217 



RYLAND, WILLIAM WYNNE. 



RYMER, THOMAS. 



2ls 



tions. The works which he has left behind him abundantly prove 

 that he had sufficient knowledge and judgment to have carried them 

 to great perfection." These last words refer to the sad event which 

 abruptly put an end to Ryland's labours and life at once, but which 

 Strutt, who must have known Ryland well, does not more particularly 

 allude to. He was executed for forgery in the prime of life, July 28th 

 1783. 



Strutt, whose work was published only two years after Ryland's 

 execution, seems to have abstained, from delicacy probably towards 

 his widow, from a more particular notice of the disgraceful termina- 

 tion to his brother engraver's otherwise successful career. As this 

 case is not known and as Ryland persisted in his innocence to the last, 

 it may bo here briefly related as the facts appeared on the trial : 

 Ryland appears to have been a discounter of bills, and that he was 

 otherwise commercially engaged as a printseller, has been already 

 noticed. He had once failed in this business, but he afterwards 

 honourably repaid all his creditors in full, though not bound to do so 

 by law. In the spring of 1783 the agents and servants of the East 

 India Company in London appear to have detected several forgeries 

 of their bills, and suspicion attached to Ryland, apparently in more 

 than one case. He received however intimation of his approaching 

 arrest, and by the advice of his wife concealed himself, whereupon the 

 East India Company immediately offered a reward for his detection. 

 He had concealed himself in the house of a shoemaker at Stepney, 

 under the name of Jackson : having however given the man some 

 shoes to mend, the shoemaker discovered the real name of his lodger, 

 and gave notice to the police. When Ryland found that he was 

 discovered, in a fit of despair he attempted' to cut his throat : the 

 attempt failed, but he seriously injured himself. A true bill was 

 found against him by the grand jury, June 5, and he was tried at the 

 Old Bailey July 26, before Judge Buller. The specific charge against 

 him was for forging and uttering knowing to be forged a bill of 210?. 

 on the East India Company. The case for the prosecution was this : 

 Ryland had uttered or negociated two bills on the East India Company 

 for 210?. and of the same date, the original bill in May 1782, and the 

 forged bill in November of the same year. The two bills were so much 

 alike that none could swear which was the true bill, except by two small 

 holes through which a needle and thread had passed ; and, what was of 

 chief importance, the paper-maker gave evidence to the paper of the 

 other bill being .made after the date of the bill. The first bill had been 

 fairly negociated, but the party from whom Ryland asserted that he 

 had received the second, a Mr. Hagglestone, was nowhere to be found. 

 These facts and the circumstances of his flight and attempted suicide 

 were urged against him by the counsel for the prosecution. Ryland 

 made his own defence, but owing to the soreness of his throat from 

 his recent attempt, it was written, and read by the clerk of the court : 

 the following were its concluding words, as reported in the 'Morning 

 Herald ' of July 28 : " The prosecution has endeavoured to substan- 

 tiate my guilt by my flight ; but let them figure to themselves the 

 fears, the dread, the horrors, of an honest mind, pursued by officers of 

 justice, to take my life, if I could not prove my innocence ; let them 

 reflect on the tears, the entreaties and prayers of a fond, loving, and 

 beloved wife, and then conclude my guilt from my flight. They have 

 also presumed to drag into evidence my attempt on my own life. I 

 confess the attempt with shame, horror, and remorse ; driven into a 

 state of insanity, how then will they, how can they, torture insanity 

 into a proof of my guilt ! Two bills, one a good one, one a bad one, 

 have been attempted to be proved in my possession ; supposing that 

 to be true, can any man say either is the forged one ? Mr. Holt, 

 from his infirmity, may easily make a mistake ; and where then is any 

 forgery ? I cannot think that the court and jury will sacrifice my 

 life to presumption, and, where there is a possibility of innocence, 

 take it away on groundless suspicions." He was found guilty of 

 uttering the bill knowing it to be forged. 



After the verdict was pronounced, which he bore with the greatest 

 calmness, he merely observed " I dare not challenge the justness of 

 my verdict : I am however conscious of my innocence ; and I hope 

 that my life will be preserved by the royal clemency of my sovereign, 

 on whose bounty it has long subsisted." He heard his sentence pro- 

 nounced without being moved, and retired from the court as if uncon- 

 cerned in the proceedings. He was executed at Tyburn on the 29th 

 of August, about twelve o'clock, in company with five other convicts, 

 four of whom were executed for highway robbery and burglary, the 

 fifth for forgery. The execution was delayed some time by a violent 

 thunder-storm. A white handkerchief was bandaged round the cap of 

 Rylaud. The curiosity of the public was so great to witness the execu- 

 tion of this unfortunate man, that as much as ten guineas were paid 

 for a single room which commanded a view of the barbarous and dis- 

 gusting exhibition : so great a concourse of people had not met for a 

 similar purpose since the execution of Dr. Dodd six years previously. 



Character and probability were much in favour of Ryland's inno- 

 cence, though circumstantial evidence was against him. He was 

 wealthy, according to his own account. Besides the salary of 2001. per 

 annum as engraver to the king, he exercised a very lucrative pro- 

 fession, possessed a great stock in trade, and had a large property in 

 the Liverpool water-works ; and many witnesses bore testimony to his 

 high character. Strutt says of him " He was a man respected and 

 beloved by all that were acquainted with him ; for few men. in private 



life ever possessed more amiable qualities than he did. He was a 

 tender husband, a kind father, and a sincere friend. He frequently 

 straitened his own circumstances to alleviate the sorrows of others ; 

 for his heart was always open to receive the solicitations of distress." 



