George Weare Braikenridge

Merchant and antiquarian.

Son of George Braikenridge (1738-1827), a planter and merchant in Hanover County Virginia from a Brislington (near Bristol) family), and a West India merchant in Bristol.

1.  George Weare Braikenridge was born in Virginia 4 January 1775, but sent to England at an early age.  His father returned by 1795, when he was in business with his kinsman Weare as Dry Salters in Temple Street (the firm was known as George Braikenridge & Son 1797).  In 1802, George senior retired and by 1806 the firm was called Braikenridge & Honnywill, merchants at 21 Queen Square (it moved to the Back in 1810 and G. W. Braikenridge lived in the Queen Square house). George Weare Braikenidge retired 1820, aged 46, and bought Broomwell House, Brislington in 1823. Antiquarian and collector, formed what is now the Braikenridge Collection of artists' drawings of Bristol largely made in the 1820s;  in the 1840s he launched a similar project for Somerset (now in the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Musem at Taunton.)

2. West India merchant in Bristol ("senior partner in a leading and long-established West India firm"), formerly of Bristol then of Broomwell House, Brisling [sic] Somerset [sic]. Married in 1800 to Mary Bush (d. 1855), the daughter of Robert Bush of Tracy Park Gloucestershire. Built an Anglican church at Clevedon Hill.

3. According to Port Cities Bristol, Braikenridge also had property in Nevis, probably the Shaws estate for which his cousin, William Weare [q.v. ID: 25187], received compensation. See Nevis claim no. 111. The estate had belonged to a William Lawrence, who owed £7000 to Robert Claxton and Son. He paid the debt by granting the estate to the Claxtons until he could pay the money. Claxton passed estate to William Weare of Abbots Leigh, Bristol, to pay off £10,000 loan which he owed to Weare. It was then inherited from Weare by George Weare Braikenridge in 1836. G. W. Braikenridge had been the mortgagee of the estate in 1818. The deeds also include copies of a number in indentures at different dates and information about 45 acres of land bought from the Pinney family.

4. The Hale Bequest held by Bristol Record Office includes material from the Braikenridge family.

1. The Braikenridge Collection is at the City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery: http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/narratives.php?irn=3066; the most useful account of Braikenridge and his collections is Sheena Stoddard, Mr Braikenridge's Brislington (Bristol, City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, 1981). See also some notes on him at http://museums.bristol.gov.uk/narratives.php?irn=3401, which is also the source of the portrait of him.

2. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 (MS) reference 1856/6, citing Gentleman's Magazine (1856) p. 531.

3. http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/browse/slavery/category/manuscripts-books-ephemera/P1470/ [accessed 10/08/2012].

4. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/A2A/records.aspx?cat=002-14182&cid=-1#-1. On the Bristol Council 'Know Your Place' map there is a layer which plots the drawings which he commissioned across Bristol, see http://maps.bristol.gov.uk/kyp/?edition= [accessed 26/03/2020].

We are grateful to Ruth Hecht for her assistance with compiling this entry.