George Weare Braikenridge
| George Weare Braikenridge | |
|---|---|
| Born |
4 January 1775 Hanover County, Colony of Virginia |
| Died | 16 February 1856 (aged 81) Brislington, Bristol, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Merchant, Antiquarian |
| Known for | Braikenridge Collection |
George Weare Braikenridge (1775–1856) was an English antiquarian. He was born in the Colony of Virginia, but lived for most of his life in Bristol, England, where he created a large collection of Bristolian historical and topographical material known as the Braikenridge Collection. It contains over 1400 drawings and watercolours of Bristol landscapes and buildings. These are held in Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, with related collections of manuscripts and other items held by Bristol Central Library and Bristol Archives. The Braikenridge Collection has become the most important historical record of Bristol's appearance in the early 19th century, and makes Bristol one of the best documented English cities in this respect.
His father George Braikenridge (1738–1827) was from Brislington, Bristol, but was a tobacco planter and merchant living in the Colony of Virginia at the time of Braikenridge's birth in 1775, having married Sarah "Sally" Jerdone, daughter of Virginian merchant and planter Francis Jerdone. After returning to Bristol they became partners as George Braikenridge and Son, a drysaltery business. George Weare Braikenridge married Mary Bush in 1800. He subsequently became a merchant trading with the Caribbean. Retiring in 1820, he devoted himself to antiquarianism.
In 1823 he purchased Broomwell House, Brislington, to which he added a gothic library, and started to fill the house with collected items of stonework, woodcarving and stained glass. Although Broomwell House no longer survives, some of those items, in particular the library's heraldic ceiling, do as he later transferred them to a villa in Clevedon, Somerset which he purchased in 1839. He was also the largest donor in the building of Christ Church, Clevedon, which was consecrated that same year. It contains stained glass provided by Braikenridge, in its east window.
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