The crest is that of Bridges of Chillingworth and Badow in Essex, granted in 1562. The accompanying arms are Argent three escutcheons gules each charged with a bend vairy argent and sable between two roses or.

Born to banker and merchant George Brydges and his wife Mary Brydges, George Wilson Brydges trained to be a cleric. His first curacy was at St Andrew's Church, Frenze in Norfolk in 1812. Three years later, he caused a scandal when he eloped to Gretna Green to marry Elizabeth Raby Brooks, who was already pregnant. In 1816 he left for Jamaica at the invitation of the Governor where he oversaw the parish of Manchester, near Mandeville from 1817 to 1823. Here he was installed in a new rectory, which he let out as a tavern.
Brydges worked in Jamaica where his books and publications caused difficulties. The Annals of Jamaica was the subject of a libel case in England, which revolved around two men, Louis Celeste Lecesne and his brother-in-law John Escoffery, who had been expelled from the island. The case resulted in the publisher having to withdraw the second volume of the book. With the publisher's assistance the volume was amended and reissued.
Brydges spoke out against the abolition of slavery and was an enemy of Methodist missionaries. He later founded a group who tried to throw the missionaries out of Jamaica. He also wrote a work which challenged William Wilberforce.
In 1834 Brydges' wife left him, taking their eldest son with her. Brydges was left with four daughters and a son to raise. In 1837 a boat accident resulted in the loss of all four of their daughters. Some small consolation was that their son was saved. Brydges and his son turned their backs on Jamaica and set out for Canada, where had an octagonal house built at Rice Lake called Wolf Tower, which he let out to Catherine Parr Traill.
Brydges was a keen photographer, and in Paris he had a state of the art camera made for himself. In 1851 he was in Egypt but during his travels he also visited Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey, the Holy Land and the rest of North Africa, where he took some of the earliest successful photographs. He also published a number of publications based on the 1,700 negatives that he had gathered.
On his return to England Brydges became secretary to the Bishop of Bristol, James Monk, and in 1852 he was granted the parish of Beachley.
When his estranged wife Elizabeth died in 1862 he published a book entitled, Outlines and Notes of Twenty-Nine Years. Brydges died on 20 September 1863, while still at Beachley parish.