Thomas Ridgley was born in London around 1667. He was educated for the ministry in
Wiltshire, presumably under John Davison at
Trowbridge. In 1695, he was chosen assistant to
Thomas Gouge, pastor of the independent church at Three Cranes, Fruiterers' Alley,
Thames Street, London. On Gouge's death he succeeded to the pastorate, which he held till his own death, being assisted by
John Hurrion and (from 1732) by Samuel Parsons. On the death of
Isaac Chauncy, in 1712, he was elected divinity tutor to the Fund Academy in Tenter Alley,
Moorfields, established by the London congregational fund board in 1696. His coadjutor in classics and science was
John Eames. Ridgley had abundance of theological learning, and was a good instructor. His position as a teacher was that of a bulwark of dissenting orthodoxy against the prevalent tendencies to
Arian and
Arminian laxity. This duty he discharged with great ability and considerable individuality of treatment. His scheme of the
Trinity, denuded of the generation of the Son and the procession of the Spirit, is essentially
Sabellian, and in easing the difficulties of
Calvinism he follows the
Socinians in limiting the penalties of Adam's sin to death and temporal discomfort. In 1719, he took the side of subscription in the
Salters' Hall debates, thus ranging himself with the older
presbyterians; while
Hunt,
Lowman,
Lardner, and
Jennings, his juniors among the learned independents, were for non-subscription. His lectures expository of the larger
catechism of the Westminster divines constitute his 'Body of Divinity,' which, issued by subscription in 1731, became a textbook of moderate Calvinism, and gained him the diploma of D.D. from Aberdeen. Ridgley died on 27 March 1734, aged 66, and was buried in
Bunhill Fields. His portrait by
Bartholomew Dandridge was engraved by Vandergucht. ==Publications==