An Apology for the Life of Benjamin Bridgewater (1663-1700) #Wattys2014

Part Seventeen: An Ancient Line of Bridgewaters

The child’s father, Ben, had been born of an ancient line of Bridgewaters with their roots deep in the fertile soil of Berkshire. He had been christened Benjamin in the old church of St. Mary’s in the village of Sulhampstead Abbots, during the month of August 1633.

Ben was the fourteenth child of fifteen born to Thomas and Mary, who were married on the Twentieth of February 1608 at Kingsclere in the county of Hampshire, the parish of the bride.

The Bridgewaters were well respected in Sulhampstead, where a close-knit community helped one another in lean times and celebrated together in good.

As a young man of twenty-four, Ben's father, Thomas, had been honoured as Overseer to the will of his good friend Henry Eales who had fallen perilously ill in January 1609 and who, poor fellow, died and was buried soon after in the old church. Thomas took to heart the loss of his friend and mourned him greatly. But, as needs must, he put aside his personal grief to help Henry’s poor widow and her family. This he did to the best of his ability, given his own heavy workload. Anon, the widow’s eldest son with his wife and two children became residents of Sulhampstead, with the son now managing his late father’s duties on the farm. This was a welcome support; not only for the widow but for Thomas and Mary too whose own labours were enough for four.

By November of that year, Thomas and Mary were blessed with the birth of their first son, Thomas. The small church of St. Mary’s was brimming with family and friends celebrating the christening of this first born, the first of many.

Of their offspring, twelve were boys all who, by the grace of God, survived the first perilous years of infancy and lived on into adulthood. For so many newborn infants in a single family to survive was frankly remarkable. Even their twins, Richard and Joseph, against all odds, survived the most hazardous of births and were christened on the last day of September 1616.

On the sad side of the coin though, there was Elizabeth, their second child and the first of their two daughters. She was a sweet, loving child but a constant anguish for her parents. Born a weak and sickly girl, after Mary’s protracted and agonising labour, the brave infant endured fifteen months of painful torment. When so ill and feeble, God intervened and mercifully released Elizabeth from her agonies.

Ben, from the first, was a bright and gifted boy and noticeably outshone his siblings. His parents, after much agonizing decided, though somewhat reluctantly, that a life on the land, as was his brothers’ lot, was clearly not for him. And so, they had agreed that a good education would without doubt be most advantageous to Ben, albeit a huge financial commitment for them.

As simple farming folk, toiling on the land and the keeping of livestock didn’t by any means reap much financial gain. Nevertheless, their labours achieved an income adequate for the necessities of family life, and during good harvests, of which lately there were many, they were able to put by a tidy sum for the holydays of Christmas and other calendar festivities. Financially, there were now only six children to care for; the other seven, including the young twelve-year-old James, had left to work on the land. All seven were apprenticed with prosperous landowners of Berkshire, with the eldest two now tenants in their own right.