See also
| Husband: | Henry BRYDGES (1708?-1771) | |
| Wife: | Mary BRUCE (1700?-1738) | |
| Children: | James BRYDGES (1731-1789) | |
| Caroline BRYDGES ( - ) | ||
| Name: | Henry BRYDGES | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | James BRYDGES (1674-1744) | |
| Mother: | Mary LAKE (1668?-1712) | |
| Birth | 1708 (app) | |
| Baptism | 1 Feb 1708 (age 0) | |
| Death | 28 Nov 1771 (age 62-63) | |
| Name: | Mary BRUCE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | - | |
| Mother: | - | |
| Birth | 1700 (app) | |
| Death | 14 Aug 1738 (age 37-38) | |
| Name: | James BRYDGES | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse 1: | Margaret NICOL ( - ) | |
| Spouse 2: | Anne Eliza GAMON ( -1813) | |
| Birth | 16 Dec 1731 | |
| Death | 29 Sep 1789 (age 57) | |
| Name: | Caroline BRYDGES | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Spouse: | James LEIGH (bap.1724, d.1774) | |
Daughter of Charles Bruce the Earl of Aylesbury
Second Duke: Henry Brydges (1708-1771)
James was succeeded by his sixth and only surviving son (by his first wife). Henry first married Mary, daughter of the Earl of Aylesbury; she died in 1738. His second marriage to Ann was unusual, even for the day. The following is taken from Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, VI, 179; 27 August, 1870 [quoted from Temple Memoirs]:
Told to me by an old lady, a native of Newbury, who was ten years old when it happened. The Duke of Chandos and a companion dined at the Pelican, Newbury, on the way to London. A stir in the Inn yard led to their being told that a man was going to sell his wife, and they are leading are up with a halter around her neck. They went to see. The Duke was smitten with her beauty and patient acquiescence in a process which would (as then supposed) free her from a harsh and ill-conditioned husband. He bought her, and subsequently married her (at Keith’s Chapel) Christmas Day, 1744. His first wife had died in 1738, but whether the same time the Duke was a widower or whether a considerable time intervened between the date of her purchase and her becoming Duchess of Chandos, does not appear.
Ann was the daughter of John Wells of Newbury and a chambermaid at the Pelican Inn, Newbury. She was married to Jeffries the Ostler of the Inn. Lord Orrery remarked of her: "Of her person & character people speak variously, but all agree that both are very bad." Ann preferred to live at Keynsham Abbey, Somerset and died in 1759, leaving a daughter, Augusta Ann.
James held many public offices, chiefly in the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales.