Dudley Ryder (judge)

Dudley Ryder (1691 – 25 May 1756) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

Ryder was born in Hackney, Middlesex, the son of Nathaniel Ryder, a silk merchant, and educated at a dissenting academy. He entered the Middle Temple in 1715 and was called to the Bar in 1719. He rapidly built a successful legal practice.

Ryder was elected Member of Parliament for Tiverton in 1733, a seat he held until his death. He served as Solicitor General from 1733 to 1737 and as Attorney General from 1737 to 1754. He was knighted in 1737.

In 1754, Ryder was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He held this position until his death in 1756. He was elevated to the peerage as Baron Ryder of Harrowby in the county of Lincoln only a few days before his death, too late to take his seat in the House of Lords. His son, Nathaniel Ryder, succeeded him as 2nd Baron Ryder, later becoming the 1st Earl of Harrowby.

Ryder's notebooks, now held in the Harrowby Manuscripts Trust, offer significant insight into eighteenth-century legal practice and procedure. They are frequently cited by legal historians.