Rev Charles BRIDGES [1635]

  General Notes:

Woburn vicarage was the first home of Charles and Harriet Bridges, who had recently married and settled there.

Rev Charles Bridges:
Hell, in short, was nearer than Heaven. With such spiritual dangers ever near the devil golng about as a roaring lion material gain or comfort counted for little. It was not the grinding poverty, the low wages, the wretched housing of the Suffolk labourer that impelled Charles Bridges, It was to save their souls that he journeyed up and down the country-side as a preacher, a deputation for religious societies, jogging along the narrow lanes in a pony-chaise drawn by an old white horse known as the Old Newton monster, his wife reading aloud to him as he drove, a scene of clerical life that we shall not see again. The Saints protected the other-worldly and absentminded couple, for we hear of no accidents. Five children were born to them at Old Newton; Harriet, a child of great promise. who died in early childhood, Charles Hayne, John Henry, Anna Maria, Maria, and Edward Torlesse.
John Henry the second son, born on October 11th 1832, the year of the Reform bill. Party feeling ran high; storm clouds lowered over Europe, but few echoes of the outside world penetrated to the quiet Suffolk vicaage where, to Charles Bridges, life was only to be lived with reference to eternity, and his wife, pleased though she was to think that her husband's devotional treatises were the favourite reading of good Queen Adelaide, was absorbed in the souls and bodies of her children and parishioners.
Ref: Extract from "A 19th Century Teacher: John Henry Bridges" by Susan Liveing 1926

Charles Bridges. College: QUEENS. Entered: Michs. 1812 Born: 24 Mar 1794. Adm. pens. at QUEENS, Apr. 11, 1812. Of Northants. [4th s. of John, of Maldon, Essex. B. Mar. 24, 1794.] Matric. Michs. 1812; B.A. 1818; M.A. 1831. Ord. deacon (Norwich) Nov. 16, 1817; priest (London) Dec. 20, 1818. R. of Old Newton, Suffolk, 1823-49; Rural Dean. R. of Melcombe Regis, Dorset, 1849-56. R. of Hinton Martel, 1856-69. A prominent evangelical divine. Married Harriett, dau. of John Torlesse, Esq., Apr. 25, 1821, at Ipswich. Author, religious. Died Apr. 2, 1869, aged 75, at Hinton Martell. Brother of Nathaniel (1812). (Hutchins, II. 459; Foster, Baronetage, 1883; D.N.B.)
Ref: Cambridge University Alumni. Venn, J. A.

Ecclesiastical Preferments.
The Rev Charles Bridges BA to the vicarage of Old Newton, Suffolk on the presentation of Mrs Anna Maria Torlesse of Ipswich.
Ref: Jackson's Oxford Journal 4 October 1823.

Exposition of the Book of Proverbs.
By the Rev Charles Bridges MA of Old Newton, Suffolk 1849 - 536 pages
https://archive.org/details/worksofrevcharle01brid

In 1849, he became vicar of Weymouth, Dorset, later serving as vicar of Hinton Martell, Dorset (c.1857). Bridges participated (with J. C. Ryle) in the Clerical Conference at Weston-super-Mare of 1858.

The Christian Ministry; With an Inquiry into the Causes of its Innefficiency.
By the Rev Charles Bridges AM. 1850 - 400 pages.
http://www.onthewing.org/user/Bridges_Chas%20-%20The%20Christian%20Ministry%20-%20Modern.pdf

  Research Notes:

Image by Samuel Lawrence.

  Other Records

1. Rev Charles Bridges: Letter to his neice Frances Jane (Fanny) Torlesse, c 184's.
Liveing Archive 176 a-c LT14

To Miss F J T
184 something (in another hand)
My Dear Fanny
I am glad to redeem my promise of writing to you - I do not write - so far as I am concerned - to have one atom of shyness or reserve between us, and am thankful that God has given you as one of us, and as a true comfort and help in the dear family where he has so mercifully placed you. It is a great blessing to you to be in the midst of many advantages, the diligent improvement of which will constitute your solid and permanent happiness. The discipline of our will, the improvement of the mind, the fruitful occupation of the time, and first and above all, the consecration of the heart, all this in the substance of usefulness, and furnishes the material for honouring our Lord in his service. An orderly mind - where everything finds its own proper place - is of immense moment. And not less important is the presentation of good order in the heart - care that comes first that ought to come first, that the throne be reserved for the sovereign of the heart, and that other legitimate interests occupy the second not the first place - I was struck with the dying words to a Christian minister - only standing by mind that Christ has the first place in the heart. And truly if he has not the throne, it is as if he were cast out, I would try and pray that every day he may be first in time - that I may be with him in the morning, before I get into the world - and first in love that he may never have less than my whole heart. Truly he deserves all - he claims all, and our happiness will be when he has all - be jealous of his throne, as you would be of Victoria's. You would not you would not like to see an ursurper on hers. Take care that you do not allow one on your own. If we would love him so as to acknowledge his just claim, we must fill our deep obligations - when this is with little sense of joyousness, there will be but little love. But we are taught to feel the deep and awful reality of our total ruin, our deliverance by such an infinite cold will make the stone feel and the fire Kindle. Thus - nothing short, is real religion such as in the spring of happiness, because it is a religion of love and thankfulness.
I cease not to desire that you may be brought to this full enjoyment of this blessedness, that you may not be content with serious external religion - but press onward in earnest prayer for vital heart felt love, love of your Bible - love of prayer - love of the Saviour.
I think of you with true interest - we remember your visit here, and hope if the Lord will to welcome you here again - I was sorry to hear an indifferent account of your health, and hope that a little change will set all right - take care of yourself, and we shall hear better things of you. Meanwhile that our loving father may enrich you with every blessing for body and soul - for time and eternity - in the earnest desire of your affectionate Uncle
C Bridges

2. Census: England, 30 Mar 1851, Melcombe Regis Dorset. Charles is recorded as head of house married aged 57 Rector of Melcombe Regis born Northampton

3. Census: England, 8 Apr 1861, Hinton Martell DOR. Charles is recorded as head of family married aged 67 rector of Hinton Martell born Northampton Northamptonshire.

Charles married Harriet TORLESSE [1634] [MRIN: 534], daughter of John TORLESSE [1627] and Anna Maria ROBINSON [1628], on 25 Apr 1821 in St Clements Ipswich. (Harriet TORLESSE [1634] was born on 13 Feb 1797 in Queens Sq LND and died on 26 Nov 1878 in Stoke By Nayland SFK.)