The Conversion of the Reverend George Dudley Ryder, 1846

The Reverend George Dudley Ryder (1810–80), grandson of the Earl of Harrowby and son of England’s first evangelical bishop, had a promising career ahead of him in the Anglican Church. He was examined for matriculation by Newman at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1828 and soon joined the circle of Newman’s disciples: he was tutored by Newman, Richard Hurrell Froude and Robert Wilberforce, and was known as Froude’s protégé. A somewhat idle student, Ryder obtained a fourth class degree in classics in 1833 and the following January he was ordained by his father, Henry Ryder, Bishop of Lichfield. Many years later J.R. Bloxam, Newman’s curate at Littlemore, revealed that Ryder and some of his contemporaries had been refused testimonials for Holy Orders because they were known to be friends of Newman, while The Christian Observer alluded to Ryder’s advancement as an example of the abuse of Church patronage. Nevertheless Ryder’s ecclesiastical and aristocratic connections worked in his favour and he was installed as vicar of St. Werburgh, Hanbury, in Staffordshire in 1834.