Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ruggles, Thomas

694905Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 49 — Ruggles, Thomas1897William Albert Samuel Hewins

RUGGLES, THOMAS (1737?–1813), writer on the poor law, the son of Thomas Ruggles, by his wife Anne, eldest daughter of Joshua Brise of Clare, Suffolk, was born about 1737. He inherited Spains Hall, Essex, on the death of a cousin in 1776, and became deputy-lieutenant of Suffolk and Essex. He married, in 1779, Jane Anne, daughter of John Freeland of Cobham, Surrey, by whom he had issue three sons and three daughters. He died on 17 Nov. 1813. His wife died in 1823. His eldest son, John (1782–1852), assumed the name Brise, in addition to Ruggles, and his son, Col. Sir Samuel Ruggles-Brise, succeeded to Spains Hall. Ruggles published: 1. ‘The Barrister; or Strictures on the Education proper for the Bar,’ 1792, 8vo; 2nd ed. corrected, London, 1818, 12mo. 2. ‘The History of the Poor, their Rights, Duties, and the Laws respecting them. In a Series of Letters,’ 2 vols. London, 1793–4, 8vo; new edition, London, 1797, 4to. This work is not of much value, but contains some materials useful to the economic historian. It was translated into French by A. Duquesnoy.

[Berry's County Genealogies (Essex), p. 84; Gent. Mag. 1807 i. 278, 1813 ii. 625; Burke's Landed Gentry; McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy.]