Provenance:

By direct descent in the Ridley/Sedgwick Family to the present owner.

Note:

Matthew Ridley (1746-1789) was an English-born merchant who relocated to Baltimore, Maryland as an agent of the mercantile firm of Stewart and Campbell of London. A staunch supporter of American Independence,, Ridley was appointed agent for Maryland and sent to Europe to secure loans for military goods in 1781. He successfully arranged a loan from the Dutch banking firm of Nicolaas and Jacob van Staphorst. Ridley assisted with diplomatic matters during and after the Revolutionary War working closely with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay.

Ridley married John Jay's sister -in- law, Catharine Livingston, daughter of the First Governor of New Jersey in 1787. The couple had two daughters.

Henry Brockholst Livingston(1757-1823), Catharine's brother, served in the Revolutionary War, as John Jay's private secretary in Spain, a justice of the Supreme Court of New York and appointed to the United States Supreme Court from 1807-1823. Matthew Ridley's papers are found in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. His candid record of the day to day activities of the Treaty of Paris are highly valued by historians.

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