Charles Bridgeman resigned from the post of organist at All Saints’ Church in Hertford just seven months before his death in August 1873. He was then 94 years of age and had been appointed to the post in 1791 when he was just 13 years old. His 81 years of service thus marks him out as the longest serving church organist anywhere in the world. His early life was very much bound up with that of Thomas Green, who in his turn was organist at All Saints for 47 years. This article looks at the lives of these two men and considers what influence Thomas Green might have had on Charles Bridgeman’s remarkable career.
Thomas Green (1719-91)
Thomas Green was born in 1719. His father, Hannibal Green, and elder brother John were glaziers at Cheshunt, where Hannibal held a substantial property. Thomas served initially as organist at St. Mary’s, Cheshunt. Then in 1744, while he was in his mid-twenties, he came to Hertford to take up the post of organist at All Saints’ Church. His “school friend”, the Reverend William Tutty, had just been taken on as curate and afternoon lecturer, so perhaps it was he who advised Thomas of the vacancy. Thomas apparently travelled from Cheshunt for the next four years, but he then found lodgings at No. 37 West Street with Charles and Jenny Bridgeman (Charles Bridgeman’s grandparents), and remained there till his death in 1791.
Mr Bridgeman’s House, West Street, Hertford,
pen and wash [late 18th – early 19th century]
Though something of a dandy, Thomas was nevertheless aware of his own vanity and was able to laugh at it in his poetry, as can be seen here in the opening lines of his poem A Journey to Bell Bar 1772.
I dressed myself spruce in my newest array
And I thought to myself that looked very gay
My blue coat and waist coat with buttons of gold
My hat cocked so smart I forgot I was old!
My hose and my breeches were both of the best
T’would do your heart good to see how I was dresst
A pair of boot stockings I sent to from Town
Our John was so kind as to bring me ‘em down
I looked in the glass and myself did survey
And strutted about like a goldfinch in May…
He spent considerable sums of money on his hair and wigs, and on his hats, silver buckles, stockings and gloves. For the age he lived in, he was unusually fastidious about the cleanliness of his clothes and had them washed every week by a Mrs. Sommers. He was gregarious too and socialised regularly at the local watering holes. At home his diet was supplemented by such epicurean delights as Suchong and Bohea teas, bergamot pears, figs, gingerbread, salmon and oysters. Being quite well-off financially, he was able to give alms to particular town paupers at regular intervals.
His landlord, Charles Bridgeman, was a market gardener and nurseryman. Both his father and grandfather before him had followed this trade. He also claimed kinship with the renowned royal gardener, Charles Bridgeman (1690-1738), who was probably a cousin of Charles’ father (also named Charles). The latter served as Mayor and Alderman of the Borough of Hertford.
The Bridgeman household was large. Charles and Jenny had five children and when their sons Charles junior and John married, they continued to live in the family home. John and his wife Ann went on to have a total of 12 children, most of whom were born during Thomas Green’s lifetime. After Charles died in 1798 the family nursery business was carried on by his son John, and subsequently by John’s sons, Richard and Thomas, who managed to combine the business with being teachers.
The Bridgemans were all clearly entranced by their highly charismatic lodger – John would regularly run errands for him, once as far as London to fetch some “boot stockings”. And the Bridgemans’ extensive household seems, in its turn, to have suited Thomas’ gregarious nature, for he continued to live with them even after he inherited his father’s Cheshunt property. He also loaned money to the Bridgemans and to their relatives, the Wrights, and he appears to have paid for certain household requirements. In 1784, for instance, he is recorded as having bought the coals for the household, while in the following year he bought a dutch oven .
Thomas also proved to be a most avuncular figure, particularly in regard to the Bridgeman girls, Jane and Sarah. His gifts to them over the years included handkerchiefs, cotton stockings, lace, and even a flowered chintz dress and a dimity petticoat. His accounts for the 1770s and ’80s show that he took them to local theatrical events, which were usually staged in large rooms attached to the principal hostelries, such as the Bull, the Green Dragon and the White Swan. He also treated them to trips up to London for both shopping purposes and for visiting the theatres, and they would stop off at the coaching inns en-route to enjoy a spread of cross-buns, mulled wine, figs, plums, cheesecakes and coffee.
