Resources

Overview

The following documents mention Joseph Bridgers or his family.  Some of the recorded information may be either incorrect or superseded by later research.  Without written records, the dates of birth, marriage, and death are often conjecture.  The Bridger Family Association does not vouch for the accuracy of any of this information.

1. Brayton, John A. Colonial Families of Surry and Isle of Wight Counties, Virginia, Volume 10.  Bridger of Godalming, Surrey; Slimbridge, Gloucestershire; and Virginia.  Baltimore: Clearfield Company. 2009.
2. Brayton, John A. Colonial Families of Surry and Isle of Wight Counties, Virginia, Volume 7.  The Pitt Family of Bristol, Gloucester; Charlestown, Massachusetts; and Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Jackson: Cain Lithographers, Inc.. 2002.
3. Boddie, John Bennett. Seventeenth Century Isle of Wight County, Virginia: A History of the County of Isle of Wight, Virginia, During the Seventeenth Century, Including Abstracts of the County Records. Originally published 1938.  Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 1993.
4. Boddie, John Bennett.  Southside Virginia Families, Vol. 1. Pacific Coast Publishers, Redwood City, California, 1955. (Has a chapter “Pitt of Isle of Wight and Louisiana” and some Bridger mentions.)
5. Linda Bridgers Boyette and Doris Bridgers Capps-Owens. Bridger Family Chronicles From The Old Word to the New, Vol.1.  Self-published. 2011.
6. Linda Bridgers Boyette and Doris Bridgers Capps-Owens. Bridger Family Chronicles From The Old Word to the New, Vol.1I.  Self-published. 2016.
   Authors’ comment:  After 10 years of research, compiling and editing, we are pleased to share Bridger Family Chronicles, From the Old World to the New with our cousins, educators, and other researchers. Both books have now been revised in a second edition.  Volume I is a genealogical book beginning with Henry Brygger (1480) Godalming, Surrey County, England which includes twenty generations down to the present. Family surnames are Brygger, Brydgere, Bridger,… More > Bridgers and Bridges. The book contains 800 pages of maps, a timeline, a gazetteer, wills, deeds, census records, tax lists, birth certificates, marriage records, death certificates and a 654-page genealogical report on 6,500 individuals.  Volume II (796 pages) connects 27 additional families to Volume I. These families are direct descendants of Henry Brygger (1480) and connect to families already in Volume I. Along with the 455… More > pages of new genealogical reports, the book contains sections that include information on descendants from Volume I and II. The following sections are included: Additions to Volume I, a Family Picture Gallery and a Family Architectural Gallery, Deeds, Wills, Family Bibles, Remembering the Military of American Wars, Memorial Tributes, and Gleanings. The two volumes contain information on 9,404 individuals with 6,350 direct descendants of Henry Brygger.  You may contact us at dcappsowens@gmail.com to see if your family is in our books. The books can be purchased at this website: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/Bridger.
7. Dozier, Rebecca Leach. Twelve Northampton County, North Carolina Families, 1650-1850. Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc. 2004.
8. Bannerman, W. Bruce, ed.  The Visitations of the County of Surrey 1530, 1572, 1623.  London. 1899
9. Jackson, Barbara Dunn. A Bridger Family Album. 2009.  (Not available to view online.)
10. Jackson, Carolyn Lee Bridgers.  The Bridgers and Lee Families and Their Many Relatives.  Tennessee Valley Publishing, 1997.  (Not available to view online; available in Wilson County, NC Public Library)
11. Malden, Henry C. ed.  The Parish Registers of Godalming, Surrey, 1582-1688, Vols. I, II, III.  London, 1904.
12. Manning, Owen and Bray, William.  The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Volume 1. 1804.
13. Manning, Owen and Bray, William.  The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Volume 2. 1804.
14. Manning, Owen and Bray, William.  The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Volume 3. 1804. (Not available to view online.)
15. Aubrey, John.  The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Volume IV. London: E. Curll. 1718.
16. Nugent, Nell Marion.  Cavaliers and Pioneers, Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1800 In Five Volumes.  Richmond, Va.: Press of the Dietz Printing Co., 1934.  767 pages. 
17. Tyler, Lyon G., editor. William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, Vol. VII, April 1899, No. 4, Isle of Wight County Records. Richmond, 1894.
18. Turner, J. Kelly and John Luther Bridgers, Jr. History of Edgecombe County, North Carolina.  Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1920. 486 p.
19. William and Mary College Historical Quarterly Magazine, Vol. VII, No. 4, April 1899. Pages 205-315.
20. Isle of Wight County Records. (YouTube video)
21. Berry, William. County Genealogies Pedigrees of Surrey Families.  London. 1837.
22. Chitty, Henry and John Phillipot. The Visitation of the County of Gloucester Taken in the Year 1623. London: 1885.
23. Isle of Wight Genealogy

