Richard Ridge - Coming in 2025
| Description Readers' Comments News and Updates Publication Details To Purchase |
| "the intriguing story of a bailiff who arrived in NSW in 1791 as a convict" This book adds to the stories of a largely forgotten part of Australian colonial history, the early settlers of the Hawkesbury district, near Sydney. In the pages of documented history we first meet Richard Ridge in 1789, literate and numerate, twenty-three years old and on the move outside London. His family of origin, yeomen farmers, appeared quite well-to-do. Travelling with his ass, he was about to be caught up in a crime. Innocently, it seems. ‘On the move’ he remained for the rest of his life, being transported to Australia with the Third Fleet and eventually spending much of his time on horseback, serving as bailiff, an officer of the court system in New South Wales. We’ve already met his young wife-to-be, Margaret Forrester, in ‘Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter’, (available through BookPOD), my book about her parents, who also arrived as convicts. Almost thirty years younger than Richard, she was born in 1795 in a primitive hut beside the beautiful Hawkesbury River, on the other side of the world to Richard’s birthplace in Oxfordshire. Her father’s original land grant of 30 acres was very flood-prone. From 1804 the Forresters lived on the family’s second farm, a 70 acre grant containing some high land where a home could be built above the flood-zone. For three years from 1806 their next-door neighbour was Richard Ridge, renting McKellar Farm and also active in his new role as bailiff. He led a very different lifestyle to that of the other early settlers of the Hawkesbury and his strong 'protector' traits became an interesting theme of his story. The publication date of late 2024 has been postponed to 2025. |  |
Readers' Comments
Yet to come. The book is in its final draft form.
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. The draft is with several readers for their editorial feedback. 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.)
Publication Details
| Published | Louise Wilson, South Melbourne, VIC |
| Format | Paperback |
| ISBN | 978 ......... |
| Available | To be advised. Contact the author to join the waiting list. |
To Purchase
Online through - To Be Advised. Contact the author to join the waiting list.