contented himself with acting as a conveyancer or chamber counsel. Yet
we are informed that he took great note of passing events, whether
judicial or political, and though he prudently abstained from any small
plot hatching in the King’s name, which he considered would be
prejudicial to the royal cause, yet to the great measures which affected
the Restoration our lawyer gave his strong adherence, and rejoiced in
the return of Charles the Second to England. He had quick promotion,
being made Serjeant-at-Law, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and
Speaker of the House of Lords in the absence of the Lord Chancellor. His
conduct on the trial of the regicides has naturally been differently
judged, according to the bias of party feeling, but at all events his
eloquence in charging the jury was highly extolled at the time, and when
he had concluded the applause was so great that Judge Bridgeman felt
himself called upon to check the expression thereof, saying, ‘that it
was more suitable for the audience of a stage-play rather than a court
of justice.’ His language indeed was rather fantastic and flowery, but
that was the fashion at the time. He explained that ‘the treason of the
prisoners consisted not only in compassing and imagining the King’s
death, but in executing him in front of his own palace; in fact, not
only laying the cockatrice’s egg, but brooding upon the same, until it
had brought forth a serpent!’ On the expiration of the trials, Bridgeman
was made a Baronet and Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas; and it was
said of him that while presiding in this Court his reputation was at its
zenith, and ‘his moderation and equity were such that he seemed to carry
a chancery in his breast.’ In the intrigues which were being carried on
against Lord Clarendon, Sir Orlando took no part; indeed his conduct was
invariably marked by generosity towards the man whom he was destined to
supplant, and he did all in his power to prevent the Chancellor’s
impeachment. In 1667 he was appointed Lord-Keeper at the instigation of
some of the King’s advisers, male and female, and it was whispered among
his enemies that in that capacity he was at first more complaisant than
his predecessor in affixing the great seal to royal grants, in favour of
such personages as Lady Castlemaine, and others of her calibre. Be this
as it may, the atrocious proceedings of the Cabal roused the Lord-Keeper
into resistance, and the opposition he offered to these unscrupulous men
hastened his downfall. His own family were also most prejudicial to his
prosperity, his wife being an ‘intriguer and intermeddler,’ combining
with his sons in matters with which they had no concern. Bridgeman was
losing favour at Court; he had lately made himself obnoxious to the King
and his surroundings by opposing many of their measures, and when he
refused to confirm the Act of Toleration on the ground of illegality,
Lord Shaftesbury hastened to Charles’s presence bent on mischief, for
that nobleman had long had his eyes greedily directed towards the Great
Seal, and he became very eloquent in counting up all Sir Orlando’s
misdemeanours, ending by his _disinterested_ advice for that minister’s
instant dismissal. Charles took a little time to be persuaded, but after
a while he sent off secretary Coventry to demand the bone of contention
from the Lord-Keeper. Bridgeman was all unprepared for the hasty and
peremptory message, but he had no option, and the Great Seal was
delivered to the royal messenger. Charles kept it in his own custody all
night, and the next morning consigned it with the title of Lord
Chancellor into the willing hands of Anthony Ashley Cooper. After his
dismissal from office Sir Orlando retired to his villa near Teddington,
where he died, and was buried. He was twice married—first to Judith,
daughter and heir of John Kynaston, Esq. of Morton, County Salop, who
died at Oxford, during the usurpation, and was there buried. He had an
only son, Sir John Bridgeman, his successor. Sir Orlando had for his
second wife, Dorothy, daughter of Dr. Saunders, Provost of Oriel
College, Oxford, and relict of George Cradock, Esq. of Carsewell Castle,
County Stafford, by whom he had two sons and one daughter, namely, Sir
Orlando, created a Baronet; Sir Francis, knighted in 1673, who married
Susanna, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Barker, Knight, but had no
children; and Charlotte, married to Sir Thomas Myddleton of Chirk
Castle.
