Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet, of Great Lever

Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet (1606 to 1674) was an English common law jurist, lawyer and politician, the son of John Bridgeman, Bishop of Chester. Educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1624 and worked as a barrister until 1632. He sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1642, supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War and was knighted in 1643. After the Restoration he became Serjeant-at-Law and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in 1660, was created a baronet, and was Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas from 1660 to 1668. Appointed Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1667, he resigned in 1672 because he refused to apply the seal to the Royal Declaration of Indulgence. He was highly regarded for his part in the trial of the regicides of Charles I in 1660 and for devising complex legal instruments for conveying land, among them a device that led to the Rule Against Perpetuities.