Bridgeman baronets

There have been two baronetcies created for a person with the surname Bridgeman, both in the Baronetage of England.

The Bridgeman baronetcy, of Great Lever Park in the County of Lancaster, was created on 7 June 1660 for Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.[1] For more information on this creation, see Earl of Bradford.

The Bridgeman baronetcy, of Ridley in the County of Chester, was created on 12 November 1673 for Orlando Bridgeman, Member of Parliament for Horsham and younger son of the 1st Baronet, of the Great Lever creation.[2] He was succeeded by his son, the 2nd Baronet. The latter was Member of Parliament for Calne, Lostwithiel, Blechingley and Dunwich. His only son Francis, the apparent third Baronet, died unmarried and childless on sea on the way to the West Indies between November and December 1740, when the baronetcy became legally extinct. Yet the 2nd Baronet had faked his death; his son could not have succeeded him and the Chancery Court in 1739 had granted his property to his creditor, leaving the 3rd Baronet without significant assets.

Bridgeman baronets, of Great Lever (1660)

• see Earl of Bradford

Bridgeman baronets, of Ridley (1673)

• Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet (died 1701)
• Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet (died 1746)
• Sir Francis Bridgeman, 3rd Baronet (August 1713 – November or December 1740).[3] was a British baronet. He was the only son of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Baronet, and his wife Susanna Dashwood, daughter of Sir Francis Dashwood, 1st Baronet.[4] Following his father's apparent drowning in 1738, Bridgeman was assumed to have inherited the baronetcy.[5] Shortly thereafter, his father, who had only feigned his death to avoid his creditors, was discovered in an inn and imprisoned.[6] Therefore, Bridgeman never actually succeeded to the title, and it instead became extinct with the death of the 2nd Baronet in 1746.[6] Bridgeman died, unmarried and childless, aged only 27, on board a ship in Sir Chaloner Ogle's fleet, en route to the West Indies.[5]

See also

• Earl of Bradford
• Viscount Bridgeman

References

1. Cokayne, George Edward, ed. (1903), Complete Baronetage volume 3 (1649-1664), 3, Exeter: William Pollard and Co, p. 45, retrieved 9 October 2018
2. Cokayne, George Edward, ed. (1904), Complete Baronetage volume 4 (1665-1707), 4, Exeter: William Pollard and Co, p. 75, retrieved 2 February 2019
3. "Leigh Rayment - Baronetage". Retrieved 25 June 2009.
4. "ThePeerage - Sir Francis Bridgeman, 3rd Bt". Retrieved 6 December 2006.
5. Burke, John (1841). John Bernhard Burke (ed.). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland and Scotland (2nd ed.). London: Scott, Webster, and Geary. p. 82.
6. Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and D. W. Hayton, ed. (2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715. vol. III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 325.

• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets