Charles William Bigge

Charles William Bigge (28 October 1773 – 8 December 1849) was an English merchant and banker in Newcastle on Tyne.

The son of Thomas Charles Bigge, he was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford (M.A. 1795). He then studied law, under Charles Abbott, served in the militia, and undertook a continental tour from 1800. Sir Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Baronet and Ralph Lambton were hunting friends. Ridley became a business partner.

Bigge served as High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1802, a position previously held by his grandfather William Bigge, in 1750, and his father in 1771. He was Lieutenant Colonel in the Northumberland Supplementary Militia.

On the death of his father in 1794, Bigge inherited estates at Benton House, Little Benton, Newcastle on Tyne, Heddon on the Wall, Ponteland and Gosforth; and collieries at Little Benton and Willington. He became, in 1806, a partner in the Newcastle banking firm of Ridley Bigge Gibson & Co which in 1832 became Northumberland and Durham District Bank. In 1812 he built Linden Hall, Longhorsley, Northumberland to a design by Sir Charles Monck on land bought from the Earl of Carlisle.

In politics, Bigge was a Whig leader in Northumberland, associated with Charles Grey. He was offered a baronetcy in 1839, which he declined. While he was a potential candidate as Member of Parliament, he ruled himself out on grounds of cost, and never stood. From 1838 until 1851 he was President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne.

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