an English author, who was educated at University College, Oxford. He served as a chaplain with the British Army. Ridley wrote two novels, The History of James Lovegrove, Esquire (1761) and The Schemer, or the Universal Satirist, by that Great Philosopher Helter van Scelter (1763); but he is mainly remembered for his Oriental pastiche Tales of the Genii, a set of stories based on those of the Arabian Nights. That work, published in two volumes in 1764, was issued under the pen name "Sir Charles Morell", supposedly British Ambassador at Bombay.
