The Reverend Ralph Wardlaw, D.D. (22 December 1779 – 15 December 1853) was a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman and writer. He was born in Dalkeith, before his family moved to Glasgow when he was six months old. His father was a prosperous merchant and civic magistrate, while his mother was the daughter of the Rev. James Fisher and the granddaughter of Ebenezer Erskine, two of the founding ministers of the United Secession Church. At the age of eight he was enrolled at the High School of Glasgow for four years, before being accepted as a student of theology at the University of Glasgow, aged twelve.