George Ridpath

George Ridpath (died 1726) was a Scottish journalist, who wrote in the Whig interest.

Life He was brought up by his mother at Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, until he went to Edinburgh University. In 1681, he was tutor, or servant, at Edinburgh to the sons of a Mr. Gray, and took an active part in the burning of the Pope in effigy by the students; the clerk to the council wrote that Ridpath was not then a boy. He was kept in irons for some days, and was charged with threatening to burn the provost's house, but after five weeks' imprisonment he was banished from Scotland. He went to London to seek a livelihood by his pen.

Soon after the Glorious Revolution he was an active London journalist. In 1696, Ridpath was acting as a sort of spy on the bishop of Glasgow and on Dr. Alexander Monro. The name George Ridpath is among those who graduated at Edinburgh in 1699. as Scotland's Sovereignty asserted; being a dispute concerning Homage, and in 1698 he translated N. de Souligné's Political Mischiefs of Popery. In A Dialogue between Jack and Will, concerning the Lord Mayor's going to meeting-houses with the sword carried before him, 1697, he defended Sir Humphry Edwin, a presbyterian lord mayor; and this was followed in 1699 by A Rowland for an Oliver, or a sharp rebuke to a saucy Levite. In answer to a sermon preached by Edward Oliver, M.A., before Sir Humphry Edwin. By a Lover of Unity. A book called The Stage Condemned, in support of Jeremy Collier's Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, appeared in September 1698, and the author of a reply, The Stage Acquitted, says it was by Mr. R[idpa]th, the formidable author of a scandalous newspaper, and the wretched retailer of mad Prynne's enthusiastic cant.

Ridpath's Scotland's Grievances relating to Darien, humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament, 1700, contained remarks about a foreign yoke. Next year came his The Great Reasons and Interests considered anent the Spanish Monarchy, and in 1702 A Discourse upon the Union of England and Scotland. By a lover of his country, in which Ridpath opposed a union. In 1703 he printed The Case of Scotsmen residing in England and in the English Plantations, and An Historical Account of the ancient Rights and Power of the Parliament of Scotland. These were followed by An Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament of Scotland, 1703, 1704, and The reducing of Scotland by Arms … considered, 1705. According to one of the replies to this last pamphlet, its author and publisher were bound over to appear at the queen's bench bar. In 1706 Ridpath wrote Considerations upon the Union of the two Kingdoms, and was answered in Sir John Clerk's Letter to a Friend, giving an Account how the Treaty of Union has been received here. With Remarks upon what has been written by Mr. H[odges] and Mr. R[idpath], a piece which has been erroneously attributed to Defoe.

In 1704–5, Ridpath assisted James Anderson, who was then preparing his Historical Essay showing that the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland is Imperial and Independent; and in 1705, he commenced a correspondence with the Rev. Robert Wodrow, chiefly on the subject of the union and the episcopal church in Scotland. The Scots' Representations to Her Majesty, against setting up the Common Prayer-Book in Scotland, 1711, was written, according to a note in the copy in the Advocates' Library, by Ridpath, William Carstares, and Defoe. Another piece attributed to Ridpath is The Oath of Abjuration considered, Edinburgh, 1712. He was also employed in correcting Captain Woodes Rogers's Voyage; assisted in writing the periodical History of the Works of the Learned; invented the "Polygraphy", a writing-engine, moved by the foot, by which six or more copies could be written at once; contributed to the Medley in 1712; and was in constant strife with the Tory Post Boy, published by Abel Roper. John Dunton, an admirer, described his style as excellent.

In 1713, Ridpath wrote Some Thoughts concerning the Peace, and the Thanksgiving appointed by authority to be observed for it; and certain observations on the address of the Highlanders to Queen Anne, which he complained was signed only by ten, four of whom were Catholics, called forth The Honourable Chieftains of the Highland Clans vindicated from the false Aspersions and scurrilous Reflections thrown upon them by Ridpath, the scandalous and justly condemned Libeller, Edinburgh, 1713. In 1714, he published a book called Parliamentary Right maintained, or the Hanover Succession justified, in answer to Hilkiah Bedford's Hereditary Right to the Crown of England asserted. His letters to the English minister at The Hague give an account of the difficulties in getting this work circulated (Stowe MSS.). Copies were sent by various ships to different ports in England; but many were lost or thrown overboard by the captains, or were returned because no one dared receive them. He had political correspondence with persons in Scotland, and in April he wrote The New Project examined, or the Design of the Faction to deprive the Hanover Family of the power to name Lord Justices anatomised, but it is doubtful whether this pamphlet was printed.

In 1717 he was giving Wodrow advice in the preparation of the History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland, and was himself proposing to write a continuation of George Buchanan's Scotch History. In 1719, when he was living in Greville Street, Holborn, he published An Appeal to the Word of God for the Trinity in Unity. Alexander Pope wrote (Dunciad, i. 208):

To Dulness Ridpath is as dear as Mist.

According to Wodrow, the dedication to the Lower House of Convocation, prefixed to the collected edition of the Independent Whig, 1721, is by Ridpath. It is an attack on the unscriptural claims of the clergy, who are charged with teaching the need of giving endowments rather than plain morality and religion.

Publications Shorthand yet Shorter (1st edn, 1687). Discourse upon the Union of Scotland and England … by a Lover of his Country (1702).