Thomas Ribright 1, 1712 – 1781

George Ribright, 1723 - 1783

Thomas Ribright 2, 1751 - 1811

by Brian Stevenson
last updated June, 2026

This family operated an optical business on London’s Poultry Lane from 1735 until the turn of that century. Notably, Thomas 1 invented and patented a pocket-sized device that combined a magnifier/simple microscope, a prospect glass (small telescope), and various mechanical implements (Figures 1 and 2). A number of other microscopes and other optical/scientific are known that bear their names. Some were acquired from other manufacturers, while others are of unique designs and were certainly manufactured in-house (Figures 3-10).

A note on the family relationships: Thomas 1 and George were brothers. Thomas 1 did not have any children. Thomas 2 was the son of George.

Time line of the Ribright businesses:

1735: Thomas Ribright 1 released from his apprenticeship and opened his shop at 40 Poultry.

1765: George Ribright first listed in a London directory, after taking over the business from his brother, Thomas 1. Thomas 1 was listed in a 1763 directory. Thomas moved to Terwin, Hertfordshire and established an optical business in that town.

1778: George Ribright renamed his business “Ribright and Son”, although Thomas 2 was not a formal partner. Also around this time, George formed a partnership with one Benjamin Smith in the city of Bath, as "Ribright and Smith"

1783: George Ribright died. Thomas Ribright 2 continued the London business under his own name. Smith purchased the Bath shop, and continued that business under his name.

ca. 1802: Thomas Ribright 2 moved the business to 20 Gloucester Street, Queen's Square.

1806: Thomas Ribright 2 closed his business and retired.

Figure 1. Examples of the “"entirely New … Small Perspective Glasses, with Mathematical and other Instruments and Twees in one and the same Case, both with and without Microscopes or Magnifying Glasses therein, in a very Portable, Neat, and Ornamental Manner, which, by reason of their Size, would be very Convenient and Usefull to His said Majestie's Subjects”, patented by Thomas Ribright 1 in 1749. Images adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co3758/ribrights-patent-spyglass-and-tools-1775-1825 , https://portecrayons.com/inkwells , or from internet sale sites.

Figure 2. Details from Thomas Ribright 1’s 1749 patent. He wrote, “"The outside case, and the several parts thereof, and the instruments or twees therein contained, are to be made of gold, silver, brass, steel, or any other metal, or the whole or part of the outside case may be made or covered with shagreen, fish skin, or leather, with rims and hinges of gold, silver, or other metal, or may be set or inlaid with pearl, jewels, or any sort of precious or curious stones. The Figure A, a, is the perspective glass as it is to be seen thro', having both the sliders out or sett open. 1 is an eye glass, and 2 is an object glass. b, b, are the heads in which the said glasses are set or fixed. C is the joynt or shutting of the case, which may be drawn out at pleasure to adjust it to the sight. The Figure Q is the same case with the object end open in its proper position when used for a microscope. The Figure B, B, represents the body of the said case without the top, which draws off at the said joynt or shutting C, showing the spaces wherein the instruments hereafter described or mentioned are to be contained or placed, in the center whereof is the aperture of the eye stop, marked e, and in the bottom or lower end thereof is the said object glass. E is the neck of the said case which the said top D slides upon. The Figure D represents the top drawn off at the joint C aforesaid, wherein at the upper end thereof the said eye-glass is fixed. The instruments to be placed round the aperture of the eye stop aforesaid are, F, a penknife; G, a six inch rule; H, a pair of compasses or dividers; I, a pair of scissors; K, a pen and pencil; L, a bodkin and ear picker; M, a pair of knippers with a file; all or any of which said instruments, marked F, G, H, I, K, L, M, may be changed or omitted, and mathematical or other instruments for twees are to be placed in their stead at pleasure. N is the slider of the microscope, with three magnifiers fixed therein, marked f, g, h. O is an instrument to fix objects upon to be viewed thro' the microscope, being a pair of forceps at one end thereof, and a fork at the other end thereof. P is the stem whereby it is to be set or fixed in any of the four holes marked p, in the microscope Q. In using the said Invention for a microscope, the object end of the said case is a lid, to be opened with a hinge after the manner of a snuffbox lid, as in the said Figure Q. On the inner side of the said lidd is fixed a silver concave speculum, for reflecting light upon opake objects held in the forceps, or stuck on the fork of the said instrument O, when fixed by the said stem in any of the aforesaid holes p. r, r, is an oblong hole or slit in the case under the said hinge, and in the said hole or slit is a small button that slides therein, and being thrust upwards towards the said hinge, carries up the head S, T1, T2. The Figure S screws off from T2 at s, the said T2 being only the reverse side of T1. The aforesaid head b, in which the object glass is fixed as aforesaid, is screwed off from the outside of the said lid, and the said piece S is to be screwed into the place of the said head so to be screwed off. Into the slit or groove 3,3, in the said piece S, is to be thrust the said slider N, containing the said three magnifiers, thro' either of which said magnifiers is to be viewed any object held by the said forceps, or stuck on the said fork, when placed by the said stem in either of the said four holes p, the magnifier g being greater than the magnifier f, and lesser than the magnifier n. The four spaces marked æ in the said case or Figure Q, are four little boxes or repositories for small objects, that the user of the said Invention may chuse to preserve." Adapted from W.H. Brown, 1895.

