THIS family are descended from JOHN BRIDGEMAN, of Dean Magna in Gloucestershire, Esq. who married Johanna, daughter of William Clarke, of Dean Magna, by whom he had issue,

WILLIAM Bridgeman, of Dean Magna, Esq. who, by Mary,, daughter of Richard Bryan, of Dean Parva, had a numerous issue.

Whereof EDWARD, a younger son, was seated in Devonshire. "JOHN, his son, was born," says Prince, in his Worthies of Devon," in the city of Exeter, not far from the palace gate, there. His father was Edward Bridgeman, some time highsheriff of that city and county for the year 1578.

"Having very good natural parts, and being observed to be well disposed towards books and learning, he was carefully kept at school, until he was thought fit to be transplanted thence to the university, which was done accordingly; and he became a member of Magdalen-college in Cambridge; after that, a fellow, and lastly, the master thereof.

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Having commenced master of arts at Cambridge, he was admitted, ad eundem, at Oxford, July 4th, 1600. After this, he proceeded doctor of divinity, which is the highest degree a scholar can receive, or the university bestow.

Being now of noted learning, a pious life, and courteous deportment, he was admitted by King James I. into the number of his domestic chaplains, and became rector of Wigan in Lanca shire, in 1615.

"Afterwards he was, by the same King, preferred to the BISHOPRICK OF CHESTER, raised by King Henry VIII. out of the ruins of the abbies and monasteries here in England. He was consecrated at the same time at Lambeth, with Doctor Howson, Bishop of Oxford, and Doctor Searchfield, Bishop of Bristol, viz. on the 9th of May, 1619. Which see being of no great yearly value, he was made, anno 1621, rector of Bangor also, which he held in commendam.

"For many years did this learned and pious divine continue the faithful and watchful bishop of this church. In that memorable year, 1641, when the unchristian rabble were encouraged, by no mean pretenders to Christianity, to bawl down protestant bishops, as they came in their barges to the parliament house at Westminster, this reverend prelate was then living; however, whether detained at home by age, or hindered by some other occasion, he was not present in the house, to join in the protestation made by his right reverend brethren, against the proceedings of that parliament. Hence he happily escaped that long and tedious imprisonment, unto which most of them, notwithstanding their great years, and their greater piety and learning, who subscribed it, were confined for eighteen weeks together.

"Such was this prelate's merit, that there is this honourable character of him transmitted to posterity, that he was as ingenious as brave; and a great patron of those gifts in others, he was the happy owner of in himself. He was thirty years Bishop of Chester, and every year maintained, more or less, hopeful young men in the university, and preferred good proficients out of it by the same token, some, in those times, turned him out of his livings, whom he had raised into theirs. He was a good benefactor unto Chester, but a better, under God, to England, in his son, the late honourable Sir Orlando Bridgeman, some time lord chief justice of the Common Pleas; after that, master of the rolls; then lord keeper of the great seal of England, under King Charles II. who was a sufferer in his Majesty's cause, and a great honour to it. His moderation and equity being such, in dispensing the King's laws, that he seemed to carry a chancery in his breast in the Common Pleas; endearing, as well as opening the law to the people.

"This learned and holy prelate, Bishop Bridgeman, lived to enjoy the blessings of a good old age; for after the continuance of about thirty years (as was said before) bishop of the church of

Chester, he fell asleep in the Lord, at his palace at Chester aforesaid, near the year 1649. He lieth interred in his own church there.

"This holy prelate was famous in himself, but more famous in his son, Sir Orlando Bridgeman before-mentioned; a gentleman of great piety, as well as honour and integrity; and was the first Englishman King Charles II. advanced to the degree of a Baronet after his happy restoration."

During the time of the usurpation, the bishop fled to his son's seat at Moreton in Shropshire, his estate being sequestred some years before his death. Mr. Brown Willis, in his Survey of Cathedrals, gives this account of him :

"John Bridgeman, S. T. P. rector of Wigan and Bangor in the diocese of Chester, prebendary of Litchfield and Peterborough, became élected Bishop of Chester, March 15, 1618." In Prince's Worthies of Devonshire, is some account of his life, (which is before related) he being born at Exeter: though that author, and other writers, are all mistaken as to his death, anno 1648 or 1649, and buried at Chester; whereas he did not die till 1652, as A. Wood tells us; or rather, as I have lately been informed, till 1657 or 1658, when, departing this life at his son's house at Moreton, near Oswestre in Shropshire, he was buried at Kinnersley church, near Moreton aforesaid.

The bishop married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Helyar, canon of Exeter, and archdeacon of Barnstable, (of the ancient family of the Helyars of Somersetshire) and had issue five sons.

First, Sir Orlando, hereafter mentioned.

