author
Thomas Ridgley
d. 1734
An English Independent minister and theologian, he is best remembered for clear, substantial writing on Christian doctrine and for his influential lectures on the Westminster Larger Catechism. His work helped shape dissenting religious thought in early 18th-century London.
4 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in London around 1667, Thomas Ridgley trained for the ministry in Wiltshire and went on to serve an Independent congregation in London. In 1695 he became assistant to Thomas Gouge at Three Cranes in Thames Street, and after Gouge's death he succeeded him as pastor.
Ridgley was also an important teacher. In 1712 he became divinity tutor at the Fund Academy in Tenter Alley, Moorfields, where he helped train future ministers. He later received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the University of Aberdeen.
He is best known as the author of A Body of Divinity, drawn from lectures on the Westminster Larger Catechism and published in the early 1730s. Ridgley died on March 27, 1734, and was buried in Bunhill Fields, a well-known burial place for English Nonconformists.