Bridge, William

BRIDGE, WILLIAM: Puritan; b. in Cambridgeshire about 1600; d. at Clapham, near London, Mar. 12, 1670. He was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and, as rector at Norwich, was silenced by Bishop Wren for nonconformity (1637), and excommunicated; he remained in Norwich, however, till the writ de excommunicato capiendo came out against him, when he fled to Holland and became pastor of the English Church at Rotterdam, succeeding Hugh Peters and associated with Jeremiah Burroughs; he returned to England in 1642 and was a member of the Westminster Assembly; was minister at Great Yarmouth till ejected in 1662, and spent the rest of his life at Clapham. He was an Independent (Congregationalist) and Calvinist, a learned man, and had a library rich in the Fathers and schoolmen. His collected works in three volumes were published at London, 1649, and, with memorial, in five volumes, 1845.