Sir Frederick Bridge

Ancestry of Sir Frederick Bridge
Caricature by Spy Sir Frederick was organist of Westminster Abbey and a well-known musician and composer of various choral works, now largely forgotten. He also used to travel around the country and give public recitals, including at least one in Kent, attended by my cousin Ianthe who was taken as a child by her father. He believed that he was related to the great man, as did many others in the family, including some of Richard's descendants in the USA. Of course, it might be so but a shared surname is not evidence of a blood tie. The surname Bridge must have arisen independently on many occasions in different parts of the country. Sir Frederick wrote an autobiography A Westminster Pilgrim which tells us that he was born in Oldbury but that the family moved to Rochester in Kent when his father became a "lay reader", which means that he was employed to sing in the cathedral choir. It wasn't hard to find the census returns and marriage and birth registrations. (Note that he was baptised John Frederick and appears simply as John in the census, which only recorded first names.)
Family of John and Rebecca Bridge
date	location	record	name	description	note
20 Jun 1842	Dudley, Worcs. at the parish church	Marriage	John Bridge bachelor of full age, iron turner; son of John Bridge, grinder	& Rebecca Cox spinster of full age dau. of Joseph Cox, farmer	Tat Bank, near Oldbury Portway, parish of Rowley Regis
29 Jan 1843	Oldbury, Worcs.	Birth	Sarah Mallin Bridge	dau. of John and Rebecca
5 Dec 1844	Oldbury, Worcs.	Birth	John Frederick Bridge	son of John and Rebecca	Parsonage Place, Oldbury
16 Sep 1847	Oldbury, Worcs.	Birth	Samuel Ward Bridge	son of John and Rebecca
31 Mar 1851	Rochester Saint Margaret's, Kent Morden St.	Census	John Bridge	Head, lay clerk	29, b. Rowley Regis, Worcs.
			Rebecca Bridge	wife	31, b. Oldbury, Worcs.
			Sarah Bridge	daughter	8, b. Oldbury, Worcs.
			John Bridge	son	5, b. Oldbury, Worcs.
			Samuel Bridge	son	3, b. Oldbury, Worcs.
16 Aug 1853	Rochester, Kent	Birth	Joseph Cox Bridge	son of John and Rebecca
Joseph also made a successful career in music, being for many years organist at Chester cathedral.
This gives us Sir Fred's father and grandfather. John Bridge, born about 1818 in Rowley Regis, was the son of John Bridge senior living at Tat Bank in 1842. The next step came when I received an e-mail from Christina Hunt who had been researching her husband's Bridge ancestors, who also thought they might be related to Sir Fred. She had found a number of possible connections and in particular one family in the Oldbury area, which appeared in the 1841 census returns for Tat Bank.
Family of John and Sarah Bridge
date	location	record	name	description	note
29 Sep 1833	Christ Church, Oldbury, Shropshire	Baptism	Sarah Bridge	daughter of John and Sarah
6 Sep 1835	Christ Church, Oldbury, Shropshire	Baptism	Joseph Bridge	son of John and Sarah
7 Jun 1841	Oldbury, Worcs. Tat Bank	Census	John Bridge	Head, grinder	50, b. Worcs.
			Sarah Bridge	wife	45, b. England
			Sarah Bridge	daughter	13, b. Worcs.
			Martha Bridge	daughter	11, b. Worcs
			William Bridge	son	10, b. Worcs.
			Joseph Bridge	son	5, b. Worcs
			Edwin Bridge	son	2, b. Worcs.
22 Sep 1878	Oldbury	Death	Sarah Bridge	buried in Oldbury cemetary
1818 is about the right date for the first child of this family and it was common practice to name the first son after his father. The older children had left home by 1841 and John junior was shortly to be married. From his age in the census, John senior was born around 1790. The 1841 census only recorded the county of birth, not the parish, but clearly he was not born in Kent! Christina then received help from another correspondent who sent an extract from A History of the Black Country which had an entry for Sir Frederick (in Chap. 10, Men of the Black Country), including the information His great grandfather's ashes lie in Rowley church. (William Bridge came to Rowley 1785 died 1847.) Other members of the family... James, died 1921, was buried at Netherton. Since William did not die until 1847, his death was registered with the extra information that he was born in Staffordshire, about 1761 (from his age at death). Christina Hunt found his marriage in Halesowen, Worcestershire, followed by several baptisms, one of which seems to fit for John Bridge senior.
Family of William Bridge
date	location	record	name	description	note
8 Feb 1785	Halesowen, Worcs.	Marriage	William Bridge	& Mary Cooper
21 Aug 1785	Halesowen, Worcs.	Baptism	James Bridge	son of William
2 Nov 1788	Halesowen, Worcs.	Baptism	John Bridge	son of William	seems to have died
18 Sep 1791	Halesowen, Worcs.	Baptism	John Bridge	son of William
It is worth noting that Rowley Regis (in Staffordshire) is sandwiched between Dudley on the west and Oldbury and Halesowen on the east, these three being in Worcestershire. The villages are within easy walking distance of each other. (Today they are all suburbs of Birmingham!) So we have Sir Fred's great-grandfather William born in Staffordshire in 1761, eight years before James1 Bridge in Smarden. They could have been cousins (though it would be very hard to prove) but even so the closest relationship would be that Sir Fred was a third cousin to Frederick Bridge in Kent. A further point is that there has to be some reason why a man migrates from one locality to another. The first ever coke-fired blast furnace was built in 1709 at Coalbrookdale, 20 miles west of Rowley Regis and would have started to draw in new workers though in the early days they would have come from the surrounding villages. Just possibly some might have made the journey from Kent.