Joseph Esmond Riddle (1804–1859) was an English cleric, scholar andlexicographer.

The eldest of the eight children of Joseph Riddle of Old Market Street,Bristol, he was born there on7 April 1804. From Mr. Porter's school in Bristol he was sent by the Bristol society for educating young men for the church to Mr. Havergal at the rectory inAstley, Worcestershire. He matriculated atSt Edmund Hall, Oxford, on 18 January 1825, and obtained a first class in classics, graduating B.A. in Michaelmas term 1828, and M.A. in 1831.^[1]

From 1828 to 1830 Riddle lived atRamsgate, where he took pupils. In 1830 he was ordaineddeacon, and was successively curate ofEverley,Upper Slaughter (from 1832),Reading andAll Souls', Marylebone. In 1836 he was assistant minister at Brunswick Chapel, Upper Berkeley Street, and in 1837 he became curate ofHarrow, soon moving toShipton Moyne, Gloucestershire.^[1]

Subsequently Riddle returned to Oxford in order to make use of the libraries. He was select preacher at Oxford in 1834 and 1854, andBampton lecturer in 1852. From 1840 until his death, on 27 August 1859, he was incumbent of St. Philip's,Leckhampton inGloucestershire. He was a vigorous defender ofevangelical principles against theTractarian movement.^[1]

At Ramsgate Riddle began a translation ofImmanuel Johann Gerhard Scheller's folio Latin dictionary,Lexicon totius Latinitatis, and it was published at theClarendon Press in 1835. Several abridgments followed, and in 1838 he issued aComplete English-Latin Dictionary, and in 1849A Copious and Critical Latin-English Lexicon, based on the dictionaries ofWilhelm Freund. Riddle was also joint editor of Latin dictionaries withJohn Tahourdin White, and of anEnglish-Latin Dictionary withThomas Kerchever Arnold.^[1]

Riddle's other major publications were:^[1]

• A Course of Scripture Reading for every Day in the Year, Oxford, 1831.
• Illustrations of Aristotle on Men and Manners from the Dramatic Works of Shakspeare, Oxford, 1832.
• A Scriptural Commentary on the First Epistle of Peter, London, 1834.
• Letters from an absent Godfather, 1837.
• Luther and his Times, London, 1837.
• Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, London, 1838.
• Manual of Christian Antiquities, London, 1839.
• Ecclesiastical Chronology, London, 1840.
• British Commentary on the Gospels, London, 1843.
• The Gospels in Greek, for Schools, 1844. Riddle's compatriotJ. T. White, published all four Gospels in Greek with a vocabulary.
• A Progressive Latin-English Vocabulary, London, 1847.
• Churchman's Guide to the Use of the English Liturgy, London, 1848.
• Natural History of Infidelity and Superstition in contrast with Christian Faith (Bampton Lectures), Oxford and London, 1852.
• History of the Papacy to the Period of the Reformation, London, 1854.
• Manual of Scripture History, London, 1857.
• Outlines of Scripture History, being an abridgement ..., London, 1859.
• Household Prayers, London, 1857; reissued 1887.

Riddle contributed to theEncyclopædia Metropolitana the articlesAnnals of the East, from the Rise of the Ottoman Empire to the Capture of Constantinople; andEcclesiastical History of the Fifteenth Century.^[1]

Riddle married, in 1836, Margaret Sharwood, who survived him, and by whom he had a son, Arthur Esmond Riddle, rector ofTadmarton, and a daughter.^[1]

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Riddle, Joseph Esmond".Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 48. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

• 1804 births
• 1859 deaths
• 19th-century English Anglican priests
• English lexicographers
• 19th-century lexicographers

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