George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman

Who was George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman?

George Thomas Orlando Bridgeman JP was a Church of England clergyman and antiquary, the second son of George Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford.

He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the University Pitt Club and graduated as MA in 1845.

After being ordained priest in 1850, he became successively parish Rector of Willey, Shropshire 1850-53; Blymhill, Staffordshire in 1853-64; and of Wigan, Lancashire from 1864 until his death. While at Wigan he also became Honorary Canon of Chester Cathedral in 1872, then of Liverpool Cathedral following the creation of the latter diocese in 1880, which incorporated his parish. He was also chaplain to Queen Victoria from 1872.

He was JP for the counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire and an early trustee of the William Salt Library, Stafford.

He began to study his family history, and contributed several articles to Archaeologia Cambrensis. The outcome of his research into genealogy was History of the Princes of South Wales.

He died at The Hall, Wigan, in 1895, aged seventy-two.