She was born to Elizabeth (born Bouchier) and Oliver Cromwell in 1624. Cromwell comes to notice in 1646 when she marries Henry Ireton who was a close colleague of her father. Her portrait was painted by Cornelius Johnson and that picture is now in Chequers Court.[1]
In 1651 they went to Ireland where Henry encouraged the Parliamentarian cause. Bridget did not stay long and she was in England when the news of her husband's death reached her. He had died on 26 November 1651 at Limerick.[2]
In 1652 she married another friend of her father, General Charles Fleetwood. Like her first husband, he was sent to Ireland to lead the army. This time Bridget went to Ireland for much longer and staying from 1652 to 1655. After the Restoration, she lived in London. Her husband was prevented from further leadership and she had to withstand the exhumation of her and Fleetwood's infant child from Westminster Abbey where the child had been buried. Her first husband was not only exhumed but his dead body was hanged in revenge for Henry's involvement in the regicide of Charles I.
