Philip Ryley d. 1753

Sir Philip RYLEY d.1733

Biographical Note

Son of Wiliam Ryley (d. 1675), archivist. Appointed a serjeant-at-arms at the Treasury in 1684, and subsequently surveyor general of Crown woods and forests south of the Trent and an excise commissioner. He was knighted in 1728. As well as his main seat at Great Hockham in Norfolk, he owned property in Hampstead, London and Thetford.

Books

Ryley's will states that his books in all of his houses along with the bulk of his estate were to pass to his grandson, Philip Reginald Ryley, with the exception of 'all the Volumes of a Tillotsons Sermons Parsons Christians directions as translated by Doctor Stanhope Two Treatises of Doctor Lucas's Enquiry after happiness [and] the Two house Bibles', which were bequeathed to his granddaughters Philadelphia Riley and Penelope Riley. (He also left three hundred pounds for teaching and buying books for seven female children of Holkham parish.) The extent and the nature of his library are not otherwise established.

He had an engraved armorial bookplate (‘of Great Hockham, in the County of Norfolk, Esqr.’): Franks 25863, *230 (another impression), presumably dating from before the time of his knighthood in 1728.

Sources

• Will of Sir Philip Ryley, National Archives, PROB 11/659/70.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Handley, S. ‘Sir Philip Ryley (d.1733)’ in ‘Ryley, William (d. 1667), herald and writer.’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.