History of the Church and Manor of Wigan.
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I am hartelye glad to see yor sonne Orlando; he is much better since his cominge up, & came to me to Croyden."[1]
In this year the bishop apprenticed his youngest son, Richard Bridgeman,[2] to Mr. Robert Masters, merchant in London, for which he paid a fee of £100 and agreed to pay £20 more when he should be employed beyond the seas.
Another letter of Laud's tells the bishop about the death of a horse he had received from him as a present a few years before:
"S. in Xp̃o
My very good Ld,
I am heartily glad to heare of your health & to see your sonne safely returned hither, and very glad also to see by him that the place wch he hath gotten in those parts gives him so much content. I heartily pray your Lp to be confident that in whatsoever I may farther serve him, or yourselfe, noe man shall be more ready then I shall bee.
My Lo: 'tis true I had a mischance wth the horse wch, I thank you, you sent mee about three yeares since. But I did not thinke either your Lp or your sonne should have knowne itt. The truth is hee was lost in the sleepie disease, and I was like to have lost two or three more- ↑ Family Evidences.
- ↑ Richard Bridgeman, youngest surviving son of the bishop, became a merchant at Amsterdam. He afterwards settled at Coombes hall in Suffolk. By his wife Catherine, daughter of Mr. Watson, an English merchant at Amsterdam, he had issue a daughter, Elizabeth, married to John Dove, Esq., surveyor of the customs, and one son, William Bridgeman, of Westminster, Esq., sometime secretary to the Admiralty, and one of the clerks of the Priory Council, whose death is thus mentioned in Evelyn's Diary, May 7, 1699: "Mr. Bridgeman, chairman of the committee for the benefit of Greenwich Hospital died; a great loss to it. He was clerk of the council, a very industrious useful man." He was evidently a friend of Evelyn's, who mentions having entertained him at dinner with Lord Halifax, Sir Thomas Meeres, Sir John Clayton and others. He says that "Mrs. Bridgeman, his wife, was an extraordinary fine performer on the guitar." This lady, whose name was Diana, was daughter of Peter Vernatti, an Italian gentleman, and niece of Sir Philibert Vernatti, of Carleton, co. York, knight, created a baronet of N.S. in 1634 (Herald and Genealogist, vol. v. p. 146 &c.). She was buried 11th December, 1707. They had issue a son Orlando Bridgeman, of Coombes hall, Esq., who married and had issue, and a daughter Catherine, who, surviving her brother's children, succeeded to Coombes hall and his other estates. She married her second cousin Orlando Bridgeman, Esq., younger son of Sir John Bridgeman of Castle Bromwich, and died without surviving issue.