Perhaps the most remarkable indication of the rapport between landlord and lodger was the fact that, within a few years of Thomas coming to Hertford, the Bridgemans had built a concert hall on the side of their house and Thomas was “getting up” musical gatherings patronised by the local gentry. His list of patrons in 1754 included, amongst many others, the Earl and Countess Cowper, Sir Harry Hope Blount, Robert Shaftoe, Mr. Dimsdale, Lord Viscount Burleigh, George Townshend, Paggan Hale and Charles Gore. Ann Bridgeman subsequently turned the building into a Ladies’ Boarding School and Thomas served as its music master.
In these circumstances, it’s not surprising that the children of John and Ann Bridgeman should have shown such a flair for music. Four of their 12 children died in infancy but of the others, five showed exceptional musical ability. The most renowned, of course, was their son Charles, but there was also Anna Maria, appointed organist at All Saints at the age of 16; Thomas and Richard who became music teachers, Richard teaching the violin as well as drawing at Hale’s Grammar School; and Henry who became a music teacher and organist at St Andrew’s Church.
There was, however, a less attractive side to Thomas Green’s character, and that was the distinctly sour view he took of marriage as an institution. He made this very evident in his poem The Comforts of Wedlock and Poverty 1774, in which he wrote:
The man that is poor and has got a bad wife
I’m certain can have little comfort in life
For ever she’s scolding or making complaint
Her noise is enough to vex e’en a Saint
No peace can he have nor be quiet and still
Her tongue it runs on like the clack of a mill…
The poem runs on in this manner at some length. On another occasion, Thomas declared: “How justly are women compar’d to the wind/Who’re one Day so cruel, the next are so kind…”
The problem was, Thomas allowed this prejudice to affect his view of the Bridgemans and their personal relationships. At one point he complained in a letter about a certain Doctor Chandler who was pursuing Jenny (by whom he presumably meant Jane) and whom he called “the wretch”. His prejudice was made particularly evident in 1772 when John Bridgeman married Ann Davies. Thomas wrote a poem about this marriage in a letter to his cousin Val Humphries:
Our John has took to him a wife
A girl of mean & low degree
As homely as you’d wish to see
And gave his father great vexation
Because without his approbation
He told him e’er the thing was done
He ne’er would own him for a son
Nor would to him a shilling give
So long as ever he should live
Not lease one farthing in his will
But he was deaf to all advice
And went and married in a trice
Poor silly John unlucky youth
I’m sorry for the lad in truth…
There is no evidence that Charles did “cut John off”, for John and Ann settled into the family home at 37 West Street and remained there for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, since John’s wife was responsible for running the boarding school, she was presumably a woman of intelligence, and moreover she became mother to a family of extremely talented musicians.
Charles Bridgeman (1778-1873)
Charles Bridgeman, the organist, was born in 1778. He was the fourth child of John and Ann Bridgeman, and he grew up amidst the extraordinary extended family housed at 37 West Street. In addition, of course, there was the family’s exotic lodger, Thomas Green, who was 59 years old at the time of Charles’ birth. And since he was to live with the family for another 13 years, there can be little doubt that Thomas had a major influence on Charles’ development, particularly as a musician.
When Thomas died in 1791, his place as organist at All Saints’ Church was taken by Charles’ older sister, Anna Maria. She was about 16 at the time and died just a few months later. Legend has it that a distraught ghost is occasionally seen at No. 37 (on one occasion relatively recently), claiming that she died in childbirth whilst the family were downstairs at a party, but no record of any kind has yet been found to substantiate this. Anna Maria’s burial entry in the All Saints’ registers does not comment upon the cause of death. However, on 21 December 1791, seven weeks after Anna Maria’s burial, her parents presented a child for baptism, William James Alexander. They named themselves as parents and indeed that could well have been the case, since they had not yet completed their family – Henry, their youngest child, was baptised in 1793. Baby William did not survive and was buried a few weeks later on 31 January 1792. We will probably never know for certain, therefore, whose child he was.
