Noah Bridges

Noah Bridges (fl. 1661), was an English stenographer and mathematician.
Among other writings he produced:'Stenographie and Cryptographie: or the Arts of Short and Secret Writing. The first laid down in a method familiar to meane capacities; the second added to convince and cautionate the credulous and the confident …' London, 1659, 16mo. This extremely scarce work is dedicated to Sir Orlando Bridgeman. The address to the reader is thus most curiously dated: 'March 18/59 the first of the four last months of 13 yeares squandered in the Valley of Fortune.' A second edition, which has escaped the notice of bibliographers, appeared with this title: 'Stenography and Cryptography. The Arts of Short and Secret Writing. The second Edition enlarged, with a familiar Method teaching how to cypher and decipher all private Transactions. Wherein are inserted the Keys by which the Lines of Text-Writing affixed to those Cyphers are folded and unfolded,' London, 1662. 
More information on the current version of the Wikipedia page .
An image at the National Portrait Gallery here
Category:Biographies
Category:17th century