Author: Ryan, Richard
Biography:
RYAN, Richard (1797-1849: ODNB)
Born on 18 Apr. 1797 in Oxford Street, London, the son of an Irish-born bookseller, Richard Ryan (1750-1818), and his second wife, a widow, Elizabeth Hawkings (1759-1830), the poet was baptized at St George’s, Hanover Square, on 9 Sept. 1802. He received his education in London at Soho Square Academy and, at age 11, at St Paul’s School. Following the elder Richard Ryan’s death, he sold the bookstore his father had conducted for more than 35 years, latterly at 339 Oxford Street, and committed himself to a life in literature. In St Marylebone Church, Westminster, on May 1822, he married Amelia (1803-1874), the daughter of a French-language publisher, Peter Didier, and his wife, Sarah Cecilia Tibbett. There were four surviving children by the marriage. Besides his books of poetry, Ryan wrote plays and lyrics, contributed to newspapers and magazines, and published biographical compendia, A Biographical Dictionary of Worthies of Ireland (1810, 1821) and a two-volume Biographical Hibernica (1819, 1821). He made his first appeal to the Royal Literary Fund (RLF) on 24 Feb. 1835 from King’s Bench Prison where he was incarcerated for debt. Over the next fourteen years, the fund granted him, in total, £90. He died, apparently of heart disease, at his home, 5 Pratt Street, Camden Town, on 20 Oct. 1849 and was buried in the St. James’s Church cemetery. Following his death, the RLF granted his widow £20. The Wikipedia entry for Ryan supplies accurate information not recorded in ODNB. (ODNB 4 Nov. 2024; Wikipedia 4 Nov. 2024; RLF file 817; New Times 25 Apr. 1821; Monthly Magazine 52 [1821], 547) JC