The vicar at All Saints’ meanwhile had to find a new organist and the name of Anna Maria’s brother was put forward. Since he was at that time only 13 years of age, he must have been something of an infant prodigy. He was certainly a celebrated figure in the town, for his application for the organist’s post was accompanied by a testimonial containing 170 signatures from the parish. And nor were his talents confined to the keyboard – in fact, his preferred instrument was reported to be the violin.
Charles received a classical education at Hale’s Free Grammar School, or Doctor Carr’s School as it was more generally known during that headmaster’s reign. His skill as a musician was no doubt attributable in some degree to Thomas Green, but he also received tuition from some of the most highly renowned musicians of his day. He studied the violin with Francois Cramer and received organ lessons from Jacob Cubitt Pring, who was only eight years his senior. It’s said that Jacob Pring sometimes came to All Saints’ to play for his pupil. To receive his lessons from Jacob Pring, Charles reportedly travelled up to London each Monday morning by Carter’s Coach. His expenses were met by his uncle, John Neild, a solicitor in Castle Street, Hertford. It’s also possible that, while in London, he “stayed over” with the Wrights, the family of his Great-Aunt Mary (Fig. 1), who ran a jewellery business in the City.
By his early twenties Charles was beginning to make his mark on the musical life of the town. He did this firstly through his role as a music teacher. He became tutor to a number of private pupils and also perhaps to the young ladies of his mother’s boarding school. In 1805 he was appointed music and singing master at Christ’s Hospital. His talents also came to be of service to the local Militia, for when he joined the Force in the late 1790s, he began to write marches for the Militia Band. In 1801 he organised a concert involving celebrated musicians who travelled out from London to play and sing at Shire Hall. They included Francois Cramer, Messrs Lindley, Bartleman, Moralt and Miss Tennant. This may not have been the first concert of its kind to be held at Shire Hall, but it does mark the beginning of a long period in which many nationally known performers appeared in the town. In 1823 Charles founded the very popular Glee Society, in which three or more men sang unaccompanied. This society had a break after a few years, but was re-formed in the 1830s and went from strength to strength, with many town worthies taking part. From the 1830s onwards the local newspapers provide a much more detailed coverage of local events than was previously the case, and from these reports it’s clear that Charles was the chief music consultant and conductor of concerts in both the town and at All Saints’ Church.
For many years life at 37 West Street went on in its highly gregarious fashion, for John and Ann did not die till the mid-1820s and, of the eight children who survived infancy, only one married and left home. And in addition to the family members, there would have been the young ladies living in the adjoining boarding school.
It was John and Ann’s fifth child, Sarah, who in 1816, at the age of 36, broke away from the Bridgeman household and married Swinton Stoddart, a Militia Quartermaster and dancing teacher. He was 13 years her senior and a widower at the time of their marriage. They lived in Bengeo, where four children were born to them. Swinton then died in 1826, leaving his family in an impoverished state. Sarah tried to secure a pension from the Militia but without success.
Sarah and her children, therefore, moved back to West Street, but surprisingly she did not move into the family home. Instead, a small cottage was found for her just along the street at No. 20. Even more extraordinary, five of Sarah’s siblings left No. 37 and moved in with her – namely, Leonora, Thomas, Kitty, Richard and Henry. Perhaps they did so in order to support Sarah emotionally and financially, but if that was the reason, then it would surely have been more logical for Sarah and her children to move back into the family home. There would certainly have been sufficient room. The circumstances would indicate, therefore, that there must have been some deep rift within the family.
The remaining occupants at 37 West Street were John Bridgeman, his wife Ann and sister Jane, and his son Charles, plus their servants. John and Ann died in the mid-1820s, Jane in 1833 at the age of 85. Even then there was no change in the arrangements. In fact, for the rest of his life, Charles continued to live in the largely empty family home with just a housekeeper and gardener, while eight members of his family were crammed into a small cottage just down the street.
