George Ridge

George Ridge 'of Kilmiston [sic], County of Southampton' was part of a syndicate including Lauchlin Macleane, Clotworthy Upton, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury and John Stuart or Stewart (each of whom q.v.) who were early purchasers of land in Grenada and Dominica. From the will of George Ridge's son Capt. William Ridge (q.v.) it appears that George Ridge's interest in the Grenada property was restructured in 1771, with his sons Capt. William Ridge and Thomas Ridge taking on the investment in return for an annuity to their father. George Ridge of Kelmiston was the father-in-law of the playwright Richard Cumberland (q.v.), and one secondary source suggests that Cumberland himself was part of the syndicate and took a 'share of the burden' in managing the Grenada property. It appears that Cumberland was in fact the legatee of his brother-in-law Captain William Ridge (q.v.) for a share in the 'plantations' in 1773.

http://beinecke.hamilton.edu/islandora/object/hamBeiMss:21226/datastream/PDF/view [accessed 03/10/2019]; London Gazette 17206, 4 January 1817 p. 13; Asokha SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, '''NABOB, HISTORIAN AND ORIENTALIST" The Life and Writings of Robert Orme (1728-1801)', unpublished PhD Thesis, King's College London (n.d.) https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/2926894/DX204899.pdf p. 113 [accessed 29/04/2020]. George Ridge the army agent and banker, later partner in Cocks, Biddulph, a predecessor firm of Barclays Bank, was possibly the son of George Ridge of Kilmiston - this George Ridge (d. 1824 aged 78) would have been relatively young to have been himself speculating in the company of the other men in 1769, Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003 for George Ridge Westminster St Martin in the Fields 1821-1825 [database online, which shows the burial of George Ridge of Charing Cross 26/10/1824 aged 78; http://www.martinsbank.co.uk/The%20Banks%20that%20built%20Martins.htm [accessed 03/10/2019].