Richard Ridge: Convict, Trader and Bailiff
in Early Colonial NSW
| Description Readers' Comments News and Updates Publication Details To Purchase |
| "What did bailiffs do in early colonial Australia? Find out here!" Richard Ridge was the cousin of a Viscountess when he was born in Oxfordshire in 1766, but in 1791 he arrived with the Third Fleet as a convict in the penal colony of New South Wales. Literate and numerate, once free, he earned money by carting goods, surviving the clutches of the NSW Corps and their cronies. The colony’s civil court transactions revealed his active trading activities. Along the way he managed to win the respect of some powerful men in Sydney. By 1807 he was employed as the bailiff, an officer of the court, spending much time on horseback, delivering writs and seizing assets of debtors, as ordered by the court. This tough position exposed him to financial risks, and also physical risk from disgruntled debtors. Richard’s boss was the Provost Marshal, William Gore, who’d arrived in Sydney with Governor Bligh in August 1806. In that role, Gore enforced the arrest of John Macarthur. Richard became caught up in the upheaval leading to the Rum Rebellion by the NSW Corps in January 1808, and its aftermath. Later came the legal battles between Governor Macquarie and Sydney’s unimpressive bunch of lawyers, also impacting Richard’s employment. At the Hawkesbury, where Richard settled, he endured relentless floods. As a constable in the 1820s he dealt with men competing for land in the newly-opened wilderness area along the Colo River. Richard was a protector type. He rescued three damsels in distress: Mary Cunningham/Carroll, Jane Poole and Margaret Forrester. His two daughters born to Mary and Jane were raised by their feminist mothers; he was a protective parent of his eleven children with his young wife Margaret. Her early life is recounted in my book about her parents, ‘Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter’, (available through BookPOD). The Ridge children became intertwined with those of many other early settlers of Australia. Richard Ridge was ‘ridgy-didge’, Australian slang for a genuine, straightforward person. He triumphed over incredible adversity during his busy, challenging and adventurous life. |  |
Readers' Comments
You continue to amaze me Louise, in how you collect so many pieces of information and weave them into a story. Well done! Ian Nicholls, Sydney.
It looks wonderful. The book’s presentation is fantastic – so much work in it. Love the use of maps and illustrations. As with Forrester – it’s heavy on detail – very much my style. This will be a great contribution to colonial and convict social history. Michael Flynn, Sydney.
Other than the excellent account of the Rum Rebellion, what struck me is the evocative descriptions of the daily hardscrabble lives of many of the characters, and the way you have pieced together such a variety of records to paint a picture of their likely experience from the banalities of acquiring enough food to the disasters of accidents and floods. Ev Beissbarth, Melbourne.
News and Updates
6 Apr 2023: Based on the life led by Richard in early New South Wales, I'm tempted to name this book 'Richard Ridge, Ridgy-Didge'. What do you think? Your feedback is welcome.
16 Nov 2023: I've been busy on full-time Gran duty in Sydney in 2023, helping my daughter with her four teenagers. Unfortunately, this means you'll have to wait until 2024 for Richard's story.
12 Dec 2024: This year ongoing family dramas have resulted in further unavoidable delays with Richard's story. It has now been edited down to an acceptable length, and I've visited Windsor and the Hawkesbury several times. However I'm still waiting for a response from the Local Historian to a specific question of mine about a particular landholding. I'm hoping her local knowledge will prove significant in Richard's story.
2 Mar 2025: Not wishing to rely on guess work, I have employed a researcher who specialises in NSW Land Titles to investigate two specific blocks of land where I think Richard had an important long-term association as a farmer. Once the research report is received I'll be in a position to proceed with the work of actually publishing the book.
10 Jun 2025: Very happy to say that, after around 15 years of on-again, off-again work, I've finally fitted together the missing pieces of the Richard Ridge jigsaw puzzle and have completed the final draft of his book. After rigorous culling, it's considerably shorter than the book about his father-in-law 'Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter'. Richard's life was very different from Robert's. Please get in touch with me by mail, email, telephone or Instagram if you are interested in joining the mailing list, to be informed when the new book becomes available. (For reasons not understood by me, Facebook has recently denied me access to my own page, but I hope to have that problem rectified before long.)
12 Jul 2025: My new title for the book is 'Richard Ridge: Trader and Bailiff in Early Colonial NSW', a better depiction of the historical context of this non-fiction book. But I still think of Richard as 'Richard Ridge: Ridgy-Didge', a dinky-di person, trying to do the right thing by others.
20 July 2025: To save space in the book, I have published separate stories on my RobertForresterFirstFleeter blog about Catherine Ridge and Mary Ann Ridge, the daughters of Richard's first partner Mary.
17 Oct 2025: At last, the book has gone to BookPOD for setup and printing. I'm excited that this long journey is nearing its end. I hope to have the book ready for readers before Christmas. Let me know if you would like a copy. Pre-orders will be taken very soon.
Publication Details
| Published | Louise Wilson, South Melbourne, VIC |
| Format | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780980447873 |
| Available | Late November, 2025. Contact the author to join the waiting list. |
To Purchase
Online through - BookPOD, exact details to be advised. Contact the author to join the waiting list.