Bromfield L. Ridley was born on August 1, 1804, in Granville County, North Carolina. He eventually moved to Tennessee, and he married Rebecca Crosthwait on October 12, 1829. They had at least eight children: Jerome, born around 1833; Mary, born around 1835; Virginia, born around 1837; Rufus, born around 1840; George, born around 1842; Bromfield, born around 1845; Charles, born around 1847; and Sarah, born around 1849. He served as a judge and chancellor in Rutherford County, Tennessee, and he served in the state legislature in the 1830s. By 1850, he owned $20,000 of real estate. A decade later, he owned $55,000 of real estate and $40,000 of personal property.

 

He sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War, and he ran for a seat on the state supreme court in 1861. A local writer described him as “one of the ablest chancellors in the State. He is a profound and learned lawyer, an upright judge and a worthy, clever gentleman.” He died of apoplexy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on August 11, 1869.

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