Brydges

Brydges, Sir Samuel Egerton (1762-1837), an English antiquary and general man of letters. He was born at Wootton House, in Kent, and was educated at Maidstone, Canterbury, and Queen's College, Cambridge, and was called to the bar, but devoted himself chiefly to literature. He raised an unsuccessful claim (or rather persuaded his brother to do so) to the barony of Chandos, but in 1814 he received a baronetcy. He sat for six years in Parliament for the borough of Maidstone, but in 1818 he went abroad and spent most of the rest of his life there, dying eventually at Geneva. He was a voluminous writer, publishing both novels and poetry, and he also did more useful work as an editor, bringing out, among other things, some small editions of rare Elizabethan works, and a Censura Literaria of old English books, with other works of antiquarian interest. He also published an autobiography.