Belfond of Mountfort, and the Isabella of Mrs. Mountfort (subsequently Mrs. Verbruggen). The name of Alexander he adopted, it is said, on account of his fondness for the part of Alexander the Great, and was called by it by his fellows and the public till 1694. He was a dissipated dare-devil man and a good actor. His original parts as Alexander included Sharper in the ‘Old Bachelor’ and Careless in the ‘Double Dealer.’ In 1694, as Verbruggen, he was Ambrosio in both parts of ‘Don Quixote.’ In subsequent years he was the first Loveless in ‘Love's Last Shift’ and in the ‘Relapse,’ Oroonoko, and Prince Frederick in the ‘Younger Brother.’ At Lincoln's Inn Fields or Drury Lane his original characters comprised Constant in the ‘Provoked Wife,’ King of Granada in the ‘Mourning Bride,’ Achilles in ‘Heroic Love,’ Xerxes in ‘Xerxes,’ Mirabel in the ‘Way of the World,’ Bajazet, Altamont, Antonio in the ‘Jew of Venice,’ and Young Valere in the ‘Gamester.’ At the Haymarket he was seen, among many other parts, as Edgar, Horatio, Alexander, Cassius, Wolsey, Don Sebastian, Chamont, Pierre, Iago, Sullen, Lorenzo in the ‘Spanish Friar,’ Apemantus, Wilmore in the ‘Rover,’ and Duke Ferdinand in the ‘Duchess of Malfi.’
Verbruggen was tall, well built, but a little in-kneed, which gave him a not unbecoming shambling gait. His Edgar in ‘Lear’ was greatly admired, as were his Wilmore, Bajazet, and Oroonoko. In the part last named he is said to have spoken ‘like a lion.’ As Wilmore in the ‘Rover’ he supported admirably Mrs. Bracegirdle. His Cassius, all nature, was contrasted with the Brutus of Betterton, which was all art. Aston describes him as a rough diamond shining more brightly than all the polished brilliants of the stage. Aston further says Verbruggen was ‘nature without extravagance, freedom without licentiousness, and vociferous without bellowing.’ Many stories of his wildness and want of conduct are given. He is said to have struck the Duke of St. Albans behind the scenes at Drury Lane and called him a son of a ——. Compelled to apologise or leave the London boards, he came on the stage and said he had been accused of calling the duke a son, &c. He then continued: ‘It is true, and I am sorry for it’ (Davies, Dramatic Miscellanies, iii. 447). On 24 April 1708 a benefit was announced for a young orphan child of the late Mr. and Mrs. Verbruggen.
[Genest's account of the English Stage; Cibber's Apology, ed. Lowe; Doran's Annals of the Stage, ed. Lowe; Davies's Dramatic Miscellanies; Downes's Roscius Anglicanus; Reed's Notitia Dramatica (manuscript); Curll's History of the Stage; Gildon's Comparison between the Two Stages, 1702; Aston's Brief Supplement]
VERDON or VERDUN, BERTRAM de (d. 1192), judge, was the son of Norman de Verdun and Luceline, daughter of Geoffrey de Clinton, chamberlain to Henry I. He is mentioned as adhering to Henry II against his rebel sons in 1173 (Bened. Peterb. i. 51). In 1175 and the three following years he was regularly present as a baron at the sittings of the curia regis (Madox, History of the Exchequer, i. 94), and from 1175 to 1179, and probably later, acted as itinerant justice in eight counties (ib. i. 137; Bened. Peterb. i. 107). He was also sheriff of Warwickshire and Leicestershire from 1168 to 1183 (Pipe Rolls, Pipe Roll Soc., for these years up to 1173; Foss). In March 1177 he was sent with others of the king's counsellors by Henry to Ferdinand to negotiate and announce his intention of making a pilgrimage to Compostella (Bened. Peterb. i. 157). He was seneschal of Ireland in 1184–6, when Giraldus Cambrensis mentions his stay with him (Opera, i. 65). He continued in the service of Richard I, witnessing charters at Canterbury on 1 Dec. 1189, and Westminster in January 1190 (Gerv. Cant. i. 503; Historians of York, iii. 87), and accompanied Richard to the Holy Land. He was surety for Richard's peace with Tancred of Sicily in November 1190 (Rog. Hov. iii. 62), and witnessed a charter at Messina on 23 Jan. 1191 (Pipe Roll. Soc. Anc. Charters, p. 98). He arrived in Palestine in June 1191 (‘Itin. Ricardi’ in Memorials of Richard I, i. 217), and on 21 Aug. was left with Stephen de Longchamp in charge of Acre and the queens of England and Sicily, and the daughter of the Emperor of Cyprus, while Richard proceeded towards Jerusalem (Bened. Peterb. ii. 190; Rog. Hov. iii. 128). He died next year (1192) at Joppa (Bened. Peterb. ii. 150). Among other religious benefactions he founded in 1176 the Cistercian abbey of Croxden in Staffordshire, where his chief lands were (Dugdale, Monasticon, v. 660; Ann. Burton, i. 187).
His first wife was Maud, daughter of Robert de Ferrers, earl of Derby, by whom he had no issue. By his second wife, Rohese, he had two sons, Thomas and Nicholas. Nicholas's only daughter and heiress, Rohese, married Theobald Butler, and was grandmother of Theobald de Verdon [q. v.]
[Authorities cited in text; Dugdale's Baronage of England, i. 471; Foss's Biographia Juridica; Nichols's Leicestershire, iii. 640.]
