BRYDGES, SIR SAMUEL EGERTON English genealogist and miscellaneous writer, was born on Nov. 3o, 1762. In 1789 he persuaded his elder brother that their family were the heirs to the barony of Chandos, being descended from a younger branch of the Brydges who first held the title. The case was tried and lost. He re-edited Collin's Peerage, inserting a statement about his supposed right. He sat in Parliament for Maidstone from 1812-18. In 1814 he was made a baronet, and in 1818 he left England. He died at Geneva on Sept. 8, 183 7. Brydges was a most prolific author; he is said to have written 2,000 sonnets in one year. His numerous works include Poems (1785) ; Censure Literaria (1805-09) ; The British Bibliographer (4 vols., 1810-14), with J. Haslewood; Restituta (4 vols., 1814 16), containing accounts of old books; and Autobiography, Times, Opinions and Contemporaries of Sir S. E. Brydges (1834) . He published various Elizabethan texts, at considerable expense to himself.
See W. T. Lowndes, Bibliographer's Manual (ed. H. G. Bohn, 1857-64).