Second, Dove, a prebendary of the cathedral church of Chester, who married the daughter of ....... Bennet, of Cheshire, (she surviving him, afterwards married Dr. John Hacket, bishop of Litchfield) and had issue only one son, Charles Bridgeman, archdeacon of Richmond in Yorkshire, who died unmarried, 1678.

Third, Henry Bridgeman, dean of Chester, being so made, 1660: he was also parson of Bangor in Flintshire, and of Barrow in Cheshire, and made Bishop of the Isle of Man, 1671. He married two wives, first, Catherine, daughter of Robert Lever, of Lancashire, Gent. by whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth, married to Thomas Greenhalgh, of Brundlesham in Lancashire, Esq.; his second wife I do not find: he died May, 1682.

Fourth, Sir James Bridgeman, Knight, who married Anne,

daughter of ... Allen, of Cheshire, Gent. by whom he had

.....

James, who died unmarried; Frances, wife of William, Lord Howard, of Escrick; Magdalen, wife of William Wynde, Esq.; and Anne, unmarried, 1682.

Fifth, Richard Bridgeman, a merchant in Amsterdam in Holland, who married Catherine, daughter of Mr. Watson, an English merchant there, by whom he had issue a daughter, Elizabeth, married to John Dove, Esq. surveyor of the customs; and one son, William Bridgeman, of Westminster, Esq. some time secretary of the admiralty, and one of the clerks of the privy-council, who married Diana, daughter of Mr. Vernatti, an Italian gentleman, and had issue, Orlando Bridgeman, Esq.; and Catherine, wife of Orlando Bridgeman, Esq. fourth son of Sir John, hereafter mentioned.

Sir ORLANDO Bridgeman, first Baronet, eldest son of the Bishop, was, for his great proficiency in the law, made attorney of the court of wards, temp. Car. I. also attorney to the Prince of Wales, (afterwards King Charles II.); and being greatly confided in by the royal martyr, was one of the commissioners deputed by him to treat with those of the parliament at Uxbridge; and as long as the city of Chester held out for the King, he encouraged and supported the loyalists with several sums of money; and gave several sums to purchase tithes where churches were not, as he thought, sufficiently endowed; and large sums to other charitable uses, and redeeming poor captives from slavery. Upon the restoration of King Charles II. as a farther reward for his merit, he was made lord chief baron of the Exchequer; then lord chief justice of the Common Pleas; and lastly, LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEAL of England, and created a Baronet.

Lord Clarendon speaks well of him during the civil wars. "The city of Chester," says he, "was firm to the King, by the virtue of the inhabitants, and interest of the bishop, and cathedral men; but especially by the reputation and dexterity of Mr. O. Bridgeman, son to the bishop, and a lawyer of very good estimation; who not only informed them of their duty, and encouraged them in it, but upon his credit and estate, both which were very good, supplied them with whatsoever was necessary for their defence; so that they were not put to be honest and expensive together." But this praise is qualified by the following passage: "The King confessed he was surprised with the carriage of some persons in the treaty of Uxbridge, from whom he had expected

another kind of behaviour, in matters of the church; and named Sir Orlando Bridgeman, upon whom, he said, he had always looked, being the son of a bishop, as so firm, that he could not be shaken; and, therefore, he was the more amazed to hear what condescensions he had been willing to have made, in what concerned religion; and pressed the chancellor to answer some questions he asked him about that transaction; to the particulars whereof he excused himself from answering, by the protestation they had all taken before the treaty, with his Majesty's approbation though, indeed, himself had been very much surprised with the first discovery of that temper, in that gentleman, which he had never before suspected: and ever after said, that he was a man of excellent parts, and honestly inclined, and would choose much rather to do well than ill; but if it were not safe for him to be steady in those resolutions, he was so much given to find out expedients to satisfy unreasonable men, that he would at last be drawn to yield to any thing, he should be powerfully pressed to do." a In 1667, "the seals were given to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, then in great esteem, which he did not maintain long after his advancement. His study and practice lay so entirely in the common law, that he never seemed to apprehend what equity was: nor had he a head made for business, or for such a court. He was a man of great integrity, and very serious impressions of religion on his mind. He had been always on the side of the church: yet he had great tenderness for the nonconformists." In 1672, "lord keeper Bridgeman had lost all credit at court: so they were seeking an occasion to be rid of him, who had, indeed, lost all the reputation he had formerly acquired, by his being advanced to a post of which he was not capable. He refused to put the seal to the declaration for toleration, as judging it contrary to law. So he was dismissed, and the Earl of Shaftsbury was made lord chancellor."

He married, first, Judith, daughter and heir of John Kynaston, of Morton in Shropshire, Esq. (she died at Oxford, in the usurpation, and was buried in the university church.) By her he left issue only one son,

Sir John, his successor.

He married to his second wife, Dorothy, daughter of Dr.

a Clarendon's Life.