James Lot Ridgely (January 27, 1807 – November 16, 1881) was an American lawyer and politician from Baltimore, Maryland, who has been called "the father of modern, ethical Odd Fellowship".

[1][2] Ridgely went to Mount St. Mary's College in Emmittsburg and pursued his judicial studies at the University of Maryland School of Law.

During the 1840s, the American Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) would withdraw from the British Manchester Unity and develop its own distinct ritual, which would remain almost unchanged to the 1880s.

According to Ridgely, the Manchester Unity was "chiefly a life and health insurance company" while in the reformed American order "we find stirring appeals to the higher nature and those moral and divine principles which elevate it almost to the dignity of a religion."

According to Mark Tabbert, a large part of the IOOF's growth in membership and wealth in the late 19th century was due to Ridgely's leadership.