As must invariably be the case with men in prominent positions, more
especially in times of great civil, religious, and political struggles,
Sir Orlando Bridgeman’s character was by turns eulogised and blamed; in
spite of his loyal services to Charles the First, that King found
occasion to censure his faithful servant at the time of the Treaty of
Uxbridge, on a question of religion, ‘having,’ said his Majesty,
‘expected otherwise from the son of a Bishop.’ Yet Sir Orlando was a
staunch Churchman. Burnet’s testimony was merely to his judicial
capacity. He said: ‘Bridgeman’s practice was so entirely in common law
that he did not seem to understand what equity was.’ Roger North said:
‘He was a celebrated lawyer, and sat with high esteem in the place of
Chief-Justice of Common Pleas: the moving him then to the Chancery did
not contribute to his fame’; while elsewhere we are told ‘he carried a
chancery in his breast.’ ‘He grew timorous, which was not mended by age;
he laboured to please everybody, and that is a temper of ill consequence
in a judge.’ On the other hand, Lord Nottingham writes: ‘It is due to
the memory of so great a man to mention him with reverence and
veneration for his learning and integrity.’ While Lord Ellenborough
extols him as an eminent judge, distinguished by the profundity of his
learning and the extent of his industry. At all events, there is no
doubt that the name of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord-Keeper of the Great
Seal, continues to be honoured, not only in the annals of his own
family, but in the learned profession of the Law.
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No. 5. JOHN BRIDGEMAN, BISHOP OF CHESTER, FATHER OF THE LORD-KEEPER.
_Black gown and ruff. Shield episcopal. Arms of Chester, impaling
Bridgeman. Dated 1616. Aged 41._
BORN 1575, DIED 1657-8.
BY JANSEN.
EDWARD BRIDGEMAN was the younger son of William Bridgeman of Dean Parva,
in the county of Gloucester. He settled in the city of Exeter, and was,
in 1578, High-Sheriff of the said city and the county of Devon. His son
John was born in Exeter, in a house not far from the palace-gate, which
seemed an omen of his future dignity. He was a studious boy, and loved
his books, and was carefully kept at school until it was deemed
advisable ‘to transplant him to the University,’ when he was entered at
Magdalen College, Cambridge, of which he became a Fellow, and eventually
the Master. In 1600, being M.A., he was admitted _ad eundem_ at Oxford,
and here he attained the degree of Doctor of Divinity, being the
highest, we are told, ‘a scholar can receive, or the University bestow.’
Dr. Bridgeman’s character for learning and piety, combined with
refinement of manners and good breeding, had reached the ears of King
James the First, who appointed him one of his Domestic Chaplains, and
soon afterwards he became incumbent of Wigan in Lancashire. For upwards
of two hundred years, even to the present day, the living in question
has been held, with scarcely any intermission, by a member of the family
of Bridgeman. In 1619 the Doctor was raised to the See of Chester, being
consecrated at Lambeth, at the same time as the Bishops of Oxford and
Bristol. Now the King taking into consideration that the Bishopric of
Chester was less lucrative than some others, His Majesty also preferred
John Bridgeman to the living of Bangor in Wales, which he was to hold
_ad commendam_, or temporarily. Collins tells us that his Lordship was
not present in the Upper House, in the year 1641, when the bishops
protested against the proceedings in Parliament, and were impeached, and
sent to the Tower, whereby he was saved the tedious imprisonment to
which his right reverend brethren were subjected. But all his
proclivities were Royalist, and during the usurpation, his estates being
sequestrated, he took refuge at his son’s country house at Moreton, near
Oswestry, in Salop, where he died about the year 1657 or 1658, being
buried in the neighbouring church of Kinnerley, and not in the Cathedral
of Chester, as some writers have it.
This worthy Prelate was said to have been ‘as ingenious as he was brave,
and a great patron of those gifts in others which he himself owned. He,
moreover, was the father of that great and good man, Sir Orlando
Bridgeman, the Lord-Keeper, who was a glory to his family, and indeed to
the country at large.’ The Bishop of Chester married Elizabeth, daughter
of Dr. Helyar (of a good old Somersetshire family), Canon of Exeter, and
Archdeacon of Barnstaple, by whom he had five sons—
1. Sir Orlando Bridgeman, afterwards First Baronet, and eventually
Lord-Keeper.
2. Dove, Prebendary of Chester, married Miss Bennet of Cheshire (who
survived him), by whom he had one son, Charles, Archdeacon of Richmond,
in Yorkshire, who died unmarried 1678. The widow of Dove Bridgeman
married, as her second husband, Dr. John Halkett, Bishop of Lichfield.
3. Henry Bridgeman, who was indeed rich in church preferment, being
successively Rector of Bangor and Barrow, and Bishop of the Isle of Man.
He married Catherine, daughter of Robert Lever, of Lancashire, Gent., by
whom he had one daughter, who married Sir Thomas Greenhalgh of
Brundlesham, County Lancaster.
4. Sir James Bridgeman, Knight, who married the daughter of one Mr.
Allen, a gentleman of Cheshire, by whom he had (beside a son and
daughter, who died unmarried) Frances, wife of William, Lord Howard of
Escrick, and Magdalen, wife of William Wynder, Esq.
