A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bendish, Bridget

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BENDISH, BRIDGET,

Wife of Thomas Bendish, Esq., was the daughter of General Ireton, and grand-daughter of Oliver Cromwell; whom she resembled in piety, dissimulation, personal arrogance, and love of display. After managing her salt-works at Southtown, in Norfolk, with all the labour and exertion of the most menial servant, she would sometimes spend an evening at the public assembly at Yarmouth, where her princely behaviour and dignified manners ensured her the respect of her neighbours. This remarkable woman, who, in public life, would have been famous for her great mental powers and self-command, died in retirement, in 1727. Hers was a mixed character, in which one could hardly decide whether the great or the little predominated.