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Thomas Bridges
Thomas Bridges
Born	1842 Unknown
Died	July 15, 1898 (1898-07-16) (aged 56) Buenos Aires
Nationality	British
Occupation	Anglican Missionary
Known for	Establishing a mission in Tierra del Fuego

Thomas Bridges (ca. 1842–1898) was an Anglican missionary and linguist, the first to set up a successful mission to the indigenous peoples in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Adopted and raised in England by George Pakenham Despard, he accompanied his father to Argentina with the Patagonian Missionary Society. After an attack by indigenous people, in 1869 Despard left the mission at Keppel Island to return with his family to England. At the age of 17, Bridges stayed with the mission as its new superintendent. In the late 1860s, he worked to set up a mission at what is now the town of Ushuaia.

Ordained and married during a trip to Great Britain in 1868-1869, Bridges returned to the Falkland Islands with his wife. They settled at the mission at Ushaia, where four of their six children were born. He continued to work with the Ona and Yahgan peoples. On Bridges' retirement from missionary service in 1886, the Argentine government gave him a large grant of land. He became a sheep and cattle rancher.

As a young man, Bridges had readily learned the indigenous language of Yamana and studied their culture. Over more than a decade, he compiled a dictionary in Yamana-English of more than 30,000 words. With the help of his son Lucas Bridges, the valuable work was eventually published posthumously by the Commission de la Belgica. Near the end of his life, the pastor had entrusted his manuscript to Frederick Cook, an American doctor and explorer, whom he met as part of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1897-1899. Cook had asked to borrow the work, but Bridges was unable to get it returned. In 1910 the New York Times reported that his son Lucas Bridges had notified the commission of the problem, and was working to ensure the work was published in his father's name.

Early life

Thomas was born in England in 1842. According to local legend, he was later found abandoned on a bridge in Bristol, by George Despard, the chaplain of the Clifton Union. Despard adopted Bridges and educated him in a private school that he ran. Later, upon being told of the adoption, Thomas "chose for himself the surname Bridges in honor of the meeting that had saved his life."

There is no record of Thomas Bridges in the 1851 UK census. He is believed to be registered in the private school run by George Despard as George H Bridges. The name change was most likely due to a transcription error.

Expedition

From 1853 to 1855, Despard was curate at Holy Trinity Church in Lenton, Nottingham. He had previously lived in Bristol where he met Allen Gardiner, a commander in the Royal Navy. Gardiner led expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in southern Argentina.

Gardiner tried but was unable to make contact with the indigenous people in Tierra del Fuego. Despard, then secretary of the Patagonian Missionary Society, led the next expedition to the area. He took with him his second wife and his children: four daughters, Emily, Bertha, Florence and Harriet, and his son Emilius. He also took Thomas Bridges, then about 13 years old. This trip was much more successful than earlier ones. Despard made contact with the local indigenous people and persuaded several to go to Keppel Island of the Falklands , where there was a mission and the climate was less severe. Some of the natives learned English while on Keppel Island. Some of the English party, Thomas Bridges in particular, learned the local language of Yámana.

Missionary work

After an attack on the Allen Gardiner, Despard petitioned the missionary society to be allowed to return to England because of the danger to his wife and children. When the society gave its approval, he and his family departed. Thomas Bridges, then 17, stayed in order to take charge of the Keppel Island mission.

Bridges spent the next year on Keppel Island, living with some of the Yahgan who had remained. He began to perfect his knowledge of Yámana. At the time, he started work on a Yahgan grammar and dictionary, which he completed about a decade later in 1879. It included more than 30,000 words, it came to be considered an important ethnological work.

The next superintendent of the base was the Rev. Waite Hockin Stirling. Stirling and Bridges made their first excursion into Tierra del Fuego in 1863. They made contact with the Yahgan, who received them well after learning that the white man Bridges could speak their languages. In 1866, Stirling sailed to England accompanied by four Yahgan boys and returned with all of them. From 1867–1868, the British assisted a group of Fuegians in setting up a settlement at Laiwaia on Navarino Island.