5. Richard, a merchant in Amsterdam, married the daughter of one Mr.
Watson, also an English merchant in that city, by whom he had a
daughter, Elizabeth, married to John Dove, Surveyor of the Customs; and
a son, William, of Westminster, 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. Their children were Orlando, and
Catherine, married to a relative, son of Sir John Bridgeman, Bart.
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No. 6. SIR ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN, FOURTH BARONET.
_Blue coat. Red overcoat. Wig._
DIED 1764.
BY VANDERBANK.
HE was the son and successor of Sir John Bridgeman, third Baronet, by
Ursula Matthews. He married Lady Anne Newport, daughter and co-heir of
Richard, second Earl of Bradford, who, beside a large fortune, brought
the beautiful estate of Weston into the Bridgeman family. Sir Orlando
was for some time M.P. for Shrewsbury.
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No. 7. HENRY NEWPORT, VISCOUNT NEWPORT, AFTERWARDS THIRD EARL OF
BRADFORD.
_Red coat. Silver brandebourgs._
DIED 1734.
BY DAHL.
HE was the eldest son of Richard Newport, second Earl of Bradford, by
Mary Wilbraham. He represented Shropshire in several Parliaments during
his father’s life, and was at different times Lord-Lieutenant and
_Custos Rotulorum_ of the Counties of Stafford, Shropshire, and
Montgomery. Lord Bradford died unmarried at his house in St. James’s
Place, and was buried in Henry the Seventh’s Chapel at Westminster.
He was succeeded in his titles, and such estates as he could not
alienate, by his brother Thomas, who had become imbecile through a fall
from his horse in early life in Cowhay Wood, Weston Park. He was
incompetent to manage his own affairs, and, dying at Weston, 1762, his
titles became extinct, and his property descended to his nephews, the
sons of Lady Anne Bridgeman; and the Countess of Mountrath. Henry, Lord
Bradford was an immoral and vindictive man, and having quarrelled with
his mother on account of her endeavour to disentangle him from some
disgraceful connection, he vowed vengeance on her and her whole family.
This threat he carried out in a shameful manner, and though the story is
long and complicated, yet it bears so nearly on the fortunes of the
present possessor of Weston, that we cannot refrain from entering into
details. In 1715, Lord Bradford cut off and debarred all the then
existing entails of the family estates over which he had any power, and
in 1730 he made a will by which he left all his large estates in trust,
for the use of John Newport, _alias_ Harrison, _alias_ Smyth, his
illegitimate son by Anne, wife of Ralph Smyth, son of the Dean of
Raphoe, that lady being then Lord Bradford’s mistress; the property to
revert to the testator’s lawful heirs in the event of the aforementioned
John’s death without children. But two days afterwards he repented of
this partial act of compensation, and added a codicil by which he left
the same property to the same trustees, in case of John’s death without
heirs, to his mother, Mrs. Anne Smyth, for her own personal use, to be
devised as she saw fit, provided that during John’s lifetime she should
set aside a proper sum for his use and maintenance, after which she
might make any use she chose of the residue. Four days afterwards
another codicil assured the lady in question a further sum of £10,000.
Lord Bradford died in 1734, and Mrs. Anne Smyth in 1742, having two
months before her death made a will leaving all the property bequeathed
her by the said Earl to one Alexander Small, a surgeon (excepting as
before what was set aside for the maintenance of John Newport), until
John should have attained his majority, which was not to be until he was
twenty-six years old. In the event of John Newport’s death without
children, then the reversion and inheritance of the said estates she
devised to William Pulteney, afterwards Earl of Bath, his heirs and
assigns for ever. It would be tedious to relate all the legal
proceedings which arose out of this eccentric will; suffice it to say
that it could not be proved till 1751, nine years after the death of the
testatrix. Lord Bath on his part devised the reversion of the property
expectant on the death of John Newport, to his brother, General Harry
Pulteney, who in turn devised it to the daughter of his cousin-german
(Daniel Pulteney), Frances, wife of William Johnstone, and her said
husband (who afterwards became a baronet, and took the name of
Pulteney), and to their heirs in tail male, with remainder to Harry,
Earl of Darlington, whose grandmother was Anne Pulteney, aunt to the
Earl of Bath, and daughter of Sir William Pulteney of Misterton, County
Leicester and his sons in tail male.
