Ridgway, James (1780-1840)

Name:

Ridgway, James (1780-1840)

Born:

11/13/1780

Birthplace:

Boston, MA

Died:

10/17/1840

Death Location:

Nashua, NH

Residence:

Worcester, MA 1802
Groton, MA 1807-1815
Keene, NH 1817-1830
Amherst, NH 1830-1834
Nashua, NH 1834-1840

Nationality:

American

Occupation:

Silversmith
Jeweler
Clockmaker
Spectacle Manufacturer

Father:

Ridgway, James (1753-1845)

Mother:

Coburn, Esther (1757/9-1845)

Relations:

Son of James and Esther (Coburn) Ridgway
Married Faith Stowell (1782-1856), January 12, 1802, Worcester, MA
Son-in-law of Abel Stowell (1752-1818), clockmaker, Worcester, MA
Father of Charles T. Ridgway (1815-1906), jeweler, Nashua, NH
Ridgway & Rockwood, Keene, NH 1817-1819
(James Ridgway and John Rockwood)
James Ridgway & Company, Keene, NH 1819
(James Ridgway and Lynds Wheelock [1785-1825])
Worked in the shop of Samuel Gerould, Keene, 1819-1822.
James Ridgway & Company
Worked with his son, Charles T. Ridgway (1815-1906), Nashua, N.H.; Charles was his successor to his business in after James's death.
James's Father, James Ridgway (1753-1845) was a gold & silversmith in Boston, Mass., Worcester, Mass., and in Maine.
James's Cousin/In-Law, John Ridgway (1780-1851; who's son John Ridgway married James's daughter, Harriet Antoinnette Ridgway), was a Boston silversmith, and was John's son, John Ridgway (c.1814-1870), and grandson, Charles L. Ridgway (1844-)
Faith's sister, Betsy Stowell (1786-1852), married James's cousin, John Ridgway (1780-1851), also a silversmith and jeweler, of Boston.
Frederick Blood, apprentice, 1815

Spouse:

Married Faith Stowell (1782-1856), January 12, 1802, Worcester, MA

Children:

Sarah Coburn, born June 23, 1802, Worcester, MA
Elizabeth Relief, born December 30, 1804, Boston
James, born January 3,1807, Groton, MA; d. 1808
Maria Fiducia, born April 16, 1809, Groton, MA; an 1829 ad of James Ridgway's business also mentions Miss M. F. Ridgway's millinery; perhaps this is referring to Maria Fiducia)
Emily Ann, born June 23, 1811, Groton, MA
Charles Thomas, born August 11, 1815, Groton, MA; died February 26, 1906, Nashua, NH; Jeweler and watchmaker; res. Nashua, NH; m1. Abby F.; m2. Mary E.; children)
Harriet Antoinette, born February 22, 1818, Keene, NH; died 1897; m1. jeweler John Ridgway, cousin; m2. scale maker Thomas Harrison; children)

Notes:

Noted on list of Tower Clocks as builder of the Tower Clock at the First Parish Meeting House, Groton, MA, 1809.

Advertisement, Columbian Centinel, Boston, Massachusetts, May 3, 1815.

Copartnership Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, October 17, 1817.

Dissolution of Partnership Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, February 6, 1819.

Copartnership Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, March 13, 1819.

Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, November 20, 1819.

Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, October 15, 1822.

Advertisement, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, May 14, 1830.

Advertisement, Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, New Hampshire, June 23, 1832.

Advertisement, Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, New Hampshire, May 30, 1834.

Advertisement, Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, New Hampshire, June 5, 1835.

Death Notice, New Hampshire Sentinel, Keene, New Hampshire, October 28, 1840.

Death Notice, National Aegis, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 28, 1840.

Advertisement, Farmer's Cabinet, Amherst, New Hampshire, October 8, 1841.

Nashua Directory, 1841.

Henry N. Flynt and Martha Gandy Fales, The Heritage Foundation Collection of Silver, With Biographical Sketches of New England Silversmiths, 1625-1825. (Old Deerfield, Massachusetts: The Heritage Foundation, 1968), 311.

Samuel A. Green, Groton Historical Series: A Collection of Papers Relating to the History of the Town of Groton, Massachusetts. Volume II. 1890, 399-400.

Simon G. Griffin, A History of the Town of Keene, From 1732, When the Township was Granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, When it Became a City. (Keene, New Hampshire: Sentinel Printing Company, 1904), 380-381.

Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers. A Biographical Dictionary Based on the Notes of Francis Hill Bigelow and John Marshall Phillips. (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 855-857, 1030-1031.

Edward E. Parker, History of the City of Nashua, N. H., From the Earliest Settlement of the Old Dunstable to the Year 1895... (Nashua, New Hampshire: Telegraph Publishing Company, 1897), 465.

Charles S. Parsons, New Hampshire Silver, Adams Brown Company, 1983, 121.

Daniel F. Secomb, History of the Town of Amherst, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire... (Concord, New Hampshire: Evans, Sleeper and Woodbury, 1883), 746.

William H. H. Stowell, Stowell Genealogy: A Record of the Descendants of Samuel Stowell of Hingham, Mass. (Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Company, 1922), 152.