Figure 3. A Cuff-type microscope, signed “Ribright, London”. Presumably retailed by Thomas Ribright 1 ca. 1750-60.

Figure 4. A Culpeper-type microscope, signed “Thomas Ribright”. The turned wood upper part and the Loft-type legs suggest that this was manufactured in the mid-1700s, so probably by Thomas 1. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.

Figure 5. Another Culpeper-type microscope that is signed “Thomas Ribright”. Possibly retailed by Thomas 1. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8544/scroll-type-culpeper-microscope

Figure 6. A reflecting telescope, signed “Made by Thos Ribright, London, Optician to his Royal Highness Prince George”, i.e. Thomas 1, ca. 1753-1763. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet auction site.

Figure 7. A collapsible prospect glass, signed by George Ribright. Circa 1765-1778. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from an internet sale site.

Figure 8. Compound microscope signed “Ribright and Son”. This was undoubtedly manufactured by Benjamin Martin (ca. 1704 – 1782). Martin’s instrument stock was auctioned after his death, and the Ribrights evidently purchased this microscope and engraved it with their business name. That implies retail between 1782 and the death of George Ribright in 1783. Adapted from nonprofit, educational purposes from internet sale sites.

Figure 9. Telescope by Ribright and Son, ca. 1778 - 1783. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from The University of Queensland Physics Museum, https://physicsmuseum.uq.edu.au/refracting-telescope

Figure 10. A uniquely-designed compound microscope, signed “Thos Ribright, London”. Characteristics of the microscope indicate manufacture in the later 1700s, implying production by Thomas Ribright 2, ca. 1783 - 1806. The unusual features suggest that Ribright designed and built this instrument himself.

Thomas 1 and George Ribright were brothers, both born in Cambridge. Father Robert Ribright, was a “cordwainer”, i.e. a shoe maker. Thomas was baptized on November 5, 1712, and George was born around 1723.

Thomas Ribright 1 was apprenticed to Thomas Sterrop (1687-1728), “Spectaclemaker of London”, on March 14, 1726 (Figure 11). Sterrop's widow, Mary, took over the operation of this business upon Sterrop's death, so it is probably that she or a journeyman employee oversaw the completion of Ribright's training. Ribright was awarded Freedom of the City of London in the Company of Spectaclemakers in September, 1735. He took his first apprentice, Richard Moore, in February, 1736, indicating that he was operating his own business by that time.

Thomas 1 married Mary Wicks on January 23, 1735. They are not known to have had any children.

The most memorable aspect of the career of Thomas Ribright 1 is his creation of “Small Perspective Glasses, with Mathematical and other Instruments and Twees in one and the same Case, both with and without Microscopes or Magnifying Glasses therein, in a very Portable, Neat, and Ornamental Manner” (Figures 1 and 2). Made of “gold, silver, brass, steel, or any other metal, or the whole or part of the outside case may be made or covered with shagreen, fish skin, or leather, with rims and hinges of gold, silver, or other metal, or may be set or inlaid with pearl, jewels, or any sort of precious or curious stones”, the pocket-sized telescope/magnifier also carried small tools such as “a penknife, a six inch rule, a pair of compasses or dividers, a pair of scissors, a pen and pencil, a bodkin and ear picker, a pair of knippers with a file, … and mathematical or other instruments”.

Thomas 1 was appointed Optician to the Prince of Wales (the future King George III) in 1753 (Figure 12). He served as Master of the Spectaclemakers’ Company in 1758.

It is nor clear what George Ribright was doing through his early adulthood. He married Sarah Mithell on February 7, 1745, in Thundridge, Hertfordshire. Their five children, born between 1746 and 1759, were all baptized in Cambridge. However, George was awarded membership in the London Company of Spectaclemakers on December 11, 1759 (Figure 13), implying that he then lived and worked in London. There are no known records of George’s apprenticeship, leading me to suspect that he trained informally with his elder brother. He probably continued to work for Thomas 1 for the next several years.

Thomas 1 was last listed as an optician in Poultry Lane in the 1763 edition of Kent's Directory of London. Brother George was listed as an optician at that location in the 1765 edition of Osborne’s Directory.

Thomas Ribright 1 moved to Terwin, Hertfordshire ca. 1863. He evidently continued working as an optician in that town, as his will described him as a “spectaclemaker”. Terwin is some 8-10 miles from Thundridge, where George had been married, so there may have been a family or business connection with the area. The Ribrights were Baptists, and Thomas’ home was recorded as a religious meeting place in 1772: “We desire that a dwelling house now in the occupation of Mr. Thomas Ribright, of the parish of Tewin, optician, be registered as a place of meeting for a congregation of his Majesty’s Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England”. Thomas 1 died in Terwin in 1781.

George Ribright took his son, Thomas 2, as an apprentice on October 5, 1768 (Figure 14). Thomas 2 received Freedom of the City as a Spectaclemaker in October, 1775.

The 1778 Kent's Directory of London marks the first known record of “George Ribright and Son”. However, Morrison-Low, writing in Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution, states that George Ribright's will indicated that George and his son did not have a formal partnership, and that "if the son wished to set up for himself, he should have first refusal of the shop fittings and stock, but must pay for them or give security ... The working tools were bequeathed to Thomas".

In 1779, Ribright & Son published A Curious Collection of Experiments, to be Performed on the Electrical Machines, Made by Geo. Ribright and Son (Figure 15). This 25-page pamphlet described ways to use the firm’s electrical apparatus to observe electrical phenomena, such as “the electric spark”, “to electrify a person”, and “the electrified water jet”.

George Ribright and one Benjamin Smith established an optical business in Bath ca. 1778, operating as “Ribright and Smith”. This shop relocated from Green Street to 10 Bond Street, Bath, in late 1880. The firm ended upon George's death in 1783.

George Ribright died on April 5, 1783. His will stated that "all stock in trade, shop fittings, counters, glass cases, and the like, both in London and Bath, except working tools, was to be sold" (Morrison-Low, 2007). Thomas Ribright 2 acquired the London business. Benjamin Smith evidently purchased the stock of the Bath shop, and continued business under his own name.

Ownership of the London optical business likely enabled Thomas 2 to marry Sarah Allen, on August 8, 1785.

He issued an “enlarged and improved” second edition of A Curious Collection of Experiments in 1788.

Ribright put his electrical apparatus to mischievous (malicious?) use one night in 1789. Evidently, a local man had been annoying the neighborhood by ringing doorbells in the middle of the night, then running away after waking the houses’ inhabitants. But, according to an article in The New Lady's Magazine, “On Sunday morning, about one o'clock, a well-known tradesman was shot by Mr. Ribright's new-invented spring blunderbuss. The circumstances are as follow: The tradesman was particularly fond of ringing the bells of his neighbours, and of other persons, in his return home of a night; this amusement he had long practised to the offence of many, and particularly to Mr. Ribright, an optician. Mr. Ribright, to punish the breaker of his rest, watched for the purpose of discovering who it was that rang his bell, and saw the tradesman in the act; in consequence of which he the next day prepared for his reception by very highly charging an electrical machine, the conductor of which he placed to the handle of the bell; at night, as usual, the tradesman was proceeding to ring the bell, when off went the electrical shock with so much violence as to throw him upon his back in the street, where, to the no small diversion of Mr. Ribright, and a few others in the secret, the tradesman lay exclaiming ‘Murder! Murder! I am shot!’”

Thomas 2 was awarded a patent for an “artificial horizon” navigational tool in 1790.

He is known to have operated a mill for grinding lenses and other glasses in Bromley, Kent, between 1795 and 1800. One Thomas Wilson wrote in 1797, “On the river Ravensbourn, close to the town, stands a mill, many years used for making paper; but for the last two years it has been employed in grinding and polishing concave and convex mirrors, from one to five feet diameter; the present occupier is Mr. Thomas Ribright, an ingenious artist, formerly an eminent optician, in the Poultry, London. I received from this gentleman an invitation to visit his house and grounds, which I accepted, and am able to say the situation of this mill is extremely pleasant; and the delightful, rural, and romantic prospects it affords, are well worthy the observation of visitors: a large sheet of water, with a pleasure boat upon it, give the friends of Mr. Ribright an opportunity of enjoying, on that element, one of the most pleasing prospects I ever beheld." Note that Ribright still had his London optical business at that time.

Around the turn of the century, Thomas 2 moved his business to 20 Gloucester Street, Queen’s Square, in London.

Thomas Ribright 2 retired in 1806, supported by charity from the Spectaclemakers’ guild. He died on March 1, 1811, and was buried near his parents in Southwark, London.

