Samuel Bridge
- May 9
- 2 min read
Samuel Bridge was born in Boston, MA on June 19, 1734 to Ebenezer Bridge and Mary Roberts.
He married Mary Goodwin in Worcester, MA on March 1, 1757. They had seven children: Samuel, Mary (died young), Ebenezer, William, James, Benjamin, and Joseph. Active in the community, at various times he served as a hog reeve, juror, warden, constable, school committee, market clerk, surveyor of highways and collector of highway taxes, and fence viewer.
Samuel was a landowner, and was able to vote in the Worcester town meetings in 1775 and 1779. In the days leading up to the American Revolution he was one of the town constables. As such he felt it was his duty to sign an Oath of Allegiance to the King in 1774. After war broke out he had a change of heart, and while he didn’t fight as a soldier he did give patriotic service as a Juror in 1776 and a clerk to Colonel Mason. In 1782 he put his name forward to be Governor of Massachusetts. Samuel lost to John Hancock (shocker!), but he did get one vote.
A religious schism happened in Worcester in the 1780s after the death of the longtime and much loved Rev. Thaddeus Maccarty. Some residents of the town wished to have Aaron Bancroft as Rev. Maccarty's replacement, but the more conservative parishoners chose someone else, and after some...discourse...were allowed to form a second church. Samuel Bridge went to the new church, and served as a Deacon.
Samuel died in Worcester on August 4, 1799 and was laid to rest in the Mechanics Street Burial Ground. His gravestone and remains were moved to Hope Cemetery in 1878 when those buried in Mechanics Street were moved to make way for the living.
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