BRIDGEMAN, Orlando I (1671-1721), of Clifton on Dunsmore, Warws. and Sherrard Street, Westminster

Bridgeman was a grandson of Charles II’s lord keeper (Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Bt.†) and a first cousin of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 2nd Bt.* His prospective father-in-law, William Bridgeman, thought that he would ‘prove a man for business’ and expected Bridgeman’s father, Sir John Bridgeman, to take steps to ‘further his coming into the school (the House of Commons)’. Bridgeman duly put up in 1698 at Wigan, where his family had some interest, and with Sir Roger Bradshaigh, 3rd Bt.*, succeeded in throwing out a Court Whig. He was listed in about September 1698 as a member of the Country party, but was not active in the ensuing Parliament. By the next election, Bradshaigh, having assumed a Whig stance in the House, had turned against Bridgeman, almost certainly because of his commitment to Toryism, but failed to oust him in the contest. In the November election he was defeated, despite strenuous efforts within the corporation, and the support of the 9th Earl of Derby. He regained his seat in 1702 after another contest, largely through the efforts of Lord Nottingham’s (Daniel Finch†) younger brothers, the rectors of Wigan and nearby Winwick. In August he was severely injured in a carriage accident, and was even reported by Luttrell to be dead. His recovery was complete by February 1703, however, when on the 18th he acted as a teller against an additional clause, on behalf of one Robert Leigh, in the bill to facilitate the sale of Irish forfeited estates. During December and January 1704 he managed through the House a private bill for the Earl of Warwick, and he was again a teller on 18 Mar. 1704, against reading the reports of the Irish forfeiture trustees. Soon after the opening of the next session he was forecast as a likely supporter of the Tack, voting in its favour on 28 Nov. He did not stand in 1705, while in 1708 not even the backing of the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Lord Gower (Sir John Leveson Gower, 5th Bt.*), could enable him to get the better of Sir Roger Bradshaigh and his brother Henry Bradshaigh*. At the 1713 election Bridgeman half-heartedly joined with Lord Barrymore (James Barry*) against Sir Roger and his candidate, but achieved little more than a handful of votes. This was his last attempt: from 1715 onwards the rapprochement and electoral alliance between Barrymore and Bradshaigh shut him out completely.

Bridgeman died on 14 Aug. 1721, leaving Clifton, which he had inherited from his father, to his widow.3 Bradford mss D.1287/18/15, Cratford to Sir John Bridgeman, 9 Mar. 1697; John Bridgeman to same, 2 May 1701; same to Orlando Bridgeman, 6 May, 4 Nov. 1701; same to Mr Taylor, 7 June 1701; HMC Kenyon, 425, 429, 442, 453, 455; Bull. John Rylands Lib. xxxvii. 125–6, 128–37; Norris Pprs. (Chetham Soc. ix), 60; Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 202; Hist. Reg. Chron. 1721, p. 33; Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. Colls. 253, 255; PCC 156 Buckingham.