Ryland introduced chalk-engraving (lines composed of dots) into 

 England, and in the latter years of his life devoted himself exclusively 

 to engraving in this style, in which he had no equal, but chiefly, except 

 a few drawings by the old masters, after the works of Angelica Kauff- 

 mann, a circumstance which is to be regretted, as the works of that 

 lady have little to recommend them to the lovers of art. Rylaud 

 engraved twenty-four prints after Angelica, and one of these, ' Edgar 

 and Elfrida,' a large plate, which was finished by Sharp for the benefit 

 of Mrs. Ryland, is one of his principal works. ' King John ratifying 

 the Magna Charta,' a large plate after Mortimer, and in a similar style, 

 was generally bought as a companion to it. Ryland left this plate 

 also unfinished, and it was completed by Bartolozzi, likewise for the 

 benefit of his widow. It is his best plate in this style ; but the best 

 of these chalk engravings have a very inferior effect to etchings, or line 

 and mezzotinto engravings ; the style was, however, like the insipid 

 drawings of Cipriani, much in vogue in the time of Ryland and 

 Bartolozzi. 



As an etcher, or where the needle and graver are combined, Ryland 

 was also excellent. The prints which he engraved in France were 

 executed in this style, and Watelet terms his execution in this style 

 most picturesque, and adds that one would suppose his etchings to be 

 the work of a painter. The chalk manner is exactly in its place in 

 imitations of chaik drawings, of which there are no better examples 

 than Ryland's own in the fine Collection of Drawings- published by 

 Charles Rogers, as the two of St. Francis, after Carlo Maratti and 

 Guercino, and many others. This work is entitled ' A Collection of 

 Prints in imitation of Drawings ; to which are annexed Lives of their 

 Authors, with explanatory and critical Notes, by Charles Rogers,' &c., 

 2 vols. folio, London, 1778 ; containing in all 116 prints, some of con- 

 siderable size, of which 57 are by Ryland, besides the admirable mezzo- 

 tinto portrait of Mr. Rogers at the commencement of the work. 



RYMER, THOMAS, the learned editor of the great collection of 

 documents relating to the transactions of England with foreign powers, 

 popularly known as ' Rymer's Fcsdera,' was one of the many sons of 

 Ralph Rymer, of the neighbourhood of Northallerton, who had ren- 

 dered himself obnoxious to the Royalists in the Commonwealth times 

 in his office of Sequestrator, and becoming implicated in the northern 

 insurrection of 1663, was thereupon executed. Thomas was born in 

 1638 or 1639, and educated under an excellent schoolmaster at the 

 grammar-school of Northallerton, where he was a class-fellow with 

 the learned Dr. George Hickes. He was removed to Sidney College, 

 Cambridge, and was entered of Gray's-inn in 1666. 



He does not appear to have attained any eminence in the law. He 

 rather devoted himself to polite literature, till he was named the 

 historiographer royal, and appointed editor of the ' Fcedera.' His first 

 publication is a play, published in 1677, entitled 'Edgar, or the English 

 Monarch.' This was followed in the next year by his letter to 

 Fleetwood Shepherd, ' The Tragedies of the Last Age considered and 

 examined by the Practice of the Ancients and by the Common Sense 

 of all Ages.' In 1683 appeared his translation of the Life of Nicias, 

 by Plutarch, which is found in the collection of the ' Lives translated 

 into English by several Hands.' In 1684 he published a tract on the 

 antiquity, power, and decay of Parliament, which was reprinted in 

 1714, on occasion of the expulsion of Richard Steele, Esq., the member 

 for Stockbridge. In 1693 he published ' A short View of Tragedy ; 

 its Original Excellency and Corruption : with some Reflections on 

 Shakspere and other practitioners for the Stage.' This is the work in 

 which he attacks some of Shakspere's tragedies in a manner ludicrously 

 absurd. In 1694 appeared his translation of M. Rapin's 'Reflections 

 on Aristotle's Treatise of Poesie.' There are other minor tracts by him, 

 among which is probably to be reckoned the ' Life of Thomas Hobbes,' 

 printed 'apud Eleutherium Anglicum sub signo Veritatis, 1681.' 



On December 23, 1692, he was made historiographer royal, a post 

 which had been held by Shadwell and Dryden. The salary was 200?. 

 per annum. There was at that time a scheme for publishing a corpus 

 of the documents which remain connected with the transactions 

 between England and other states. It was intended that it should be 

 a large and comprehensive work, honourable to the English nation, 

 and useful to the historical inquirers, not only of England but of all 

 other countries. The patrons of this magnificent design were Montagu, 

 who was afterwards Earl of Halifax, and Lord Somers. The execution 

 of it was committed to Rymer. His duties were twofold : first, to 

 collect the instruments themselves, which were to be found chiefly in 

 the chronicles and in the depositaries of public records, particularly 

 the Tower of London and the Chapter-House at Westminster; secondly, 

 to print accurate copies of them. The first volume appeared in 170S, 

 and it was followed by others in quick succession, the later volumes 

 being carried through the press by Sanderson, who had assisted Rymer 

 almost from the beginning. 



The work did not disappoint the expectations of the public. J 

 entirely changed the face of the histories of our own country, as may 

 be seen by Rapin's History, and it was hailed with great satisfaction 

 by all the historical writers of Europe. Large as the work was, there 

 have been three editions of it. A fourth was undertaken by the 



