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seal (1833–34), president of the Board of Trade (1841–43), and president of the India board (1843–46).
His son, the future marquess, began his political life as attaché to a special mission to Brussels in 1849. In 1851 he married Henrietta Vyner (d. 1907), and their eldest son, afterwards known as Earl de Grey, was born in 1852. Under his courtesy title of Viscount Goderich he was returned to the House of Commons for Hull in 118 52 as an advanced Liberal. In 1853 he was elected for Huddersfield, and in 1857 for, the West Riding of Yorkshire. In January 1859 he succeeded to his father’s title, and in November of the same year to that of his uncle, Earl de Grey. A few months after entering the Upper House he was appointed under-secretary for war, and in February 1861 under-secretary for India. Upon the death of Sir George Cornewall Lewis in April 1863 he became secretary for war, with a seat in the cabinet. In 1866 he was appointed secretary of state for India. On the formation of the Gladstone administration in December 1868, Lord Ripon was appointed lord president of the council, and held that office until within a few months of the fall of the government in 1873, when he resigned on purely private grounds. In 1869 he was created a Knight of the Garter. In 1871 Lord Ripon was appointed chairman of the High Joint-Commission on the Alabama claims, which arranged the treaty of Washington. In recognition of his services he was elevated to a marquessate (1871). In 1874 he became a convert to Roman Catholicism, and this involved his resignation of the office of grandmaster of the English Freemasons. On the return of Gladstone to power in 1880 Lord Ripon was appointed Viceroy of India, the appointment exciting a storm of controversy, the marquess being the first Roman Catholic to hold the viceregal office. He went out to reverse the Afghan policy of Lord Lytton, and Kandahar was given up, the whole of Afghanistan being secured to Abdur Rahman. The new viceroy was also called upon to decide grave questions between the native population and the resident British, and he resolved upon a liberal policy towards the former, among his measures being the repeal of the Vernacular Press Act, the extension of local government and the appointment of an Education Commission. He extended the rights of the natives, and in certain directions curtailed the privileges of Europeans. Several of the viceroy’s measures, notably the Ilbert Bill of 1883—so-named after its author Sir Courtenay Ilbert—irritated the Anglo-Indian population, and it was fiercely assailed. The purpose of this bill was disclosed in the statement that “the government of India had decided to settle the question of jurisdiction over European British subjects in such a way as to remove from the code, at once and completely, every judicial disqualification which is based merely on race distinctions,” in fact to subject Europeans in certain cases to trial by native magistrates; This announcement raised a storm of indignation among the European community in India, and the government were obliged virtually, though not avowedly, to abandon their measure. Act III. of 1884 was a compromise, which, while subjecting Europeans to the jurisdiction of native district magistrates or sessions judges, reserved to them the right to demand trial by a jury of which at least half should be Europeans. There probably never was a viceroy so unpopular among Anglo-Indians or so popular with the natives. On Lord Ripon’s departure from India in November 1884. there were extraordinary manifestations in his favour on the part of the Hindu population of Bengal and Bombay, and more than a thousand addresses were presented to him. On his arrival in England the marquess delivered a number of vigorous speeches in defence of his administration. In 1886 he became first lord of the admiralty in the third Gladstone ministry; and on the return of the Liberals to power in 1892 he was appointed colonial secretary, which post he continued to hold until the resignation of the government in 1895. He was included in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerrnan’s cabinet at the close of 1905 as lord privy seal, an office which he retained in 1908 when Mr Asquith formed his new ministry, but which he resigned later in the same year. He died at his seat, Studley Royal, near Ripon, on the 9th of July 1909, when his only son, Earl de Grey, who has been treasurer of the queen’s household since 1901, became the 2nd marquess. For many years Lord Ripon was president of the Yorkshire College of Science at Leeds, and chairman of the West Riding County Council.
RIPON, a cathedral city and municipal borough in the
Ripon parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire,
England, 214 m. N.N.W. from London, on the North-Eastern
railway. Pop. (1901) 8230. It is pleasantly situated at the
confluence of the streams Laver and Skell with the river Ure,
which is crossed by a fine bridge of nine arches. The streets are
for the most part narrow and irregular, and, although most of
the houses are comparatively modern, some of them retain the
picturesque gables characteristic of earlier times. The cathedral,
although not ranking among those of the first class, is celebrated
for its fine proportions, and is of great interest from the various styles of architecture which it includes. Its entire
length from E. to W. is 266 ft., the length of the transepts
130 ft., and the width of the nave and aisles 87 ft. Besides a
large square central tower, there are two western towers. The
cathedral was founded on the ruins of St Wilfrid’s abbey about
680, but of this Saxon building nothing now remains except
the crypt, called St Wilfrid’s Needle. The present building
was begun by Archbishop Roger (1154–81), and to this Transition
period belong the transepts and portions of the choir.
The western front and towers, fine specimens of Early English,
were probably the work of Walter de Grey, archbishop of York
(d. 1255), and about the close of the century the eastern portion
of the choir was rebuilt in the Decorated style. The nave,
portions of the central tower, and two bays of the choir are
Perpendicular, having been rebuilt towards the close of the 15th
century. Earlier than the rest of the fabric (except the crypt)
is part of the chapter-house and the vestry, adjoining the
south side of the choir, and terminating eastward in an apse.
This is pure Norman work, and there is a crypt of that period
beneath, which was formerly filled with unburied bones. There
are a number of monuments of historical and antiquarian
interest. The diocese includes rather less than one-third of
the parishes of Yorkshire, and also a small part of Lancashire.
The bishop’s palace, a modern building in Tudor style, is
situated in extensive grounds about a mile from the town. In
the vicinity is the domain of Studley Royal, the seat of the
marquess of Ripon, which contains the celebrated ruins of
Fountains Abbey (q.v.). The principal secular buildings are
the town hall, the public rooms, and the mechanics’ institution
(1894) where technical and other classes are held. There are
several old charities, including the hospital of St John the
Baptist, founded in 1109 but modernized; the hospital of
St Anne, founded probably in the reign of Henry VI. by an
unknown benefactor; and the hospital of St Mary Magdalene
for women. This last was founded by Thurstan, archbishop of
York (1114–41), as a secular community, one of the special
duties of which was to minister to lepers. In the 13th century
a master and chaplain took the place of the lay brethren, and
in 1334 a chantry was founded. The chapel remains, with its
interesting Norinan work, its low side-windows, said to have
allowed the lepers to follow the services, and its pre-Reformation
altar of stone, at rare example. There is a considerable trade
in varnish, and the saddles trees and other leather goods produced
here are in high repute. The borough is under a mayor,
4 alderman, and 12 councillors. Area, 1809 acres.
Ripon (In Rhypum, Ad Ripam) owed its origin to the monastery founded in the 7th century. A certain king, Alchfrith, is said to have given the site of the town to Eata, abbot of Melrose, to found a monastery, but before it was completed Eata was deposed for refusing to celebrate Easter according to therRoman usage, and St Wilfrid was appointed the first abbot. Another version of the story, however, says that the land was given to St Wilfrid, who himself built the monastery. Ripon is said to have been made a royal borough by Alfred the Great, and King Æthelstan, after his victory at Brunanburh