Bridget Allworthy

BRIDGET (_Miss_), the mother of Tom Jones, in Fielding's novel called
_The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_ (1750).

It has been wondered why Fielding should
have chosen to leave the stain of illegitimacy on
the birth of his hero ... but had Miss Bridget
been privately married ... there could have
been no adequate motive assigned for keeping the
birth of the child a secret from a man so reasonable
and compassionate as Allworthy.--_Encyc.
Brit._ Art. "Fielding."