Richard Ryan (1796-1849)

Life
[recte 1797?] (known as “Poet of Camden”); b. London, 18 April 1797, at Oxford Street, being the son of Elizabeth and Richard Ryan (1715-88), a bookseller and himself the son of Patrick Ryan, orig. from Cork [var. Skibbereen]; ed. Soho Square Academy and St. Paul’s School; m. Amelia Cecilia Margaret Didier (1803-74), at St Marylebone, Westminster, May 1822, with whom four children - Edmund, Alfred, Elizabeth Bridget and Jane; his father kept a bookshop at 330 Oxford St. - formerly on site of Picadilly Circus - from 1784 up to his death in 1818, after which it closed within a year (Gent. Mag., Oct. 1818; March 1819); the son then reopened in Camden Town;
Ryan wrote some one-act plays, Everybody’s Husband, and Quite at Home; also Le Pauvre Jacques, vaudeville, all printed in J. Cumberland’s Acting Plays (1825); his other works incl. Eight Ballads on the Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry (1822); Biographia Hibernica [...] Irish Worthies, 2 vols. (1819-21) - the first of its kind - incorporating 326 ‘lives - and the work for which he is best remembered [see infra]; Poems on Sacred Subjects, etc. (1824); Dramatic Table-talk, 3 vols. (1825), and Poetry and Poets, being a collection of the choicest anecdotes relative to the poets of every age and nation, illustrated by engravings (1826); d. in October 1849; living descendents in New Zealand hold holograph and printed papers. ODNB WIKI
 

[Note: In religion, Ryan appears to have been Anglican (i.e., Lutheran Protestant) with strong sympathies for Irish Catholics, as emerges in his treatment of the persons in his Biog. Dictionary (2 vols., 1821) where he speaks of the “Romish religion” and the “Anglican faith” in one place and the “formidable body of dissenters” growing up in England in another. In relating episodes of history - battles on land and sea being very much his forte - he expresses strenuously royalist and imperial strain of English patriotism and likewise he condemns the various “rebellions” in Ireland recounted in those pages, albeit he blames faulty and even cruel British government in Ireland for there occurrence. Through his persistence expressions of honour and respect towards the aristocracy, the judiciary and the servants of the government, he shows himself to be a propagandist for Irish dignity in a British empire context. In that spirit, for instance, he celebrates the genius of Henry Fitzgibbon, a Jesuit who contested theologicall questions with Usher and others and of whom Ryan says: ‘Deluded, with too many of his countrymen, by the hope of throwing off a foreign yoke, he entered with great zeal into the designs entertained by the promoters of the great Rebellion in 1641’. (Vol. II, p.142.) The dedication of the book to “the Irish Nation” and the extraordinary amount of space devoted to Henry Grattan and Lord Charlemont (while not omitting famous Irish chiefs, poets, prelates and warriors), amply suggests his Irish sympathy within a law-abiding Union which he seems to regard as the natural state of affairs though we might think it simply the contemporary status quo. In Ryan’s moral universe, “thoughtlessness” is the worst offense, variously attributed to Samuel Boyse, Paul Hiffernan, each of whom are accused of disordered personalities and chaotic dispositions which impede the fulfilment or the proper reward for their abilities. George Farquhar is in the same spendthrift category, It takes little to extend the moral censure involved in this terms to the case of Oliver Goldsmith who is charged at various with “thoughtlessness” and “thoughtless dissipation” at different moments as leading causes of the vagaries of his career and an early propensity for gambling. The outcome of Goldsmith’s literary career was luckily different from that of William Gardiner [q.v.] whose artistic talent and overall ability to master any trade that he attempted, together with an honest and a sober life, did not prevent his lack of business acumen from leading to his professional failure, in the end hanging himself with copious account of his reasons in a letter to a patron. Virtue, it seems, is not a protection against misfortune or even self-destruction. BS Jan. 2024.]


