Thomas Bridgwater

Probably but not certainly Thomas Bridgwater (or Thomas Bridgewater) who was Chief Justice of Grenada as late as 1796. Original grantee in Tobago of Belle Garden under St Paul no. 44 (as Thos. Bridgewater), Sion Hill under St Mary nos. 7 & 8, Mount Rose under St George no. 35 (with Michael Croker under St George nos. 36 & 40), and Lot no. 52 in St John 'Present [i.e. c. 1862] Possessor unknown; ('these members [sic] are not on Byers' map'). Only in the last case did John Fowler show Thos. Bridgewater as the 'present proprietor' c. 1772. Only Belle Garden to date has been traced in the compensation records. The daughter-in-law of Thomas Bridgewater, Isabella nee Shaw or Shawe, who married Thomas's son Henry Bridgewater (who d. c. 1820) and inherited an annuity of £300 p.a. under the latter's will, later married William Hazlitt as her second husband.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9188120 and http://eap.bl.uk/downloads/eap295_2_6_1_transcription.pdf [both accessed 06/09/2016]; 'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971).

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and Eve Patterson for their assistance with compiling this entry.