All these aforementioned legatees died in succession without male heirs,
excepting the Earl of Darlington, who left an only son, afterwards Duke
of Cleveland, on whom the whole of this enormous fortune devolved, and
is part of the heritage of the present Duke (1888). Thus the ancient
estates of the Newports, including those which descended to them from
the Princes of South Wales, passed away from the rightful owners,
excepting Weston-under-Lizard, Walsall, and some other estates elsewhere
mentioned, which became the property of Sir Henry Bridgeman, grandson of
Mary, Countess of Bradford. The savings from the estate during the
lifetime of John Newport, which were said to exceed £200,000, were
ultimately divided (after deducting the great law charges) between the
Crown (to which it passed in default of heirs), and, through a
ridiculous quibble of the law, the representatives of Ralph Smyth (John
Newport’s mother’s husband).
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No. 8. LADY ANNE BRIDGEMAN.
_White satin dress. Leaning her arm on a table. Fair hair._
BORN 1690, DIED 1752.
BY VANDERBANK.
SHE was the third daughter of Richard Newport, second Earl of Bradford,
by Mary Wilbraham. She married Sir Orlando Bridgeman of Castle Bromwich,
Bart., by whom she had (besides a daughter and two sons who died young)
Sir Henry, who succeeded his father, and Diana, married to John
Sawbridge of Ollantigh, in Kent. This lady’s descendants are now the
only representatives of the ancient family of Newport.
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No. 9. HENRY, FOURTH LORD HERBERT OF RIPSFORD.
DIED 1691.
BY WISSING.
EDWARD, first Lord Herbert of Ripsford, the ‘noble author’ of whom
Horace Walpole speaks in terms of the highest enthusiasm, and whose
autobiography he published, was succeeded by his son Richard, who
married a daughter of John, Earl of Bridgewater, by whom he had two
surviving sons (who in turn succeeded to the title) and two daughters.
The youngest, Florence, married her kinsman, Richard Herbert of Oakley
Park. Edward, third Lord Herbert of Cherbury, a zealous loyalist, dying
without children by either of his three wives, the titles and estates
devolved on his brother Henry, who married Lady Catherine Newport,
daughter of Francis, first Earl of Bradford. On the fourth Lord’s
decease _s.p._, the title became extinct, but the dignity of Herbert of
Cherbury was revived in favour of his nephew (son of his sister
Florence), Henry Arthur Herbert, afterwards Earl of Powis, in 1743.
Catherine Newport, Lady Herbert, survived her husband, and resided till
her death at Lymore in Montgomeryshire, the considerable estate
belonging to Herbert which had been appointed her as her jointure. She
was remarkable for her extensive charities.
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No. 10. SIR JOHN BRIDGEMAN, SECOND BART.
_Red dress. Holding a jewelled sword._
BORN 1630, DIED 1710.
BY VICTOR.
HE was the eldest son of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Lord-Keeper, and the
only child by that gentleman’s ‘first venter’ (so runs a line in the
learned gentleman’s biography), Judith, daughter and heir of John
Kynaston of Morton, in Shropshire, Esq. He married Mary, daughter and
heir of George Cradock of Carsewell Castle, in Staffordshire, whose
widow married Sir Orlando as his second wife. By this alliance John
Bridgeman’s mother-in-law became his step-mother, a singular
relationship. He had four sons, three of whom died unmarried; the two
who survived him were John, his namesake and successor, and Orlando,
married to Catherine, daughter of William Bridgeman of Comb, County
Suffolk, Esq. The daughters were Mary, married to Robert Lloyd, Esq. of
Aston, in Shropshire; Judith, married to Richard Corbet of Morton
Corbet, County Shropshire; Dorothy, wife of Lisle Hackett of Moxhull,
County Warwick; and three others who died unmarried. Sir John died at
his own house of Castle Bromwich, but was buried at Aston, in
Warwickshire.
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No. 11. FRANCIS NEWPORT, SECOND LORD NEWPORT, AND FIRST EARL OF
BRADFORD.
_Blue mantle. Long wig._
BORN 1619, DIED 1708.
BY DAHL.
