BRIDGES, TIMOTHY, captain in the Royal Navy; commodore of the Newfoundland convoy, 1704 and 1705; b. c. 1670; d. some time after 1708.

In 1702 Timothy Bridges was appointed to the command of the Looe, and served in this ship as commodore of the Newfoundland convoy for 1704 and 1705. He arrived at St John’s in the summer of 1704 to find the settlement split into two factions. Serious charges were being made against Captain Thomas Lloyd, the military commander of the garrison, and Bridges advised him to return to England to clear himself of the allegations. After appointing Lieutenant Moody to replace Lloyd, Bridges sailed for England in the autumn of 1704.

During the winter Moody successfully repulsed a French attack on St John’s, but when Bridges returned the following spring he found considerable friction between Moody and many of the inhabitants. In October 1705, Lloyd returned to Newfoundland with the rank of major, having been reinstated as military commander. The following month, Bridges sailed for England with Moody as a passenger. The Looe was wrecked on the Isle of Wight, but both officers survived. After acquittal by court martial for the loss of his ship, Bridges was appointed to the command of the Kingston in the West Indies. Some time later he was dismissed from the service for misconduct, and was not employed again at sea after 1708.

Bridges’ place in Canadian history is a very secondary one. His answers to the Board of Trade and Plantations’ customary Heads of Enquiry are brief and uninspired; and his interest lies rather in the role he played in the struggle between Lloyd and Moody.

Michael Godfrey

PRO, Adm. 6 (commission and warrant books); C.O. 194/3; CSP, Col., 1704–5, 1706–8. Charnock, Biographia navalis, III.