ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxi 



jeet to the British crown. He was the eldest son of George Brack- 

 enridge of Winash, Brislington, who was a Scotchman by descent, 

 though born at Bristol, where his family had recently settled, and 

 of Sarah, youngest daughter of Erancis Jerdone, Esq., of Louisa 

 County, Virginia, and formerly of Jedburgh, N.B. The father of 

 Mr. Brackenridge had settled in America as a planter and merchant ; 

 but, entertaining conscientious scruples on the principles and pro- 

 priety of the American revolution, he returned to England, and 

 placed his son at the school of Dr. Estlrn, at Bristol, where he was 

 initiated in the mysteries of commercial pursuits, and became ulti- 

 mately the senior partner in a leading and long-established West 

 India firm. As a man of business he was characterized by high 

 principles of honour and integrity, and by habits of accuracy and 

 punctuality. He exhibited at an early age a taste for science and 

 literature, and in spite of the demands of commerce upon his time, 

 gendered more absorbing by the distractions of the revolutionary war, 

 he found leisure for inquiries into mediaeval antiquity and more than 

 one branch of natural history. He formed a good collection of the 

 Coleoptera ; and his cabinet of organic remains, which in the early 

 days of geological science was of much repute, is still of value for its 

 specimens of fossils connected with the strata of the West of England. 

 He was very accurate in his examination of fossils, and brought under 

 the notice of Mr. Sowerby a specimen of Ammonite, remarkable for 

 the striking and peculiar form of the lip, which was found at 

 Hundry, near Bristol. Before arriving at his fiftieth year, Mr. Brack- 

 enridge abandoned his commercial pursuits, and purchased the resi- 

 dence of Brislington. He had before, like many of our leading men 

 of science, found it possible to exercise the faculties of his mind 

 during many a leisure moment on objects of more stirring interest 

 than the dry details of business ; but he now gave himself up to the 

 full gratification of his refined tastes, collecting much more largely 

 than he had done before, fitting up his library in the Tudor style, 

 and enriching it with richly- cut furniture, and with fine specimens 

 of stained glass. As an antiquary, he devoted much attention to the 

 investigation of the architectural features of Bristol, that picturesque 

 old city, where he had passed so much of his early life, and to the 

 preservation of many of its ancient relics. 



He assisted most liberally in procuring the best illustrations for 

 ' Collinson's History of Somersetshire,' which work must therefore be 

 looked upon as bearing testimony to his love of topographical research. 



Having for the last twenty years of his life spent the summer and 

 autumn at Clevedon on the Bristol Channel, he liberally promoted 

 the building of a new church on Clevedon Hill, contributing the 

 greater portion of the building-fund, and adding a permanent endow- 

 ment: his son was appointed its first minister in 1839, when the 

 church was consecrated. Though, from his retired and domestic 

 habits, he was not generally known in his neighbourhood, he was 

 valued by those who did know him for the kindliness of his dispo- 

 sition, his great powers of conversation, and the many sterling 

 qualities of his character. He married, Nov. 11, 1800, Mary, young- 

 est daughter of Eobert Burt, Esq., of Bristol, and of Tracy Park, 