Figure 11. The 1726 contract that bound Thomas Ribright 1 as apprentice to Thomas Sterrop. Such contracts were completed in duplicate on one sheet of paper, which were then separated by an irregular, curved cut. The two copies would fit only with each other, and could thus be compared for alterations or other fraud.

Figure 12. Trade card of Thomas Ribright 1. He served as Optician to George, Prince of Wales from 1753 until his retirement ca. 1763. Adapted for nonprofit, educational purposes from https://coimages.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/671/453/large_smg00007750.jpg

Figure 13. George Ribright was awarded Freedom of the City in the Company of Spectaclemakers on December 11, 1759. He joined by “redemption”, meaning that he paid a fee for guild membership, in this case, 46 shillings and 8 pence.

Figure 14. Thomas Ribright 2 was apprenticed to his father on October 5, 1768.

Figure 15. Title page and a figure plate from Ribright & Son’s 1779 booklet on electrical experimentation.

Acknowledgment

Thank you to Joe Zeligs for sharing images from his database of historical microscopes and for continued support of the microscopist.net project.

Resources

ancestry.com

Bailey's British Directory (1784) “Ribright & Smith, Bond street, Bath

Bath Chronicle (1780) "Ribright & Smith, optical, philosophical & mathematical instrument makers are moving from corner of Queen St, Bath to 10 Bond Street opposite Exhibition Room", October 5 issue, https://www.batharchives.co.uk/georgian-newspaper-project?field_georgian_date_value=&page=152

Bath Chronicle (1780) "Ribright & Smith, optical, philosophical & mathematical instrument makers, 10 Bond St, Bath, opp Exhibition Room, pass electric matter through body, locally or generally. Electricity of use in cure of rheumatic, paralytic, hypochondriac & many other conditions", November 16 issue, https://www.batharchives.co.uk/georgian-newspaper-project?page=156

Bath Chronicle (1783) "Mr Walker's "Eidouranion" (a large transparent orrery) - lectures on his machine & astronomy at Axford's Exhibition Rooms, Bond St. on 2 & 4 Jan at 12 noon. Admission 2s 6d. Tickets from Mr Hazard's circulating library, Cheap St; Ribright & Smith, opticians, Bond St; Mr Cruttwell's; Messrs Hooper & Keenes; etc", January 2 issue, https://www.batharchives.co.uk/georgian-newspaper-project?page=35

Brown, W.H. (1895) Patents connected with the microscope, 1666-1800, Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society, pages 262-263

Clifton, Gloria (1995) Directory of British Scientific Instrument Makers 1550-1851, Zwemmer, London, pages 230-231

A Compleat Guide to All Persons Who Have Any Trade or Concerns Within the City of London, and Parts Adjacent (1765) “Ribright, George, Poultry”, Osborn, London

English Patents of Inventions, Specifications, 1789 - 1791 (1790) Artificial horizon, number 1731

Fawcett, Trevor (2002) Bath Commercialis’d, Ruton, page 90

Holden’s Directory of London (1802) “Ribright, Thomas, optician, 20, Gloucester st. Queen’s sq. 1s”

Horsburgh, E.L.S. (1929) Bromley, Kent, page 445

Kent's Directory of London (1753) “Ribright, Thomas, Optician to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Poultry"

Kent's Directory of London (1763) “Ribright, Thomas, Poultry”

Kent's Directory of London (1778) “Ribright, George & Son, Poultry”

Morrison-Low, A.D. (2007) Making Scientific Instruments in the Industrial Revolution, Ashgate, pages 127-128

The New Complete Guide to All Persons Who Have Any Trade or Concern With the City of London and Parts Adjacent (1777) “Ribright, George, Poultry”

Norman, Philip (1900) Notes on Bromley and the neighborhood, Archaeologia Cantiana, pages 139-159

The New Lady's Magazine, Or, Polite and Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex (1789) page 335

Ribright, George, and Thomas Ribright (1779) A Curious Collection of Experiments, to be Performed on the Electrical Machines, Made by Geo. Ribright and Son (No 40,) in the Poultry, London

Ribright, Thomas (1788) A Curious Collection of Experiments to be Performed on the Electrical Machines of Thomas Ribright, Second edition

Urwick, William (1884) Nonconformity in Herts, Hazell, Watson, and Viney, London, page 489

Wilson, Thomas (1797) An Accurate Description of Bromley, pages 49-50

Withey, Alun (2017) Thomas Ribright: The Electrifying Optician of 18th-century London, https://dralun.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/thomas-ribright-the-electrifying-optician-of-18th-century-london, (note: an entertaining essay, although the author confuses the two men named Thomas Ribright)