High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! John Ridley (26 May 1806 – 25 November 1887) was an English-born miller, inventor, landowner, investor, farming machinery manufacturer, farmer and preacher who lived in Australia between 1839 and 1853. He is best known for the development, manufacture and invention of "Ridley`s Stripper", a machine that both reaped and threshed grain. The suburb of Ridleyton was named for him.