See a holograph letter by Richard Ryan preserved by family - infra

Go to ...
Biographia Hibernica: A Dictionary of Irish Worthies, 2 vols. (Dublin & London 1819-1821)
—in RICORSO Library > Criticism > History > Legacy > Richard Ryan - Index.

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Works
  • Biographia Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland from the earliest period to the present time, written and compiled by Richard Ryan (London: John Warren; Dublin: M. N. Mahon, R. Milliken, and Hodges & M’Arthur MDCCCXXI [1821]) [see details].
  • Eight Ballads on the Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry (London: John Warren ... 1822), viii, 80pp. [17.5cm.] [Irish poetry in English].
  • Poems on Sacred Subjects, 3 vols. (London: Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper, 1826).
  • Dramatic Table-talk, or Scenes, Situations, and Adventures, Serious and Comic, in Theatrical History and Biography [Reflections on the theatrical art by M. Talma] 3 vols. (London: John Knight & Henry Lacey 1825), 3 vols. (li,xiii,288,x,288,ix,317p): ill. [front.]
  • Poetry and Poets, Being a Collection of the Choicest Anecdotes Relative to the Poets of every Age and Nation, Illustrated by Engravings (London 1826).
Drama
  • Everybody’s Husband: A Comic Drama, in One Act / by Richard Ryan; printed from the acting copy, with remarks, biographical and critical, by D.-G.; to which are added, a description of the costume, - cast of the characters, entrances and exits, - relative positions of the performers on the stage, - and the whole of the stage business, as performed at the Theatres Royal, London; embellished with a fine engraving, by Mr. Bonner, from a drawing taken in the theatre, by Mr. R. Cruikshank [Cumberland’s minor theatre, No. 34; performed at the Queens’s Theatre, Tottenham Street, Fitzroy Square, February, 1831] (London: G. H. Davidson, Peter’s Hill, Doctors’ Commons, between St. Paul’s and Upper Thames Street, [1831]), 28pp., ill. [15cm.].
  • Le pauvre Jacques [by Théodore Cogniard]: a vaudeville, in one act / (translated from the French,) by Richard Ryan, author of Everybody’s husband, Quite at home, The invisible witness, &c.; printed from the acting copy, with remarks, biographical and critical, by D.-G.; to which are added, a description of the costume,-cast of the characters,-entrances and exits,-relative positions of the performers on the stage, and the whole of the stage business; as performed at the Metropolitan Minor theatres; embellished with a fine engraving, from a drawing taken in the theatre, by Mr. R. Cruikshank [Cumberland’s Minor Theatre, No. 92] (London: John Cumberland, 2, Cumberland Terrace, Camden New Town [1836]), 33pp., ill. [1 lf. of pls.], 15cm. [performed by the French Company at the St. James’s Theatre, 27 July 1836].
Lyrics
  • George Chapman, Oh tell me where the roses twine: a song, words by Richard Ryan Esq.; music with an accompaniment for the piano forte, composed by George Chapman (London: Printed by Rutter & McCarthy (18??]), 3pp.
  • A voice from the waves: duett; Companion to the Popular Duett, “What are the Wild Waves Saying?” written by Richard Ryan, composed by Stephen Glover (London: Robert Cocks & Co. [1851]).
  • The Fairy-formed Harp: A Ballad ... [music] by Charles Smith (London: J. Power, [1824]), 1 score, 4pp. [for voice and pianoforte - ‘There was a harp of old ...’].
  • The Fairy’s Gift: a ballad / written by Richard Ryan; composed by Charles Smith (London: Published by J. Power [1824]), 1 score [3pp., 33cm.] (for voice and pianoforte: ‘With many a plant ...’].
