Pronouncing Dictionary of Difficult Words,' London [1882], 8vo. 8. 'A Dictionary of Miracles, Imitative, Realistic, and Dogmatic,' London, 1884, 8vo. 9. 'The Historic Note-book, with, an Appendix of Battles,' London, 1891, 8vo.
[Men of the Time, 1884; Times, 8 March 1897, p. 11, col. 6; Ann. Reg. 1897, Chron. p. 147.]
BRIDGE, Sir JOHN (1824–1900), police magistrate, only son of John H. Bridge of Finchley, Middlesex, was born on 21 April 1824. At Oxford, where he matriculated from Trinity College on 10 March 1842, he graduated B.A. (first class in mathematics) in 1846, and proceeded M.A. in 1849. On 10 April 1844 he was admitted student at the Inner Temple, and was there called to the bar on 25 Jan. 1850. He practised with some success on the home circuit, but in 1872 accepted the post of police magistrate at Hammersmith, where, as afterwards at Westminster (1880-1) and Southwark (1882-1886), he discharged the laborious duties of subordinate office with singular conscientiousness and discretion. Removed to Bow Street in 1887 he succeeded Sir James Ingham in 1890 as chief metropolitan magistrate, being at the same time knighted. During his tenure of this office he committed for trial several offenders whose names are well known to the public, among them Oscar Wilde (5 April 1895), Jabez Balfour, the fraudulent director of the Liberator Building Society, on his extradition by the Argentine Republic (16 April 1895), and Dr. Jameson and his associates in the Transvaal raid (15 June 1896). In the exercise of his summary jurisdiction he well knew how to temper justice with mercy. Few British magistrates have more happily combined dignity and firmness with judicious and unobtrusive benevolence. He retired from the bench early in 1900, and on 20 April in the same year died at his residence in Inverness Terrace, London, W. His remains were interred in the churchyard at Hedley, Surrey, in which parish his seat was situate. He married in 1857 his cousin, Ada Louisa, daughter of George Bridge of Merton, Surrey; she died on 1 March 1901.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, and Men at the Bar; Oxford Honours Register; Royal Kalendars, 1872, 1880, 1882, 1891; Ann. Reg, 1894 ii. 5, 1895 ii. 19, 25, 1896 ii. 33; Times, 28 April 1900; Law Times. 5 May 1900.]
BRIDGETT, THOMAS EDWARD (1829–1899), Roman catholic priest and historical writer, third son of Joseph' Bridgett, a silk manufacturer of Colney Hatch, and his wife Mary (born Gregson), was born at Derby on 20 Jan. 1829. His parents were baptists, and Bridgett was educated first at Mill Hill school and then at Nottingham; but in 1848 he was admitted to Tunbridge School, and on 20 March 1845 was baptised into the church of England. He was in the sixth form at Tunbridge from 1845 to 1847, proceeding thence as Smythe exhibitioner to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted pensioner on 23 Feb. 1847. He intended taking orders in the Anglican church, but in 1850 he refused to take the oath of supremacy necessary before graduation, and was received into the Roman catholic church by Father Stanton at the Brompton Oratory. For six years he studied on the continent; he joined the Redemptorist Order, and in 1856 was ordained priest. Mission work is the chief function of the order, and as a missionary Bridgett was very successful. In 1868 he founded the Confraternity of the Holy Family attached to the Redemptorist church at Limerick.
Bridgett, however, found time for a good deal of literary and historical work, and produced several books of value, dealing mainly with the history of the Reformation. His earliest work was 'The Ritual of the New Testament,' 1873, 8vo. In 1875 he published 'Our Lady's Dowry,' which reached a third edition in 1890. His largest work was his 'History of the Holy Eucharist in Great Britain,' 1881, 2 vols. 8vo. In 1888 he published a 'Life of Blessed John Fisher' (2nd edit. 1890); in 1889 'The True Story of the Catholic Hierarchy deposed by Queen Elizabeth;' and in 1891 'The Life and Writings of Sir Thomas More.' He also edited the 'Sermons' (1876) of Bishop Thomas Watson (1513–1584) [q. v.]; 'Lyra Hieratica. Poems on the Priesthood,' 1896; and wrote 'The Discipline of Drink; an historical inquiry into the principles and practice of the Catholic Church regarding the use, abuse, and disuse of alcoholic liquors,' 1876, 'Historical Notes on Adare,' Dublin, 1885, 8vo, and 'Sonnets and Epigrams on Sacred Subjects,' London, 1898, 8vo. He died of cancer at the monastery of St. Mary's, Clapham, on 17 Feb. 1899, and was buried on the 21st in the Roman catholic cemetery at Mortlake. His youngest brother, Ronald, for many years consul at Buenos Ayres, died the day before him.
[The Eagle, xx. 577-84; Times, 20 Feb. 1899; Tablet, 25 Feb. 1899; Hughes-Hughes's Reg. of Tunbridge School, 1820-93, p. 61 Bridgett's Works in Brit. Mus. Libr.; information from R. F. Scott, esq., St. John's College, Cambridge.]