Charles continued to fulfil his role as private tutor and music master, organist at All Saints’ Church, and organiser of concerts in the locality. In 1840 the members of the Glee Society presented him with a Broadwood piano as a token of their esteem. A year later the young Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were guests at Panshanger, Brocket Hall and Hatfield. Charles, together with his Glee Society and musicians, were invited to perform for them. The Reformer reported that, on the day of the Queen’s visit to Panshanger, the Hertingfordbury Road was thronged with pedestrians. The Royal party arrived at 2.00pm and the Glee Society performed for them during dinner. The Queen remarked that she “could not have supposed a merely amateur corps could have acquitted themselves in so creditable a manner.” Charles also earned the praises of Prince Albert, who was himself an accomplished musician, and he was later presented with a silver gilt snuff box.* The names of the musicians who entertained the Royal party at Hatfield are given here. They were all prominent citizens of Hertford in the mid-19th century.
Charles’ musical prowess never waned as the years went by. On his 80th birthday in 1858, he played an organ solo at All Saints in the morning, and then in the evening took part in a concert held at Shire Hall, performed by his orchestra and singers. Messrs. Cummings, Lawler and Rayment performed a birthday ode, written by the poet Charles Swain and set to music by Mr. Cummings. Also in that year Charles was presented with a purse of 120 sovereigns and an illuminated testimonial, signed by a great many people. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, Charles played the organ at All Saints’ at both the morning and evening services.
Charles finally resigned from the post of organist at the end of 1872, though he was still playing the organ for visitors at his home the following July, just a few days before his death. The details of his funeral and funeral procession were naturally reported at length in the Hertfordshire Mercury of 16 August. Strangely, amongst the list of town dignitaries, friends and servants who attended the funeral, there is no mention of his two nieces, Mary Ann and Anna Maria Stoddart. They were the only members of his family who survived him and to whom he left almost his entire estate. When Anna Maria Stoddart died in 1909, the Mercury commented that she was “the last lineal descendent of the Hertford branch of the old and respected family of Bridgeman, who lived in the town for upwards of three centuries.”
Charles Bridgeman’s legacy
The musicianship displayed by the children of John and Ann Bridgeman was also seen in the next generation, for two of Sarah Stoddart’s children, Anna Maria and Charles Bridgeman Stoddart, became music teachers. Victorian Hertford would not have been the same without the rich musical legacy of the Bridgeman family. Indeed, that legacy could be said to underlie the strong musical climate still found in the town today.
The Bridgeman legacy in its turn owed much to Thomas Green. But did his jaded views on marriage also come to pervade the younger members of the household? As we have seen, there was only one marriage amongst the eight surviving children of John and Ann Bridgeman, and even in that one marriage, the three surviving children all remained single. We’ve noticed too that a rift occurred between Charles Bridgeman and his friend Thomas William Luppino, shortly after the latter married in 1813. Was it his friend’s choice of a wife – or the fact that he chose to marry in the first place – that upset Charles Bridgeman? We can only speculate.
Nonetheless, it’s an intriguing thought that, whilst Thomas Green’s presence in the Bridgeman household doubtless helped the family members to become successful musicians, it may also have unwittingly sown the seeds of the family’s extinction. If he hadn’t come to lodge at No. 37, would there still be a Bridgeman running a nursery business in West Street? Again, we can only speculate.
Sources of Reference
Printed
Sangster, E. 2003 West Street, Hertford – the first two thousand years Hertford
Sheldrick, G. (Editor) 1992 The Accounts of Thomas Green 1742-1790 Herts Record Publications
Hertfordshire 1731-1800, as recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine, Herts Publications 1993
Manuscript Collections
The family papers and manuscripts of the Bridgemans, Stoddarts and Thomas Green
Registers for All Saints, Hertford, and St Mary’s, Cheshunt
Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (D/EHxF Section)
Newspapers
Hertfordshire Mercury – articles by R.T. Andrews and news reports about Charles Bridgeman, his musical career and obituary
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