The following is a list of family wills and where copies may be viewed:

1521 – Henry Brygger
1602 – Margery Bridger (wife of Richard Bridger who died intestate)
1631 – Lawrence Bridger
1650 – Samuel Bridger
Brayton, John A. Colonial Families of Surry and Isle of Wight Counties, Virginia, Volume 10. Bridger of Godalming, Surrey; Slimbridge, Gloucestershire; and Virginia. Baltimore: Clearfield Company. 2009.
Linda Bridgers Boyette and Doris Bridgers Capps-Owens. Bridger Family Chronicles From The Old Word to the New, Vol.1. Self-published. 2011.

1683 – Joseph Bridger
1713 – Joseph Bridger, Jr.
1727 – Elizabeth Norsworthy Bridger
1729 – Willam Bridgers, Jr.
1730 – Willam Bridgers, Sr.
1764 – John Bridgers
1795 – Briton Bridgers
Linda Bridgers Boyette and Doris Bridgers Capps-Owens. Bridger Family Chronicles From The Old Word to the New, Vol.1. Self-published. 2011.

Former Board Member Betty Bridgers Cullen wrote Taking Stock  about how our ancestors’ wills reveal so much information about their lives and relationships.

The following publications may be useful in your historical research.  Some of the recorded information may be incorrect, conjecture, or superseded by later research.  The Bridger Family Association does not vouch for the accuracy of any of this information.

