attended his body to the grave, and Dr. George Griffith, afterwards bishop of St. Asaph, preached a sermon at his funeral.[1]
A blue stone was placed over his grave with this dateless inscription: "Hic jacet sepultus Johannes Bridgeman," which was replaced in 1657 by a brass with the same inscription. His son Orlando sent down a handsome stone to cover the grave, but such was the state of the times that it was deemed inadvisable to put any inscription thereon. In later and quieter times, however, his great-grandson Sir John Bridgeman, baronet, raised a monument to his memory against the south wall of the chancel of Kinnerley church with this inscription:
M.S.
Reverendi admodum viri, Johannis Bridgman,
Episcopi
Cestriensis; qui iniquitate temporum, quibus Factio & Usurpatio valebant, ab Episcopali sede depulsus, ad Ædes filii sui, apud Moreton, se contulit; ubi latens pietate, recibusque vacabat, et tandem suaviter
dormiebat
- ↑ Family Evidences, being a correspondence between Mr. Webster, curate of Knockin, and Sir John Bridgeman, baronet, the bishop's great-grandson, with reference to a monumental inscription to be placed over the bishop's grave. Dr. George Griffith was made bishop of St. Asaph in 1660, being consecrated 28th October of that year. He died 28th November, 1666, and was buried in his cathedral under the bishop's throne.
the record of the bishop's burial is taken, commence with an earlier date than that of any register book now existing there. The transcript runs as follows: "..... Bridgman Lord Bishop of Chester who died at Mortin within ye p'ish of Oswestry was buryed at Kynnerley ye xith Novr 1652." His family vault is shewn on the plan of Chester Cathedral in King's Vale Royal of England, 1656, fol., pt. ii. p. 26, with the following inscription: "The buriall place of Docter Bridgman late Bishop of Chester, wherein lieth his wife Elizabeth the pattern of piety and miror of Virtue and of Mr. Dove Bridgman her second sonne therein interred." At the end of the inscription there is a shield bearing the bishop's own arms impaled with those of his wife, a cross patonce. From what has been stated above, however, it will be seen that his remains were not allowed to lie in his family vault at Chester. The view of the cathedral by King on the following page is thus inscribed: "Cestrensis Ecclesiæ (quondam Conventualis) S. Werburgæ facies australis"; and on the opposite side a shield with the Bridgeman arms under which is written "P.M. Ecclesiæ Cestriensis et Johan'is Cestriensis Episcopi posuit Orlandus Bridgeman (Ioh. fil.) equ: aur:"
