“I’m so sorry, Thomas, but the evidence is clear.” said Ned, “Your brother was connected with that dishonourable rabble, but I wager he only did it for money. His loyalties to anyone or anything ebbed and flowed as the fancy took him I fear.”
“Loyalties or not, he must have been very desperate to succumb to such payments in kind.” replied Thomas, “What was he thinking of to stoop so low? He was a lawyer for God’s sake, and a damned good one at that by all accounts.”
Benjamin had become a member of the Middle Temple at the age of twenty four and a most promising career was envisaged.
For reasons known only to him he had declined the more prosperous of clients that would have ensured him status, wealth and a comfortable living. Instead, he preferred low life villains. His expertise at defending these dregs of society was admirable. He was clever to the extreme and defended them with such eloquence that their acquittals were invariably predicted.
From the outset, he made few friends in the Middle Temple, seeming to prefer the company of the countless villains he defended. These felons moreover paid him in kind, either with the illicit kind from their criminal gains or with a long night in The Dark Lad.
He was certainly not the archetypal lawyer the Middle Temple boasted and, as a result of his non-conformity, he was required to abandon the Temple’s confines, being forced to resign his honourable rank.
Evicted from the Temple, virtually penniless and at his lowest ebb, Benjamin found a close friend and companion in John Dunton.
A Huntingdonshire man, Dunton was a straight talking individual who knew his own mind and could write as graphically as he talked on the widest of subjects. He was an author, bookseller and founder of The Athenian Mercury, a most popular periodical. John knew his job, having been apprenticed at the age of fifteen to Thomas Parkhurst, bookseller of Cheapside.
The two men were of similar age, John just four years Benjamin’s senior. John encouraged the outcast to write, saying “You were born for it Benjamin. Born to write. A man of your genius should never be disregarded at any cost.”
The scallywag took him at his word, and so began his calling into the lonely and all too often impoverished world of a writer.
The initial lack of remuneration suffered by the author would certainly have culminated in unbearable hardships, had it not been for the patronage and generosity of his friend John.
The bookseller’s trade and his widely read periodicals kept many wolves from Dunton’s door. He was a shrewd businessman with good accounting sense and a man of some means who never once refused his friend a charitable hand-out from his profits.
Dunton's unfailing belief in his prodigal son’s talents were amply rewarded when in 1691 the book entitled ‘Religio Bibliopolae’ by Benjamin Bridgewater was first published, with the aid of substantial funding from John. A great number of volumes were printed and all were sold at the sign of the Raven. The book’s successes earned the bookseller and it’s author each a tidy sum, allowing Benjamin unrestrained financial freedom and, for a short period, he had wealth enough to live the life of a Gentleman, renting a respectable lodging near to Drury Lane, within easy reach of the Theatre Royal, where he was a regular patron. His newfound wealth not only endorsed access to the finest seats in the house but also provided a perquisite to the actresses’ exclusive favours, reserved only for them that could pay.
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An Apology for the Life of Benjamin Bridgewater (1663-1700) #Wattys2014
Short Story"His genius was very rich, and ran much upon poetry, in which he excelled. But alas! In the issue. Wine and Love were the ruin of this ingenious Gentleman." John Dunton (1659 - 1733) English bookseller and author, writing of Benjamin Bridgewater. I...
