The Spelling of Bridgwater

This list, charting all the known ways of spelling Bridgwater, is a work in progress, with additional entries to be added and earliest and latest dates to be changed as more evidence comes to light. The end of the published Bridgwater Borough Archives in 1485 limits the exploration in the early modern period, but more information will be added as we find it. Please get in contact if you have any to add. Also see the Street Names Project here.

The initial findings indicate that the common argument over the number of ‘e’s in the spelling of Bridgwater seems to be as old as the town itself: we even sometimes see a third ‘e’ added at the end! Although the first instance ‘Brugie’ has the middle ‘e’, we find ‘Brug’ without the ‘e’ by1234. The compound spelling with Walter, making the town’s name one word instead of two, seems to have used or not used the middle ‘e’ with little consistency over the middle ages. As such the notion that the dropping of the ‘e’ in Bridgewater was something of the nineteenth century is incorrect. What is correct though is the Victorians eventually favouring Bridgwater over Bridgewater, which had previously been interchangeable.

What this survey does indicate is the surprising long survival of the ‘l’ in Walter, and the equally surprising recent introduction of the ‘d’ in bridge, which seems to first occur as late as the sixteenth century. The first use of the modern settled spelling ‘Bridgwater’ seems to be in 1666, although older instances may yet be found. In the local West Country accent the name ‘Walter’ was usually pronounced Water (Walter Raleigh was mocked for this for example), so it is perhaps unsurprising that the ‘l’ was eventually forgotten.

Year First Used	Name	Source	Last Known Use	Source and Notes
1086	Brugie	Domesday, Somerset Folio 19	Same Document
1178	Brugis	Pipe Roll Society vol.28 p.71	Same Document
1200	Bruge Walter	Charter Manuscript Blake Museum. Original Charter Lost. Dilks' transcription is from the 1318 Town Charter	1310	BBA no.66
1234	Brug	Liber feodorum. The book of fees, commonly called Testa de Nevill, reformed from the earliest MSS (1920)	Same Document
1245	Bruges	BBA no.3	1367	BBA no.238
1260	Bruges Walter	BBA no.8 Two words later become one.	1345	BBA no.141
1267	Bruggewater	BBA no.9	1476	BBA no.942. *up to end of published BBA. May be in use later. One of the more common spellings, especially fourteenth century.
1295	Bruggewauter	BBA no.38	1385	BBA no.405
1298	Brugewater	BBA no.43	1485*	BBA no.1069. *up to end of published BBA. Probably in use later.
1299	Bruggeswalter	BBA no.47	Same Document
1315	Briggewauter	BBA no.73	Same Document
1317	Breggewater	BBA no.80	1474	BBA no.930.
1322	Brugewauter	BBA no.93	Same Document
1325	Briggewater	BBA no.102	1484/5*	BBA no.1071. *up to end of published BBA. Probably in use later. The most common spelling in the fifteenth century. In 1355 spelt with the genitive 'i' suggesting it is still considered a posessive name (BBA no.176)
1350	Brugiswalter	BBA no.158	Same Document
1342	Brugwalter	BBA no.132	Same Document
1352	Briggwalter	BBA no.162	Same Document
1352	Briggewalter	BBA no.162	1479	BBA no.965
1360	Bryggewater	BBA no.190 Sometimes split into two words.	1483*	BBA no.1053. *up to end of published BBA. Probably in use later.
1361	Bryghwauter	BBA no.194	1371	BBA no.264
1362	Bruggewalter	BBA no.198	1409	BBA no.546
1362	Bryggewalter	BBA no.200	Same Document
1371	Brugge	BBA no.266	1400	BBA no.508
1372	Brigge	BBA no.269	1442	BBA no.712
1373	Brugg	BAA no.283	1400	BBA no. 966 *up to end of BBA, so there may be later usages of this spelling.
1379	Brugges	BAA no.333	Same Document
1380	Brugwater	BAA no.339	1475	BBA no.940. *up to end of published BBA. May be in use later.
1380	Brigge	BBA no.352	1444	BBA no.719
1380	Bruggewatere	BBA no.342	1397	BAA no.484
1400	Brygwater	BBA no.505	Same Document
1400	Brigwater	BBA no.506	1479*	BBA no. 966 *up to end of BBA, so there may be later usages of this spelling.
1402	Briggewatere	BBA no.515	Same Document
1403	*Brudgwaterre	BBA no.524 - A forgery. Spelling probably late 16th or early 17th century	Same Document
1420	Brugwatere	BBA no.599	Same Document
1448	Bryggwater	BBA no.1448	Same Document
1452	Briggewaltr	BBA no.766	Same Document
1460	Brigewater	BBA no.815	Same Document
1446	Brigwatere	BBA no.747	Same Document
1447	Briggwater	BBA no.750	1473	BBA no.919
1475	Bryggwatter	BAA no.939	Same Document
1476	Bregewater	BAA no.946	Same Document
1476	Bruggyeware	BAA no.946	Same Document	Two spellings in the same document.
1477	Bruggwater	BBA no.950	Same Document	*up to end of BBA, so there may be later usages of this spelling.
1479	Brigwaltere	BAA no.964	Same Document	*up to end of BBA, so there may be later usages of this spelling. Otherwise this would be the last usages of the 'L' of Walter, along with BBA no.965
1555	Bridgewater	Queen Mary's Charter. Possibly 1466 and BBA no.844, but that's possibly a transcription error.	Unofficially Still in Use	All Royal Charters use this spelling up to George III (1764). Used in Act of Parliament 1882. Still in use in the Latin motto on the Town Seal.
1605	Brydgewater	Crown Revenues from Somerset & Dorset SRS (2012) p.105	Same Document	In Early Modern England 'I' and 'Y' were largely interchangable.
1666	Bridgwater	Town Farthing	Still in Use	In use in official capacity since then. Used in 1695, 1903 Acts of Parliament. Possibly used as early as 1638, as this spelling appears on the town's silver salt cellar presented to the town by Thomas Wrothe, former Recorder. However, it is unclear if the engraving is contremperary with the donation.

MKP 24 April 2022