Nicholas Ridgely (February 2, 1694 – February 18, 1755) was colonial justice of the Supreme Court of the Lower Counties of Delaware from 1746 until his death in 1755.

Biography

Born in Maryland, Ridgely was the grandson of Colonel

Henry Ridgley Henry Ridgley (1635–1710) was an early settler of Maryland. Early life Ridgley arrived in the colonies in 1659 and demanded 6,000 acres of land for himself, his wife and four servants: John Hall, Stephen Gill, Richard and Jane Ravens. He ...

, and settled in Delaware in 1732, and in

Dover, Delaware Dover () is the capital and second-largest city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County and the principal city of the Dover, DE, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County and is part of ...

, specifically in 1736.University of Delaware,
Ridgely Family Papers: Selected Family History
', accessed January 28, 2023. Ridgely "served first as a magistrate of the court before he became one of the provincial justices of the Delaware Supreme Court in 1740". In 1745, the colonial supreme court consisted of three members:

Ryves Holt Ryves Holt (1696 – May 8, 1763) was an American judge who served as chief justice of the Delaware Supreme Court from 1745 to 1763. Biography Born in 1696, Holt, a resident of Philadelphia, was involved in trade with the West Indies before being ...

, Jehu Curtis, and Ridgely. In 1746, when

Caesar Rodney Caesar Rodney (October 7, 1728 – June 26, 1784) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician from St. Jones Neck in Dover Hundred, Kent County, Delaware. He was an officer of the Delaware militia during the French and Indian War a ...

was orphaned at the age of 17, the Delaware Orphan's Court named Ridgley as Rodney's guardian.

Personal life and death

In 1749, Ridgely built a mansion called Eden Hill, which generations later was acquired by the

Delaware Department of Transportation The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is an agency of the U.S. state of Delaware. The Secretary of Transportation is Nicole Majeski. The agency was established in 1917 and has its headquarters in Dover. The department's responsibil ...

, and later still renovated for use by the courts, and occupied by Ridgely's descendent, Delaware Supreme Court justice

Henry du Pont Ridgely Henry du Pont Ridgely (born May 31, 1949) is a former justice of the Delaware Supreme Court who retired on January 31, 2015. Ridgley was a descendant of Colonial Delaware Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Ridgely, who had built a mansion called Eden ...

. Other descendents of Ridgely's who also served on the Delaware Supreme Court included Henry Ridgely Horsey and Maurice Hartnett. Ridgely was married three times, first to Sarah Worthington in 1711, then to Ann French (Gordon) in 1723, and lastly to Mary Middleton (Vining) in 1736. Between his three wives, Ridgely fathered ten children, and had numerous prominent descendents. Ridgely died in Delaware at the age of 61.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ridgely, Nicholas 1694 births 1755 deaths Justices of the Delaware Supreme Court