Stirling and Bridges looked for the best spot for a mission. The site chosen was in what is now Ushuaia, near what is called Beagle Canal. A small, three-roomed prefabricated hut, about 20 feet (6.1 m) by 10 feet (3.0 m), was prepared at Port Stanley for construction at Ushuaia. After the hut was erected, Stirling moved in on January 14, 1869 with one of the Yahgan who had accompanied him to England and the man's wife.

Brief trip to England

In 1868, the South American Missionary Society (successors to the Patagonian Missionary Society) decided that Bridges should return to England to study and take Holy Orders. In 1869, when he was about 27, he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of London. He spent some time on a lecture tour of England, when he discussed Tierra del Fuego and his work there, and helped raise funds for the missionary society.

While speaking at an award ceremony for schoolteachers in Clevedon, near Bristol, Bridges met Mary Ann Varder, his future wife. She was the daughter of Stephen and Ann Varder; her father was a master carpenter. They lived in Harberton, a village about a mile south-west of Totnes. Five weeks after the couple first met, Thomas and Mary Ann were married by license in the parish church at Harberton on August 7, 1869.

Return to South America

Two days after they were married, the Bridges sailed for Rio de Janeiro, en route for the Falkland Islands, where settlements had been established by the British. In addition, the Allen Gardiner delivered materials at Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego for Stirling House, a new mission house to be erected near the first small house "at the top of the hill." On October 10, 1870, Bridges and other men from the Falklands sailed to Ushuaia to dig the foundations and erect Stirling House. Mary Ann was pregnant and stayed in the Falkland Islands.

After the birth of their daughter Mary, Bridges returned to Ushuaia. He and Jacob Resyck took up residence in Stirling House. Another missionary, Mr. Lewis , traveled to to Keppel Island to pick up his family, returning May 14, with his wife, son, and new baby. The baby was baptised Frank Ooshooia Lewis in Stirling House on May 28. On August 17, Bridges sailed with his wife and daughter to Ushuaia, arriving on September 27, 1871. Together with the Lewises, they established the Mission.

When Stirling returned to the Falklands in early January 1872, he received a salute of seven guns and was installed as bishop. After visiting Ushuaia, on March 23 he wrote,

We have just returned from Tierra del Fuego, and can report favourably of our work there. The Bridges and Lewises were well, and exerting a wholesome influence on the Indian population. Thirty-six men, women, and children were baptised, and seven couples married as Christians. My little hut is transformed into a school-church, and our congregations in it were crammed to excess during my stay, when the native services took place. A spreading influence for good is manifest, and the future appears to me full of hope for these Southern Indian tribes.

In 1881, xerotine siccative caused an explosion of HMS Doterel while it was anchored near Punta Arenas, killing 144 members of the crew. Bridges presided over the funeral ceremony.

Family

The Bridges had six children, four of whom were born in Ushuaia. Mary Ann Varder Bridges (called Mary) was born in 1870. Their eldest son, Thomas Despard Bridges, was born in 1872. Stephen (Esteban) Lucas Bridges, called Lucas, was born in 1874; William Samuel Bridges in 1876, Bertha Milman Bridges in 1879, and Alice Couty Bridges in 1882. Mary Ann's younger sister, Johanna Varder, arrived from England in 1874 to join the mission and help with the growing Bridges family. The children grew up speaking English, Yámana and Spanish.

Later years

Bridges continued to work with the Yahgan, prosyletizing, teaching English, and trying to help them survive the rapid changes in the area. In the late 19th century, gold was discovered on Tierra del Fuego, and waves of immigrants arrived. In addition, Europeans developed sheep farming in the islands.

In 1886, the government of Argentina established a presence in Ushuaia. At about age 44, Bridges left the Mission. He was granted citizenship in Argentina and 50,000 acres (200 km) of land to the east of Ushuaia, now Estancia Harberton. There he raised sheep and cattle. His house on the ranch was prefabricated in England by his wife's relation, Stephen Varder, and shipped to Tierra del Fuego in the 360-ton brigantine Shepherdess.