  • The Flying Dutchman / composed by John Parry; poetry by Richard Ryan (London: D’Almaine & Co. [1840]), 1 score [7pp., 35cm. ]
  • I’d Be a Nightingale: Ballad / sung by Miss Graddon, written by Richd. Ryan, and composed by E. Solis. (London: Published by Goulding ∓ D’Almaine, ... and to be had at the author’s music warehouse, ... [1835]), 1 score ([2], 5, [1]pp.[35cm.]
Miscellaneous
  • Foreword [Introductory Remarks] to Samuel Foote [pretended], The Tailors (or “Quadrupeds”), a tragedy for warm weather in three acts [and in verse], illllustrated with original designs by R. Cruikshank and Starling (London 1836), 12°. [Authorship ascribed to Foote in prefatory remarks but disclaimed by him].
Bookseller’s Catalogue
  • R. Ryan’s Catalogue for 1814; containing many scarce and valuable books, in different branches of literature ... ([London]: [R. Ryan] 1814), [3], 2-140 [i.e.150]pp., 8°. [‘Every deduction that it is possible to make to purchasers, shall be made’; ‘Price: two shillings (allowed to purchasers)’ - t.p
  • The First Part of R. Ryan’s Catalogue for 1816, now on sale, &c. (London: J. Barfield 1816), 125pp., 8o.
Auctioneer’s catalogue
  • A Catalogue of the Valuable Stock of the Late Mr. Richard Ryan ... bookseller ... which will be sold by auction (London 1819), 22cm..  
Cited as bookseller ...
  • Jacob Des Moulins, Antiqua restaurata: A Concise Historical Account of the Ancient Druids, shewing their civil and religious governments, ceremonies, groves, derivations and etymologies; with biographical sketches; also, the remains of Druidical antiquity in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France. To which will be annexed, the animated speech of Caractacus, when sent captive to Rome. ... By Jacob Des Moulins ... (London: printed for the Author, and sold by Owen; Ryan; and Jones, 1794), viii, 58pp., ill. [pl.], 8°.
  • John Thomas Smith, Antiquities of Westminster; the old palace; St. Stephen’s Chapel, (now the House of Commons) &c. &c.: Containing two hundred and forty-six engravings of topographical objects, of which one hundred and twenty-two no longer remain / By John Thomas Smith. [...] contains copies of manuscripts which throw new and unexpected light on the ancient history of the arts in England .. (London: Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, for J. T. Smith, 31, Castle Street East, Oxford Street, and sold by R. Ryan, 353, Oxford Street, near the Pantheon; and J. Manson, 10, Gerrard Street, Soho, June 9, 1807), [6], xv, [1], 276, [2]pp., ill. [38 lvs. of pls. - 14 col.; 2 plans], 4°. [See details at COPAC - online.
  • Thomas Peacham, The Period of Mourning: Disposed into sixe visions. In memorie of the late Prince. Together with Nuptiall hymnes, in honour of this happy marriage betweene the great princes, Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhene, and the most excellent, and aboundant president of all virtue and goodness Elizabeth onely daughter to our soueraigne, his Maiestie. Also the manner of the solemnization of the marriage at White-Hall, on the 14. of February, being Sunday, and St. Valentine’s day / By Henry Peacham, ... (London: Printed by T. S. for Iohn Helme, and are to be sould in Saint Dunstanes Churchyard in Fleetstreet. 1613. Reprinted for the editor, and sold at no. 62, Great Wild-Street, near Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields; by Mess. Egerton, Whitehall; Mess. Cox and Phillipson, James-Street, Covent-Garden; R. Ryan, no. 351, Oxford-Street; H. D. Symonds, no. 20. Pater-Noster-Row; and W. Richardson, under the Royal-Exchange, 1789), 51pp., 8° [verse].

