Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 / "Brescia" to "Bulgaria"

BRIDGEWATER, FRANCIS HENRY EGERTON, 8th Earl of (1756-1829), was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and became fellow of All Souls in 1780, and F.R.S. in 1781. He held the rectories of Middle and Whitchurch in Shropshire, but the duties were performed by a proxy. He succeeded his brother (see above) in the earldom in 1823, and spent the latter part of his life in Paris. He was a fair scholar, and a zealous naturalist and antiquarian. When he died in February 1829 the earldom became extinct. He bequeathed to the British Museum the valuable Egerton MSS. dealing with the literature of France and Italy, and also £12,000. He also left £8000 at the disposal of the president of the Royal Society, to be paid to the author or authors who might be selected to write and publish 1000 copies of a treatise "On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation." Mr Davies Gilbert, who then filled the office, selected eight persons, each to undertake a branch of this subject, and each to receive £1000 as his reward, together with any benefit that might accrue from the sale of his work, according to the will of the testator.

The Bridgewater treatises were published as follows:?1. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Condition of Man, by Thomas Chalmers, D.D. 2. The Adaptation of External Nature to the Physical Condition of Man, by John Kidd, M.D. 3. Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology, by William Whewell, D.D. 4. The Hand, its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as evincing Design, by Sir Charles Bell. 5. Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to Natural Theology, by Peter Mark Roget. 6. Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, by William Buckland, D.D. 7. The Habits and Instincts of Animals with reference to Natural Theology, by William Kirby. 8. Chemistry, Meteorology, and the Function of Digestion, considered with reference to Natural Theology, by William Prout, M.D. The works are of unequal merit; several of them took a high rank in apologetic literature. They first appeared during the years 1833 to 1840, and afterwards in Bohn's Scientific Library.

BRIDGITTINES, an order of Augustinian canonesses founded by St Bridget of Sweden (q.v.) c. 1350, and approved by Urban V. in 1370. It was a "double order," each convent having attached to it a small community of canons to act as chaplains, but under the government of the abbess. The order spread widely in Sweden and Norway, and played a remarkable part in promoting culture and literature in Scandinavia; to this is to be attributed the fact that the head house at Vastein, by Lake Vetter, was not suppressed till 1595. There were houses also in other lands, so that the total number amounted to 80. In England, the famous Bridgittine convent of Syon at Isleworth, Middlesex, was founded and royally endowed by Henry V. in 1415, and became one of the richest and most fashionable and influential nunneries in the country. It was among the few religious houses restored in Mary's reign, when nearly twenty of the old community were re-established at Syon. On Elizabeth's accession they migrated to the Low Countries, and thence, after many vicissitudes, to Rouen, and finally in 1594 to Lisbon. Here they remained, always recruiting their numbers from England, till 1861, when they returned to England. Syon House is now established at Chudleigh in Devon, the only English community that can boast an unbroken conventual existence since pre-Reformation times. Some six other Bridgittine convents exist on the Continent, but the order is now composed only of women.

See Helyot, Histoire des ordres religieux (1715), iv. c. 4; Max Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (1907), ii. § 83; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie (ed. 3), art. "Birgitta"; A. Hamilton in Dublin Review, 1888, "The Nuns of Syon."

(E. C. B.)