He published large numbers of political pamphlets, initially by Foxite Whigs but after 1791 by radical authors and by members of the London Corresponding Society.

[6] The business moved to 1 York Street, St James's Square, in 1790 where he published a defence of the Rhynwick Williams, the 'London Monster' by Theophilus Swift.

'[16] In November 1791 Ridgway was involved in an attempt to extort money from the opera singer Elizabeth Billington by threatening to publicise some correspondence containing evidence of indecent intercourse.

[17] On 28 November 1792 the attorney general, Sir Archibald McDonald preferred bills of indictment against seven radical publishers and printers for libel.

[20] Ridgway's arrest and imprisonment and the plight of the other radical booksellers gave rise to public sympathy, including a pamphlet signed "Justitia" criticising Ashurst entitled Justice to a Judge, (London, 1792 and 1793).

[22] According to Manogue, quoting the Chancery suit of Southey v. Sherwood, 1817, Ridgway succeeded to Symonds' business after his death in 1816, but this probably only refers those copyrights shared by the two bookseller/publishers.

[23] The imprisonment of Symonds, Ridgway and other 'Newgate radicals' was twice recorded by the engraver Richard Newton in 1793 in an etching titled “Promenade in the State Side of Newgate” (1793) and a coloured acquatint entitled 'Soulagement en prison'.

[24] Whilst in prison Ridgway and Symonds jointly published William Winterbotham's four volume, An historical, geographical, commercial, and philosophical view of the American United States, (1795) together with another imprisoned bookseller Daniel Holt.