ored and the men
returned to duty. After the mutiny had been suppressed, Bridport took the
fleet to sea as commander-in-chief in name as well as in fact, and from
1798 to 1800 personally directed the blockade of Brest, which grew stricter
and stricter as time went on. In 1800 he was relieved by St Vincent, and
retired from active duty after fifty-nine years' service. In reward for his
fine record his peerage was made a viscounty. He spent the remaining years
of his life in retirement. He died on the 2nd of May 1814. The viscounty in
the English peerage died with him; the Irish barony passed to the younger
branch of his brother's family, for whom the viscounty was recreated in
1868.

See Charnock, _Biographia Navalis_, vi. 153; _Naval Chronicle_, i. 265;
Ralfe, _Nav. Biog._ i. 202.

BRIDPORT, a market town and municipal borough in the Western parliamentary
division of Dorsetshire, England, 18 m. N.W. of Dorchester, on a branch of
the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5710. It is pleasantly situated in a
hilly district on the river Brit, from which it takes its name. The main
part of the town is about a mile from the sea, with which it is connected
by a winding street, ending at a quay surrounded by the fishing village of
West Bay, where the railway terminates. The church of St Mary is a handsome
cruciform Perpendicular building. The harbour is accessible only to small
vessels. There is some import trade in flax, timber and coal. The principal
articles of manufacture have long been sailcloth, cordage, linen and
fishing-nets. The municipal borough is under a mayor, 6 aldermen and 18
councillors. Area, 593 acres.

Bridport was evidently of some importance before the Conquest, when it
consisted of 120 houses rated for all the king's services and paying geld
for five hides. By 1086 the number of houses had decreased to 100, and of
these 20 were in such a wretched condition that they could not pay geld.
The town is first mentioned as a borough in the Pipe Roll of 1189, which
states that William de Bendenges owed L9: 10s. for the ancient farm of
Bridport, and that the men of the town owed tallage to the amount of 53s.
10d. Henry III. granted the first charter in 1252-1253, making the town a
free borough and granting the burgesses the right to hold it at the ancient
fee farm with an increase of 40s., and to choose two bailiffs to answer at
the exchequer for the farm. A deed of 1381 shows that Henry III. also
granted the burge