Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, of Ridley

Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, FRS (9 December 1649 – 20 April 1701)[1] was an English baronet and politician.

Background

Bridgeman was the second son of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, by his second wife Dorothy, daughter of John Saunders.[2] He was educated at Westminster College from 1662 and after two years went to Magdalene College, Cambridge.[1][3] In 1669 Bridgeman was called to the bar by the Inner Temple.[2]

Career

Bridgeman entered the English House of Commons in 1669, having won a by-election for Horsham.[1] He represented the constituency for the next ten years until the end of the Cavalier Parliament in 1679. King Charles II, created him a baronet, of Ridley, in the County of Chester on 12 November 1673.[4]

In 1673 Bridgeman became Commissioner for Assessment in the county of Warwickshire, resigning in 1680.[1] He held the same office in Coventry for two years from 1679.[1] Additionally he served as Commissioner for Recusants in 1675, assigned to the county of Sussex.[1] Bridgeman was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1696.[5]

Family

Aged twenty he married Mary Cave on 28 September 1670.[2] She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Cave, 1st Baronet and four years his junior.[2] The couple had two daughters and a son.[4] Bridgeman died intestate in 1701 and was survived by his wife for few weeks; both were buried in St Michael's, Coventry.[2] He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Orlando.[4] His younger daughter Penelope was the second wife of Thomas Newport, 1st Baron Torrington, a younger son of Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford, whose title later was revived for a descendant of Bridgemans older brother John.[6]

Notes

1. Henning (1983), p. 717
2. Cokayne (1904), p. 56
3. "Bridgeman, Orlando (BRGN664O)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
4. Burke (1841), p. 82
5. "Library and Archive catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
6. Burke (1832), p. 138

References

• Cokayne, George Edward (1904). The Complete Baronetage. vol. IV. Exeter: William Pollard Co. Ltd.
• Henning, Basil Duke (1983). The House of Commons, 1660–1690. vol. I. London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 0-436-19274-8.
• Burke, John (1841). John Bernhard Burke (ed.). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland (2nd ed.). London: Scott, Webster, and Geary.
• Burke, John (1832). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. vol. I (4th ed.). London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.