, Thomas". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.