1. Carrell II, William P. The Landed and Personal Estate of Gen. Joseph Bridger. Louisville, KY: W.P. Carrell II, Second Edition, 2007.
2. Parker, Elmer Oris. The King’s Henchman Virginia Cavalcade Magazine. Vol. 7, Summer 1957, No. 1. P 34-37.
3. Bruce, Philip Alexander.  Institutional History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. II. Pages 22, 24, 93.  New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1910.
4. Bruce, Philip Alexander.  Social Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond: 1907.
5. Smyth, John.  The Berkeley Manuscripts: A Description of the Hundred of Berkeley in the County of Gloucester and of Its Inhabitants. Vol. III.  Gloucester: John Bellows. 1885.
6. Aubrey, John. The Natural History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Vol. IV, Begun in the Year 1673. Published 1718.
7. Wertenbaker, Thomas.  The Planters of Colonial Virginia. Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 1922.
8. Tyler, Lyon Gardiner.  Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol 1. New York:  Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915.
9. McIlwaine, Henry Read, editor.  Legislative Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, Volume 1.  Richmond: 1918.  (Pages 15, 19, 20, 22, 23, 28, 30, 35) (Available through Family Search.org; account required).
10. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 2, No. 4, Apr. 1895, pp 380-392.
11. Bottoms, Emmett Edward, Seventeenth Century Settlement of the Nansemond River in Virginia, a Master of Arts History Thesis, Old Dominion University, May 1983, pp 42-43.
12. Jester, Annie Lash.  Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. Jamestown 350th Anniversary Historical Booklet Number 17. Williamsburg. 1957.
13. “The Cavalier Emigration.”  The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine. Vol. 6. No. 2 (Oct., 1897) pp. 89-90.
14. Fischer, David Hackett.  Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America.  New York: Oxford University Press.  1989.
15. Winborne, Benjamin B. The Colonial and State Political History of Hertford County, N.C. Edwards & Broughton. 1906.
16. Nugent, Nell M.  Cavaliers and Pioneers, A Calendar of Virginia Land Grants, 1623-1800, Vol. 1, No.1. Richmond: undated.
17. Thomas, R. S. “The Old Brick Church, Smithfield, Virginia, built in 1632,” in Proceedings of the Virginia Historical Society at the Annual Meeting held December 21-22, 1891. Richmond: 1892. Pages 127-162.
18. Horn, James. Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake. University of North Carolina Press: 1994.
19. Rudder, Samuel.  A New History of Gloucestershire, originally published 1779. Republished 1977 by Alan Sutton in collaboration with Gloucestershire County Library.
20. Latimer, John. The History of the Society of Merchant Venturers of the City of Bristol.  Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith. 1903.
21. McGrath, Patrick, editor.  Records Relating to the Society of Merchant Venturers of the City of Bristol in the Seventeenth Century. Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd. 1952.
22. Merchants and Merchandise in Seventeenth-Century Bristol, Vol XIX, edited by Patrick McGrath. Bristol Record Society, 1955.
23. McGrath, Patrick.  The Merchant Venturers of Bristol.  Bristol: Western Printing Services Ltd. 1975.
24. Malden, H.E.  The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Volume One. Westminster: Archibald and Company Limited. 1902.
25. Malden, H.E.  The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Volume Two. Westminster: Archibald and Company Limited. 1905.
26. Malden, H.E.  The Victoria History of the County of Surrey, Volume Three. Westminster: Archibald and Company Limited. 19xx.
27. Chitting, Henry, and John Phillipot.  The Visitation of the County of Gloucester, Taken in the Year 1623.  London. 1885.
28. Joyner, Ulysses P., Jr. From the Pagan to the Nottoway: the Occupation of the Land by the Europeans 1607-1800. Northampton, MA: Tiger Press. 2008.
29. Isle of Wight Patents and Land Grants, 1628-1674
30. Yonge, Samuel H. “The Site of Old ‘James Towne,’ 1607-1698.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 11, no. 3, 1904, pp. 257–76. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4242615. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
31. Yonge, Samuel H. “The Site of Old ‘James Towne,’ 1607-1698 (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 11, no. 4, 1904, pp. 393–414. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4242633. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
32. Yonge, Samuel H. “The Site of Old ‘James Towne,’ 1607-1698 (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 12, no. 1, 1904, pp. 33–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4242652. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
33. Yonge, Samuel H. “The Site of Old ‘James Towne,’ 1607-1698 (Continued).” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 12, no. 2, 1904, pp. 113–133. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4242662. Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.
34. Carpenter, E.W. Slimbridge and an American Connection.  The Regional Historian, University of the West of England, Bristol, Issue No 9, Summer 2002. pp. 13-17.
35. The Surrey Record Society.  Volume III. Surrey Musters.  London: Roworth & Company Ltd. 1919.
36. McCartney, Martha W. Jamestown Archaeological Assessment 1992-1996, Documentary History of Jamestown Island, Volume I: Narrative History.  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  Williamsburg, 2000.
37. McCartney, Martha W. Jamestown Archaeological Assessment 1992-1996, Documentary History of Jamestown Island, Volume II: Land Ownership.  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  Williamsburg, 2000.
38. McCartney, Martha W. Jamestown Archaeological Assessment 1992-1996, Documentary History of Jamestown Island, Volume III, Biographies of Owners and Residents.  Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  Williamsburg, 2000.
39. The Colonial Virginia Register, compiled by William G. and Mary Newton Stanard. Philadelphia: Joel Munsell’s Sons Publishers, 1902.

1. Map of early patents in Isle of Wight County, Virginia (by David Ross)
2. Property owned by Joseph and Hester in the north part of IOW (by David Ross)
3. Property owned by Joseph and Hester in the south part of IOW (by David Ross)

• Jamestowne Society
• Jamestown Rediscovery
• St. Luke’s Historic Church & Museum
• The Heritage Lady