HISTORY OF BRIDPORT 133 



de Brideport, and several other times as cle Bridport and Bridport 

 without the de, appear as Members in the reigns of Edwd. II. 

 and Edwd. III. John de Brudeport also appears as Knight of the 

 Shire in the Parliaments of Edwd. III. at York in the 7th and 8th 

 years of his reign. 



Bridport was formerly one of the four places in Dorset where 

 the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace were held, Dorchester 

 not being one of them, but for many years they have been held 

 regularly at Dorchester. 



In Saxon times there were four mints in the County, of which 

 one was at Bridport. From Domesday Book we find that there 

 was in the time of Edward the Confessor one Moneyer (Monetarius), 

 or Mint Master in Bridport, paying an annual Crown rent of one 

 mark (13s. 4d.), and also 20s. on a new coinage (quando moneta 

 vertebatur). This office was continued after the Conquest, as is 

 shown by 12 coins struck at Bridport in the reign of William the 

 Conqueror and later, which were found in a large hoard at 

 Boa worth, in Hampshire, in 1833. Previously to this no example, 

 it is said, had been discovered of Bridport coins. Our late 

 respected Hon. Member, Mr. Chas. Warne, had one of the Bridport 

 coins in his collection, which has recently fetched at auction the 

 sum of 8 10s. There were also sundry tokens of tradesmen of 

 Bridport, as of so many other towns. The 3rd Edition of Hutchins 

 enumerates ten, those that are dated ranging from 1657 to 1669. 



As respects men of note belonging to Bridport I am afraid that 

 it cannot boast of many ; there is one, however, who is said to 

 have been of the good old town, Egidius de Bridport (his name is 

 otherwise given as Bridlesford and Bredelef, but Leland says of 

 him " He was caullid Britport because he was born at Britport in 

 Dorsetshir"), Bishop of Salisbury from 1256 to 1263, who is said 

 to have built much of his Cathedral, which was consecrated in 

 1258 during his occupancy of the see; and if much of the design 

 of that beautiful church is rightly attributable to him we may well 

 claim him as a man of note. Admiral Lord Bridport, who bore a 

 art in Lord Howe's celebrated victory, June 1st, 1794, and 