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Bibliographical details
Biographia Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland from the earliest period to the present time, written and compiled by Richard Ryan, Vol. 1. (1819); Vol. II (1821, 1822) - with variations as to publishers in London and Dublin, as well as prefatory material - as follows

Vol I: Biographia Hibernica / A / Biographical Dictionary / of the / Worthies of Ireland / from the / Earliest Periods to the Present Time/ Written and Compiled / By Richard Ryan [epigram from Moore] / Vol. I / A - to - C / (London: Published by Richard Ryan, No. 339, Oxford Street; and M. N. Mahon; and R. Millikin, / Dublin 1819), 1p.; 2pp. [frontispiece verso, p.1 verso; title-page [p.2]; colophon [p.2 verso]; title page [p.3]; iv-vvipp. [Preface ded. to The Irish Nation], 486pp. + 2 pp. Index; printed by J. Brettell, Rupert Street, Haymarket, London [Copy at Internet Archive - online; last accessed 08.01.2024].

Vol II: Biographia Hibernica [... &c.], in Two Volumes. / Vol. II (London: John Warren, Old Bond Street; Dublin: M. N. Mahon, R. Milliken, and Hodges & M’Arthur MDCCCXXI [1821]), 649pp. + Index [3pp.]. Printed by J. Brettell, Rupert St., Haymarket, London. Frontispiece of John Philpot Curran.) [lacks preface; index to Vol. II only; uniform with Vol. I and likewise printed by J. Brettell, James St., Haymarket, London. [Epigraph ‘On Lough Neagh’s bank.. / .. catch a glimpse of the days that are over ... looking of time, / far the long faded glories they cover’ ([Thomas] Moore).] Note: No preface.]

Vols. I & II: Biographia Hibernica [... &c.], 2 vols. (London: John Warren, Old Bond Street; Dublin : Sherwood, Neely & Jones; M.N. Manon; R. Milliken; and Hodges & M'Arthur 1822), incls. Preface rep. from Vol. I in both.

[ Num. modern facsimile reprints deliver 2 vols. in 1. ]

Note that the title page of the 1819 edition cites only Vol. I - implying but not naming a successor whereas the reprint of the same to form comprise a 2-vols edition in 1822 now contains the t.p. line In Two Volumes in the first volume also The first volume of the 1821 printing appears to be devoid of a Preface but this has returned in the firist volume of the 1822 edition. See copies at sundry libraries (i.e., Wisconsin UL and California (Huntington) linked to the COPAC page as follows:

Biographia Hibernica (London & Dublin) - access to digital copies of Vol. 1 [of 2]
Year of Publication Publisher(s)  
  • Vol. 1 - 1819
  • Vol. I - 1822
  • Vol. I - 1822
    London: Richard Ryan; Dublin: M. N. Mahon et al.-
    London: John Warren; Dublin: Dublin: M. N. Mahon, et al.
    London: John Warren; Dublin: Dublin: M. N. Mahon, et al.

[ See “Preface Dedicatory to the Irish Nation” to Biographia Hibernica (1819, 1821 & 1822) and the Index of Persons treated (by name) - as attached. ]

Internet sources ...

Biographia Hibernica, Vol. I (1819) available at Google Books - online; accessed 05.07.2023]; Internet Archive - online; Vol. 2 (1821).

Biographia Hibernica, Vol. II (1821) available at Internet Archive - online [accessed 29.09.2023].
Biographia Hibernica, Vol. II [2nd edn.] (1822) held at Wisconsin Univ. Library - s available on Interrnet- online.
Biographia Hibernica
, Vol. II (1821) as .djvu at Wikisources - online [best copy!!!!!]

See also copies in RICORSO > Library > Criticism [...] Legacy > Biographia Hibernica - Index

Internet: Biographia Hibernica, Vol. 1 (1819), can be read on page-image format at Internet Archive - online; ditto Vol. 2 (1821) - online; accessed 29.09.2023).

Original editions - as Biographia Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, from the earliest period to the present time / written and compiled by Richard Ryan, Vol. 1 (London: [R. Ryan, priv.]; Dublin: M.N. Mahon and R. Milliken, 1819), - listed at COPAC - online; accessed 02.07.2023].

Reprint editions [some facs.]: Biographica Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time. [2 vols. in 1] (Michigan UP 2009), 516pp. [pb.]; Do. (Kessinger Legacy Reprints 2010), 658pp.; Do., [rep. of Vol. II of 1821 Edn.] (General Books 2012); and Do. (Palala Press 2016, 508pp. [hd.], 214pp.