Also on board were two carpenters and Edward Aspinall, the new superintendent of the Ushuaia Mission. Aspinall relocated the mission to the Wollaston Islands, which he felt was more centrally placed to reach the Yahgan. The Stirling House was relocated there for a period.

In 1897, Bridges met Frederick Cook, an American doctor and explorer with the Belgian Expedition to the Antarctic, which stopped in at Tierra del Fuego on its way south. During their acquaintance, Cook asked to borrow the Yámana work for reference. Bridges was later unable to get him to return it, despite repeated requests.

The pastor died in Buenos Aires on July 15, 1898 due to stomach cancer. He is buried in Cementerio Británico. His tombstone records that he was 55 years old. Later buried in the same grave were his grandson, Percival William Reynolds (1904–1940); his son, Lucas Bridges, who published a book in 1948 describing his father's mission experience and the various cultures on the islands; and Lucas' wife Jannette McLeod Jardine (1890–1976), whom he had met and married in England. Thomas' widow Mary Ann Bridges returned to England after her husband's death; she lived in Shipbourne, Kent, until 1922.

In 1910 the New York Times reported that Frederick Cook, whose claim to have been the first to reach the North Pole had been rejected in 1909, had been accused by a prominent New Yorker of trying to have Bridges' Yámana manuscript published under his own name, under the auspices of the Commission de la Belgica. Lucas Bridges, the missionary's son, had appealed to the Commission to ensure his father was fully credited for his work and to ensure that it was published.

Legacy and honours

• Yamana Dictionary
• A monument was later erected in Bridges' honour.

Notes

1. On November 6, 1869, the Allen Gardiner was attacked by a group of Yahgan, who massacred the ship's catechist, captain, and six sailors.

References

1. ^ Campbell, Duncan. "British Families in Southern Patagonia". The British Presence in Southern Patagonia. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
2. ^ "History of Harberton". Estancia Harberton. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
3. UK Census 1851 Westbury-on-Trym entry no 147
4. ^ Campbell, Duncan. "Anglican Missionary Endeavour in Tierra del Fuego (1832–1916)". The British Presence in Southern Patagonia. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
5. Burns, Jimmy (1989). Beyond the Silver River: South American Encounters. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-0269-2.
6. The Magazine of Lenton Local History Society, Lenton Times, Issue 7,
7. John W. Marsh (1883). "The Story of Commander Allen Gardiner, R.N." Project Canterbury. Retrieved 22 June 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
8. ^ Woran, John (2009). Here Be Giants (PDF). Rockville Press, Inc. pp. 213–242. ISBN 978-0-9769336-1-8. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
9. ^ "SAMS History". South American Mission Society (SAMS). Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
10. ^ "Cook Tried to Steal Parson's Life Work". New York Times. 21 May 1910. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
11. "Letter 2640 — Darwin, C. R. to Bridges, Thomas (b), 6 January 1860". Darwin Correspondence Project. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
12. Marriage certificate dated 7 August 1869 entry no 254
13. "Thomas Bridges". Victory Cruises. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
14. ^ Rev. C. Stirling, "The Bishop of the Falklands", Mission Life, Vol. III (1872), page 444. Transcribed by the Right Reverend Dr. Terry Brown Bishop of Malaita, Church of the Province of Melanesia, 2006.
15. ^ Campbell, Duncan. "H. M. S. DOTEREL, lost 26 April 1881 Memorial Plaque". British Presence in Southern Patagonia. Retrieved 11 July 2011.
16. Kesting, Eduardo Alejandro. "1842 Reverendo Thomas Bridges 1898" (in Spanish). Cementerio britanico. Retrieved 1 August 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
17. Bridges, E. L. (1948) The Uttermost Part of the Earth, Republished 2008, Overlook Press ISBN 978-1-58567-956-0

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• 1842 births
• 1898 deaths
• Anglican missionaries
• People from Tierra del Fuego Province, Argentina
• Falkland Islands Anglicans
• English Christian missionaries
• Christian missionaries in Argentina
• English emigrants to Argentina
• History of the Falkland Islands