HE was the eldest son of Sir Richard Newport, Kt. of High Ercall, who
was knighted by King James the First, at Theobalds, and, in 1642, in
consequence of his unswerving loyalty to King Charles the First, created
Baron Newport. Sir Richard married Rachel, daughter of Sir John Leveson,
Kt. of Haling, or Halington, County Kent, and sister to Sir Richard
Leveson of Trentham, County Stafford, Knight of the Bath. Francis was
the first born of a large family, and began public life at an early age,
being chosen to represent the borough of Shrewsbury in Parliament, a few
days after he had attained his majority. He was one of the few members
(fifty-six in number) who had the courage to vote for the acquittal of
Lord Strafford, a proceeding which brought down on the heads of the
so-called ‘Straffordians’ both insult and obloquy. He followed in the
footsteps of his father, declared for the Royal cause in the unhappy
differences between Charles and his Parliament, and was soon expelled
the House of Commons as a ‘malignant.’ He took arms in the Royal army,
and did gallant service in the field, till he was made prisoner at
Oswestry, when that town was taken by the Earl of Denbigh and Colonel
Mytton. At the time of the insurrection in North Wales, Francis Newport
proved himself a zealous friend to Charles the Second, and as powerful
as he was zealous. He was also engaged in the unsuccessful siege of
Shrewsbury, which town, in the beginning of the ensuing year, was once
more in the hands of the Royalists. On this occasion, as we have
mentioned elsewhere, Sir Edward Hyde (Lord Clarendon) was sorely puzzled
as to the respective claims to the Governorship of Shrewsbury, between
Sir Thomas Myddleton, and his friend, Francis Newport. Two months after
the restoration of the King (May 29, 1660), Lord Newport was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant and _Custos Rotulorum_ of Shropshire, and later on, by
Charles the Second, Comptroller and Treasurer of the Household, and a
Privy Councillor. In 1674 he was advanced to the title of Viscount
Newport of Bradford, County Salop, and, on the accession of James the
Second, his lordship was continued in all his former offices for a time,
but he was a true patriot, and the arbitrary and unconstitutional
measures of the new King called forth in him a vigorous opposition. So
open was he in the expression of his political opinions that he was not
only superseded in all his offices at Court, but was also removed from
the Lord-Lieutenancy of Shropshire, which was given up to the unworthy
hands of the Lord Chancellor Jefferies. He upheld the cause of religion
at the trial of the seven Bishops, and, being a firm Protestant, he
voted for the succession of the Prince and Princess of Orange. On the
day that William and Mary were proclaimed, Lord Newport was reinstated
in his posts in the Royal Household and his Lord-Lieutenancy of
Shropshire, in all of which offices he continued until he attained the
age of eighty-four, when they devolved on his son. In 1694 he was
created Earl of Bradford, and on the accession of Queen Anne again sworn
of the Privy Council. Lord Newport was an object of special dislike to
James the Second, as we find from one of the ex-King’s declarations
(respecting a projected descent upon England), that this nobleman would
certainly be debarred from all hope of pardon. Lord Bradford died at
Twickenham in his eighty-ninth year, and was buried at Wroxeter, near
his country house of Eyton, in Shropshire, where a marble monument on
the south wall of the chancel bears a long inscription to his memory. It
was written of him that ‘at the time of his death, he was the most
venerable character of any nobleman in England, on account of his
virtues, and the unblemished honour with which he had filled every
station of life. Equally a friend to the clergy and to the poor, having
enlarged the endowments of several poor vicarages, and erected a
charitable foundation at Ercall for the support of the needy.’ King
William had so great a regard for the Earl of Bradford, that he paid him
a visit, and honoured him with his presence at dinner on his eightieth
birthday. He married Lady Diana Russell, daughter of the fourth Earl of
Bedford, by whom he had a large family, five dying in their infancy; and
Richard, second Earl of Bradford;
Francis, who died unmarried;
Thomas, a Commissioner of the Customs in the reigns of William and Mary,
and Queen Anne, who, in the first year of George the First was made a
Lord of the Treasury and raised to the peerage by the title of Baron
Torrington of Torrington, County Devon, and sworn of the Privy Council.
He was also at the time of his death a Teller of the Exchequer. He had
three wives: first, Lucy, daughter of Sir Edward Atkyns, Lord Chief
Justice of the Exchequer in the time of James the Second; second,
Penelope, daughter of Sir Orlando Bridgeman of Ridley, County Chester,
Bart., who died in 1705; third, Anne, daughter of Robert Pierrepoint of
Nottingham, Esq., son of Francis Pierrepoint, and grandson of Robert,
Earl of Kingston. He died the 27th of May 1719, in the sixty-fifth year
of his age (when his title became extinct), and lies buried at Wroxeter
with Anne, his third wife, who survived him many years, and died on the
7th February 1734.
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No. 12. LADY WILBRAHAM.
_Pale yellow dress. Grey drapery. Pointing to a tulip._
BY SIR PETER LELY.