Briget Paget

Briget Paget
Born	Briget Masterson 1570 Nantwich
Died	circa 1647 Dordrecht
Nationality	English
Occupation	Editor
Years active	1638–41
Known for	Editing and one dedication to posthumous publications of John Paget
Notable work	Work on Meditations of Death, A Defence Of Church-Government, Exercised in Presbyteriall, Classicall, & Synodall Assemblies.
Spouse(s)	1. George Thrushe (–1601) 2. John Paget (1602–1638)
Parent(s)	Richard Masterson Elizabeth Grosvenor

Bridget Paget née Masterson (1570–circa 1647) was an English Puritan who acted as her husband John Paget's literary executor and editor.

Briget Masterson (also rendered "Maisterson") was the daughter of

The Mastersons were the oldest-established of the families that made up Nantwich's merchant oligarchy but had numerous branches. Robert Maisterson, an ancestor of Richard, is recorded as holding land at Wich Malbank (the original name for the town) in the reign of Edward I His father was Siwardus ("victory guardian") Magisterson and his grandfather Swayn ("boy")filius Magistri. Both personal names suggest a Viking origin and seem to be in the Norwegian form. The name Magister (Latin: Master) was often applied to the members of the franklin class, the independent freeholders characteristic of areas of Norse settlement. George Ormerod, the early 19th century historian of Cheshire, pointed out that the Mastersons "never appear to have possessed manorial property in Cheshire, or to have resided in any other seat than a burgage of Nantwich." All branches of the family seem to have invested in residential property and in the salt houses, where the town's mineral wealth was extracted. An inquisition post mortem on an illegitimate member of a cadet branch, William Maisterson, who died in 1495, showed him busily and sometimes illegally acquiring urban property and salt houses under the protection of Sir William Stanley. Briget's branch of the family seem to have prospered fairly slowly but steadily. Her great-grandfather Thomas held lands in Nantwich valued at £18 per annum in 1545: only moderate wealth. However, Richard, her father, seems to have made considerable gains, both in wealth and social standing, at least partly because of a fortunate marriage. The Grosvenors could trace their ancestry back to the Franco-Norman feudal nobility and were clearly of the landed gentry class. Richard was a legatee of his mother-in-law, Dame Maude, who died in 1582. An inquisition after the death of Thomas, his son and Briget's elder brother, who predeceased him in 1604, mentions that Richard's principle house was at Presthume – aptly named as it was formerly the property of Trentham Priory, at this point held of the king, James I, in his role as Earl of Chester. It had a mill and dovecotes was surrounded by 206 acres. It seems that Briget and her siblings were brought up amid considerable comfort. Her later writing indicates that she was probably educated and literate.

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