vicarage of Heavitree for the vicarage of Bexhill, in Sussex, to which he was collated at Lambeth Palace, on Saturday, 9th of June, 1610, by Dr. Samuel Harsnet, bishop of Chichester.
The ceremonies of induction and reading-in were closely observed in those days; and after recording his collation to Bexhill, he goes on to describe them, in these words: "I had been at Bexhills on Sunday befor, being 3 Junii, and then preached and read the articles of a° 1562; and I was ther againe and was inducted, and then after I read my said articles, 6n Friday the 3d of August following in the forenoone, being then a litle befor inducted into the church ther by Mr. Wager vicar of peterborow whom I carryed wth me purposely to induct me and witnes my reading the articles, the clerk also, and churchwardens, and Mr. Rogers curat being p'sent: and . . . I preached there and read my articles the 3d tyme befor all the parish on Sunday the 5th of August, as is witnissed by subscription on the back side of the bishop's mandat. ad inducendum."
In 1611 he bought himself a house at Peterborough, and on 26th August of that year he mentions in his diary that his mother and his sister Lydia,[1] accompanied by his brother Thomas, brought to him, from Exeter to Peterborough, his two elder children, William and Orlando, whom he had left in the care of his mother at Exeter. His fourth son, John, was born in his own house at Peterborough on 3rd September of the same year.[2]
In 1611 he was a frequent preacher at Court by the King's special appointment. He commenced Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge on 6th July, 1612, having "clerum'd and kept his Arts" in June. In July of the same year he was presented by his Majesty to the donative of Gedney in Lincolnshire, but relinquished his title to it in favour of the Queen's nominee — she having
- ↑ Lydia Bridgeman was afterwards married in or about 1619 to Dr. George Snell, archdeacon of Chester. Thomas Bridgeman was afterwards rector of Alwalton, near Peterborough, prebend of Karswell (in Exeter), of Bishopshill, in Lichfield, 1618-1623, and dean of Worrall, in Cheshire. He died at Chester in 1632.
- ↑ Family Evidences.