Note: According to COPAC, TCD Library (Dublin) holds the 1821 edition. Another work of 1824 by a namesake who was vicar of Rathcore and seemingly a Trinity graduate is also listed [see TCD catalogue under Notes - as infra.]

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Quotations

Biographia Hibernica (1819-1820), Preface Dedicatory: ‘... biographies ... the vindicator of an unhappy people [...] The History of Ireland is the most calamitous moral document since the beginning of society. A goverment of barbarism was less succeeded than interrupted by a government of conquest; and the evil of this partial subjugation was reinforced by the subordinate mischiefs of a divided law, a divided language, and divided religions. The heroic savage of Ireland lost a share of his native virtues and filled up their place by the arts of a perverted civilisation. The laws of English had made a sudden burst into the country ... but their progress was as suddenly checked, and they only increased the tumult and dangers of that untamed element into which they had plunged. Ireland was left only a place of desperate rivalry or of desolation, a field of battle or a grave.’ [para.; cont.]

Preface - cont.: ‘The cause of these deplorable calamities was not in the English legislature; for the only crime of that legislature was in the slowness and unskillfulness of the cure. The original government of Ireland was, of all others, the most fatal to civilisation; it was the government of tribes, the devotedness of clanship without its compensating and patriarchal affections, the haughty violence of the feudal system without its superb munificence and generous achievement. Ireland was torn in pieces by four sovereignties; the people were kept in chains at home, that they might be loosed on their neighbours with the ferocity of hungry and thwarted strength. Her government was a graduated tyranny in which the sovereign stood at the highest point of licentiousness; and the people were sunk to the bottom of the scale in chill and deadly depression. But no man who knows the history of Ireland can compute the influence of England among the elements of her depression. She neglected, but she scarcely smote her. It was the physiciants disgusted by the waywardness of the patient, leaving the disease to take its course, and not the assassin inflicting a fresh wound. ... England was then fighting for her freedom [against] France ... Spain ... if she turned round to look upon the dissensions of Ireland, it was only with the quick and anxious irritation of a conqueror, who in the moment of deciding the battle, sees an insurrection of prisoners in the rear.’

[ See further details incl. Preface [text and images], bibliographical details, and a list of persons treated in
RICORSO Bibliography - as infra. - or view the whole text in RICORSO Library - as infra.]

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References

There is a lengthy and detailed article on Richard Ryan in Wikipedia - online [accessed 30.01.2024]. This mentions numerous travel works including the first book on New Zealand (1832) and Stanhope’s Greece (1823) but also a play, The Irish Girl (1830) which received poor reviews at its revival in 1831.


D. J. O’Donoghue, The Poets of Ireland: A Biographical Dictionary (Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co 1912); Eight Ballads on the Superstitions of the Irish Peasantry (London 1822); Poems on Sacred Subjects (Lon 1824), to which are added several miscell. pieces; d. (aetat. 71) recorded in The Gentleman’s Magazine (1830); Ryan wrote songs set by Hodson, Barnett, and others; interesting and useful works incl. Biographia Hibernica (2 vols. 1821); Dramatic Table Talk (London 1825), anon; Poets and Poetry (3 vols. Lon. 1826); prob. author of ‘Bold Barry of Macroom’; poem in Amulet, 1827.

Personal letter of Richard Ryan in the possession of his family.
See details - attached.

Note: includes the following remarks: ‘In his business, when it came to be my own, by the demise of my father in July 1818, I declined following, having initiated a taste for Literary Composition and which I cultivated by writing pieces of Poetry on various subjects for the newspapers - these were the produce of my leisure hours. My more important literary pursuit being to compile and write a work of Irish Biography [...]’ (Transcription provided by Paul Richard Ryan, the owner of the letter, in correspondence with Ricorso.)

