Bridget Bendish

Bridget Bendish (née Ireton) (1650–1726), was a daughter of General Henry Ireton and Bridget, Oliver Cromwell's eldest daughter. She was born in Attenborough, Nottinghamshire, England. She married Thomas Bendish in 1670. Bridget died early in 1726 at age 76 and was buried in Great Yarmouth.

In 1652, her mother, also named Bridget Ireton (born 7/1624), married Gen. Charles Fleetwood after being widowed by Henry Ireton. In 1662, her mother died; and Bridget lived with her stepfather at Stoke Newington, Middlesex, until age 19. On 24 August 1669 she was licensed to marry Thomas Bendish (bap. 1645, d. 1707) of Gray's Inn; in 1670 they married. They moved to Southtown, adjacent to Great Yarmouth, where he owned salt marshes and a saltworks on Cobholme Island. In 1672 he was charged with landing coal from the vessel of a non-burgess on the west side of the haven without permission.

She always took a lively interest in politics, and is said to have compromised herself, along with her husband, in many ways in the Rye House plot of 1683. Her politics may well have been sympathetic to the whig exclusionists. In May 1685 she aided her brother, Henry Ireton, in his escape from prison on suspicion of complicity. Following his recapture and imprisonment, she was allowed access to him in Newgate in November and December 1685. In 1688-1689 she secretly distributed papers recommending the recognition of William III.

In 1689 the Reverend Rowland Davies visited Bendish' house "and saw all his contrivance to make salt." Archbishop Tillotson introduced Bridget to Queen Mary in 1694, and a pension was promised her, but it was never granted owing to the death of both her patrons immediately after the interview.

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