Life

Bridges was born at Barton Seagrave

Barton Seagrave

Barton Seagrave is a village and civil parish in the Kettering borough of Northamptonshire, England. The Domesday Book records the village name as Bertone. The village is a suburb of Kettering and about south-east of the town centre...

, Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...

, where his father then resided. His grandfather was Colonel John Bridges of Alcester

Alcester

Alcester is an old market town of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in Warwickshire, England. It is situated approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 8 miles south of Redditch, close to the Worcestershire border...

, Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, whose eldest son of the same name purchased the manor of Barton Seagrave about 1665, and as an improving landowner introduced the cultivation of sainfoin

Sainfoin

Onobrychis, the Sainfoins, are Eurasian perennial herbs of the legume family . Including doubtfully distinct species and provisionally accepted taxa, about 150 species are presently known...

. His mother was Elizabeth, sister of Sir William Trumball, secretary of state. He was bred to the law, became a bencher of Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

, was appointed solicitor to the customs in 1695, a commissioner in 1711, and cashier of excise in 1715.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1708. He was also a governor of the Bridewell and Bethlehem Hospital. He died at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 on 16 March 1724.

Bridges's collection of books and prints was sold by auction soon after his death. A portrait of him, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller in 1706, was engraved by George Vertue

George Vertue

George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...

 in 1726.

Antiquarian work

In 1718 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in the following year he began the formation of voluminous manuscript collections for the history of Northamptonshire. He made a circuit of the county, and employed several persons to make drawings, collect information, and transcribe monuments and records. In this manner he expended several thousand pounds. It was his intention to make another personal survey of the county, but before he could carry this design into effect he fell ill and died.

Bridges's manuscripts fill thirty folio volumes, with five quarto volumes of descriptions of churches collected for him and four similar volumes in his own handwriting. These went to the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

 at Oxford. Left by Bridges as an heirloom to his family, they were placed by his brother William, secretary of the stamp office, in the hands of Gibbons, a stationer and law-bookseller at the Middle Temple Gate, who circulated proposals for their publication by subscription, and engaged Samuel Jebb

Samuel Jebb

-Life:He was born about 1694, probably at Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, the second son of Samuel Jebb, a maltster. His eldest brother, Richard, settled in Ireland. Another brother, John, became dean of Cashel, and was father of Dr. John Jebb, the Socinian....

 to edit them. Before many numbers had appeared Gibbons became bankrupt, and the manuscripts remaining in the hands of the editor, who had received no compensation for his labours, were at length secured by William Cartwright

William Cartwright

William Cartwright was an English dramatist and churchman.-Early life:Cartwright was born at Northway, Gloucestershire, the son of William Cartwright of Heckhampton, Gloucestershire. He was educated at the free school of Cirencester and at Westminster School...

, M.P., of Aynho

Aynho

Aynho is a village and civil parish in South Northamptonshire, England, on the edge of the Cherwell valley about southeast of the north Oxfordshire town of Banbury and southwest of Brackley...

, for his native county, and a local committee was formed to accomplish the publication of the work. This was entrusted to the Rev. Peter Whalley

Peter Whalley (clergyman)

Peter Whalley was an English clergyman, academic and schoolmaster, known as an antiquarian author and literary editor.He was the son of Peter Whalley of Rugby, born on 2 September 1722 at Ecton. He was at Merchant Taylors' School from 1731 to 1740, and in June 1740 was elected to a scholarship at...

, a master at Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital

Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...

. The first volume appeared in 1762, and the first part of the second in 1769; but delay arose after the death of Sir Thomas Cave, chairman of the committee, and the entire work was not published till 1791. Whalley's part in the work was slight, and he claimed to have added little of his own, except what he compiled from Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 and William Dugdale

William Dugdale

Sir William Dugdale was an English antiquary and herald. As a scholar he was influential in the development of medieval history as an academic subject.-Life:...

. Robert Nares

Robert Nares

Robert Nares was an English clergyman, philologist and author.-Life:He was born at York in 1753, the son of James Nares , organist of York Minster and educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford.From 1779 to 1783 he lived with the family of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 4th Baronet as...

 wrote the preface, and Samuel Ayscough

Samuel Ayscough

Samuel Ayscough was a librarian and indexer, known as 'The Prince of Indexers'.Ayscough was a cataloguer in the British Museum in the late 18th century, and spent two years working on a catalogue of the manuscript collection...

compiled the index.

A copy of the work is preserved among the select manuscripts in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 32118-32122), illustrated with sketches, engravings, and additions in print and manuscript. It was bequeathed by William Dash to the British Museum, where it was deposited in 1883.