Niels Mathias Rye

He was born at Bø i Telemark in 1824, as the son of Lieutenant Colonel Johan Mathias Rye (1793–1860) and Christiane Elisabeth Sparre, née Gasmann. He was a brother of Diderik Hegermann Rye.[2] He married Thale Cathrine Rye, daughter of former President of the Storting Johan Henrik Rye.

Having graduated with the cand.jur. degree from the Royal Frederick University in 1846, he started a career as a civil servant in Norwegian government ministries. He started as a clerk in the Ministry of the Interior, who handled postal affairs. He eventually advanced to higher positions, being appointed head of division in the General Post Directorate in 1857. This agency existed only from 1857 to 1860. In 1860 he moved to the Ministry of the Navy and Postal Affairs, the new name of the ministry following a restructure, and became deputy secretary (ekspedisjonssekretær) in 1863.

In 1869 Rye left his position to become County Governor of Søndre Bergenhus (today named Hordaland). In 1877 he was elected to the Norwegian Parliament, representing the constituency of Bergen.[3] He served a two-year term, but was not re-elected. Instead he returned to a post as County Governor, this time in Bratsberg (today named Telemark) to which he had been appointed in 1877. In 1880 he moved on to be County Governor of Kristiania.

However, Rye was not gone from the national political scene. He was appointed acting Minister of the Interior from 21 March to 3 April 1884, and acting Prime Minister from 29 March to 3 April 1884. This was a turbulent year in Norwegian politics: Rye replaced Ole Andreas Bachke, who himself was acting Prime Minister following the impeachment case of the Prime Minister Christian Selmer's Cabinet. On 3 April a new cabinet was finally constituted. It lasted only two months, being replaced by the Liberal Cabinet of Johan Sverdrup on 26 June.

He died in February 1905, weeks after his retirement from the position of county governor of Kristiania. He was buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund.