Family and Education

Offices Held

Biography

This Member has not been identified. He may have been a younger brother of Sir Thomas Southworth of Samlesbury, who died in 1546, or a member of another, more obscure, family of Southworth seated at Highfield, Lancaster; but Southworth was a common name in Lancashire and Richard a not uncommon christian name to find with it. In 1495-96 a Richard Southworth, son of Nicholas, granted the reversion of Blake Hall in Ellel, Cockerham parish, to George Stanley, 9th Lord Strange, and in 1517 a namesake of Shenstone, son and heir of Henry, released his lands in Croft, Winwick parish, to Sir Thomas Southworth at a yearly rent.1

The Member may be identifiable with the Richard Southworth who was one of the two bailiffs of Lancaster accused of levying an illegal toll in 1529. He could also have been the man who, together with Gilbert and Evan Southworth and Thomas Holden, was accused of unlawfully attempting to impress two men in 1522 to serve against the Scots and imprisoning them when they refused. A Richard Southworth was assessed at Lancaster on goods worth £5 in 1543.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Authors: L. M. Kirk / Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. Pink and Beaven, Parl. Rep. Lancs. 107; Hornyold-Strickland, Lancs. MPs (Chetham Soc. n.s. xciii), 90; J. B. Watson, ‘Lancs. gentry 1529-58’ (London Univ. M.A. thesis, 1959), 481-2, 485; VCH Lancs. iv. 170n; viii. 36-37, 100n; Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xxxv. 235-6.
• 2. DL1/5/H12, 12a, 12b, 12c; Ducatus Lanc. ii. 136; Lancs. and Cheshire Rec. Soc. xxxv. 245-6; Watson, 485.