Paul Ryan writes: ’Before my aunt died last year I had found out as much as I could about the Ryans, so I knew about Richard Ryan from the family verbal history. While I didn't know about the printed poems saved by Richard Ryan, or about the [3pp.] handwritten letter that I received last week (from another aunt) I had been told that he was a poet and “the Poet of Camden Town”. The family also knew that his father “had a bookshop in Soho”. It was only when I Googled him that I found out information about him running his own bookshop (as listed in the Dictionary of National Biography (1897) and I am still looking for proof of the Camden bookshop. The one run by his father for 35 years on Oxford Street closed in 1819, a year after he died in 1818. Regarding his father coming from Cork [...] the verbal family history says his parents were Patrick and Bridget Ryan and came to London from Skibbereen [...] and that Patrick Ryan was a steward to the Duke of Wellington - but seeing as the Duke of Wellington was born in 1769 that doesn’t quite match, unless he was an older man at the time. The first time Richard Ryan’s birth date was listed wrong was in 1897 in the same Dictionary of National Biography as mentioned above.’ (communication to Ricorso of 28 May 2013.)

TCD Library 1872 Catalogue
Trinity College, Dublin (TCD Library) 1872 Catalogue
records Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica
(1821)
[ Available online; accessed 02.07.2023 ]

Ulster libraries
Belfast Linen Hall Library holds Biographia Hibernica, 2 vols. (1819-21). Belfast Public Library holds Biographia Hibernica, Worthies of Ireland, 2 vols. (1821); Poems on Sacred Subjects (1824) - presum. the work of the vicar of Rathcore.

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Notes
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988), contains no entry on Ryan but does list his Worthies of Ireland (1821) in the bibliographical list of works consulted.

Namesake (1): Not to be confused with Richard Ryan, Vicar of Rathconnell, Co. Meath, and afterwards Vicar of Rathcore, author of Directions for proceeding under the Tithe Composition Acts (Dublin 1823, & edns..), also Practical Remedies for the Practical Evils of Ireland (Dublin: Tims; London: Hatchard 1828), 33pp. [available at JSTOR, 2009]. The latter pronounces him to be winner of the Royal Irish Academy"s Prize Essay Award for 1822. See other works, e.g.—

Richard Ryan, Vicar of Rathcore
  • Directions for proceeding under the Tithe Act ... / by the Rev. Richard Ryan, Vicar of Rathconnell in the Diocese of Meath. 1823; Do., ... Third edition, containing the 7th and 8th George IV. chap. 60, and notices of some cases, &c. (1828), 12°.
  • The Irish Incumbent’s Guide; or, Digest of the Ecclesiastical Law of Ireland. / By the Rev. Richard Ryan, A.B., Vicar of Rathconnel [sic], in the Diocese of Meath. (Dublin: Printed by William Underwood 1825), 14+18pp., 8°.
  • Practical Remedies for the Practical Evils of Ireland (Dublin 1828), 8°. [available at Google - online; accessed 02.07.2023]. 
    [...]
  • A Digest of the Irish Church Temporalities Act. Being the 3d and 4th William IV., Cap. 37. With notes and an appendix / by Richard Ryan, Vicar of Rathcore. (Dublin 1833).
  • A Digest of the Law for Collecting and Enforcing Tithe Composition, &c. 1834.
  • A Digest of the new Act 2d and 3d William IV., chap. 119, arranged under the headings of the original treatise, ... intended as an appendix to his former work. 1832.
See COPAC online.

Namesake (2): Not to be confused with Richard Ryan, M.D., practising in Edinburgh, who wrote a thesis on diabetes - viz., Disputatio medica inauguralis, de diabete mellito: quam, annuente summo numine: ex auctoritate reverendi admodum viri, D. Georgii Baird, SS.T.P. Academiae Edinburgenae Praefecti: necnon amplissimi senatus academici consensu, et nobilissimae facultatis medicae decreto: pro gradu doctoratus, summisque in medicina honoribus ac privilegiis rite et legitime consequendis / eruditorum examini subjicit Richardus Ryan, Hibernus (Societ. Reg. Phys. Edin. Soc. Hon. MDCCXCIX [1799]).

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