has been already mentioned, he was a staunch and zealous royalist, and, as such, a great sufferer in the cause of the monarchy. In theological sentiments he was what would now perhaps be styled a moderate high churchman. His views were in accordance with those of Laud and Neile, whose orders he tried to carry out to the best of his ability, and with a considerable measure of success. Prynne charges him, in 1641, with having erected "divers stone altars in his diocese, — one in the cathedral at Chester, used in time of popery, which hee caused to be digged up out of the ground where it was formerly buried; and he ordered all the ministers in Chester, not onely to read prayers, but likewise to preach in their hoods and surplices."[1] But, though a strong upholder of authority, both in church and state, he exercised his own with moderation, and reckoned among his friends some who held views widely differing from his own, as for example, bishop Potter, of Carlisle, who was known as "the Puritanical bishop."
Bishop Bridgeman was succeeded in his landed estates, at Great Lever, in the county of Lancaster, Bromborough, in the county of Chester (on each of which he rebuilt the Hall or Manor house), Wigland, in the county of Chester, and Wolvesacre, in the county of Flint, by Orlando Bridgeman, his eldest surviving son.
Orlando Bridgeman was born at Exeter, 30th January, 1608,[2] and went up to Queen's College,[3] Cambridge, 21st January, 1621-2,[4] where he took his bachelor's degree in January, 1623-4.[5] It is probable that during his residence at the University he migrated from Queen's College to his father's old college of Magdalen, for there is a memorandum in the bishop's Leger that he was "admitted to Magdalen College in Cambridge 22 June 16...." He commenced master of arts at Midsummer, 1624,[6]
