Family and Education

b. c.1677, 1st s. of John Worth of Worth by Thomasine, da. of Josias Calmady of Langdon, Devon.  educ. Balliol, Oxf. matric. 30 May 1694, aged 17.  m. 11 June 1705, Elizabeth, da. and h. of John Furse of Dean Prior, Devon, 9s. (4 d.v.p.) 6da.  suc. fa. 1689.1

Offices Held

Jt. havenor, duchy of Cornwall 1698–?d.2

Clerk of the pipe 1710–?15.

Biography

Worth was a Tiverton merchant, whose nearby estate had been in the family since the 12th century. In 1698 he made a successful bid, in partnership with Roger Corker* and another merchant, for the office of havenor of the duchy of Cornwall, offering £1,500 plus £30 p.a. Worth was added to the county lieutenancy in 1703. He was subject to a double return for Tiverton in 1710, a fact noted on the ‘Hanover list’. After this election had been declared void, he carried the seat at the ensuing by-election. His corporation was opposed to the French commercial treaty of 1713 and Worth voted against the bill confirming its 8th and 9th articles on 18 June. He was put out of the Devon commission of the peace in April 1713, but this did not prevent his re-election in 1713. No further votes of his are recorded, but he was classed as a Tory in the Worsley list. Granted a leave of absence for a month on 22 May 1714, he did not stand at the 1715 election or subsequently. He died in 1730, and was buried at Washfield on 18 Aug.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Vivian, Vis. Devon, 807.
• 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. xiii. 362.
• 3. Trans. Devon Assoc. lxvii. 329; W. Harding, Hist. Tiverton, ii. 104; Cal. Treas. Bks. 362; CSP Dom. 1700–2, p. 48; 1703–4, p. 278; CJ, xiii. 366; L. K. J. Glassey, Appt. JPs, 217; Vivian, 807.