Biography of Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet 1678-1746

On 28th September 1670 [his father] Orlando Bridgeman 1st Baronet (age 20) and [his mother] Mary Cave Lady Bridgeman (age 16) were married. He the son of [his grandfather] Bishop John Bridgeman.

On 27th April 1678 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet was born to [his father] Orlando Bridgeman 1st Baronet (age 28) and [his mother] Mary Cave Lady Bridgeman (age 24).

In 1696 [his father] Orlando Bridgeman 1st Baronet (age 46) was elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

On 20th April 1701 [his father] Orlando Bridgeman 1st Baronet (age 51) died. His son Orlando (age 22) succeeded 2nd Baronet Bridgeman of Ridley in Cheshire.

Around June 1701 [his mother] Mary Cave Lady Bridgeman (age 47) died.

On 15th April 1702 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 23) and Susanna Dashwood Lady Bridgeman (age 17) were married. She by marriage Lady Bridgeman of Ridley in Cheshire.

On 25th February 1707 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 28) was elected MP Coventry. He was re-elected in 1708. He was defeated in 1710.

In 1715 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 36) was elected MP Calne which seat he held until 1722.

In 1716 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 37) was appointed Auditor General to George, Prince of Wales.

On 25th February 1724 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 45) was elected MP Lostwithiel at a by-election.

In 1727 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 48) was elected MP Calne and MP Bletchingley. He chose to sit for the latter.

In 1727 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 48) was appointed to the Board of Trade as a Lord of Trade which office he held until 1738.

Bowood park [Map] was retained by the Crown until 1727, when it was bought by the tenant, Sir Orlando Bridgeman (age 48).

In 1734 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 55) was elected MP Dunwich.

In 1737 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 58) was appointed Governor of Barbados. He disappeared before sailing to Barbados. He left farewell letters to his family and to the king and left his clothes by the side of the Thames. On 10th June 1738, a body was found drowned in the Thames near Limehouse and because it had been disfigured by the water, the body was falsely identified as Bridgeman's.

Diary of Viscount Egmont afterwards Earl Egmont 1741. Monday, 30 [October 1738]. — I went to Court, being the King's birthday, but returned home to Charlton to dinner. I saw half the gentlemen in plain clothes, with silver and gold buttons only, and was told it was the fashion to appear so on the King's birthday in France, and that we have followed them in it.

Sir Orlando Bridgman (age 60), who, instead of going to his Government of Barbadoes conferred on him last winter, made his escape (as he hoped) from the world, to avoid his creditors, by pretending to make himself away, and accordingly gave it out that he had drowned himself, was ferreted out of his hole by the reward advertised for whoever should discover him, and seized in an inn at Slough, where he had ever since concealed himself.

Under a Chancery decree of 1739 the park and Bowood House [Map], which Sir Orlando Bridgeman (age 60) had built on it, were acquired by Richard Long, Sir Orlando's principal creditor, who sold them in 1754 to John Petty (age 33), earl of Shelburne. Petty devised them to his wife Mary, who in 1761 or 1762 conveyed them to her son William Petty (age 1), earl of Shelburne (cr. marquess of Lansdowne 1784, d. 1805).

On 5th December 1746 Orlando Bridgeman 2nd Baronet (age 68) died at Gloucester Gaol, Gloucestershire where he had been imprisoned six years before for faking his own death. He was buried at St Nicholas' Church, Gloucester. Baronet Bridgeman of Ridley in Cheshire extinct.

On 4th September 1747 [his former wife] Susanna Dashwood Lady Bridgeman (age 62) died.