William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos

William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos (ca. 1552 – 1602) was an English peer and politician.

He was the younger son and heir of Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos and Dorothy, the youngest daughter and child of Sir Edmund Braye, 1st Baron Braye.

Until he succeeded his brother Giles to the bulk of the family estates in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, Brydges followed the comparatively obscure existence of a younger son. In Parliament he sat for Cricklade, the stewardship of which was in his family, and twice he represented Gloucestershire, where the influence of his brother was sufficient to secure the seat.[1]

In 1588, he was captain of a company of the Gloucestershire Trained Bands in Queen Elizabeth I's army facing the invasion threat of the Spanish Armada.[2]

He succeeded his elder brother as Baron Chandos, and served as Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and Member of Parliament for Cricklade.

  1. ^ History of Parliament https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/brydges-william-1548-1602#family-relations
  2. ^ Maj Wilfred Joseph Cripps (revised by Capt Hon M.H. Hicks-Beach & Maj B.N. Spraggett), The Royal North Gloucester Militia, 2nd Edn, Cirencester: Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard Printing Works, 1914, pp. 21–23.