Introduction
William Worth (c.1646-1721) was an Irish judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Background
He was born in Cork city,the eldest son of Edward Worth,who was Dean of Cork 1645-1660 andsubsequently Bishop of Killaloe 1661-1669,and his wife Susanna Pepper, daughter of Dennis Pepper of County Mayo, a cousin of the Earl of Cork. His brother John continued the family's clerical tradition by becomingDean of Kildare, andlaterDean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.TheWorths were a Cheshire family who had settled in County Corkin the sixteenth century: William's grandfather James was the first vicar of Newmarket, County Cork. William's father has been described as an exceptionally adroit political player, who worked closely with the Cromwellian regime, and enjoyed the friendshipof HenryCromwell, yet re-emerged after the Restoration of Charles II withthe reputation of aRoyalist ofunquestioned loyalty. His political influence was considerable in the late 1650s, but declined sharply after 1660.
Career
William went to the University of Dublin, where he matriculated in 1661.He entered the Middle Temple in 1665 and the King's Inn in 1667. He was called to the Barin 1669 and became Recorder of Corkin 1678. He was appointed Attorney General of the County Palatine of Tipperary in 1681, and second Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland)in the same year. His staunchly Protestant background was no doubt a recommendation forhigh office, at a time when thetolerant attitude towards Roman Catholicism which had existed in Irelandsince the Restoration of Charles IIhad beendestroyed inthe anti-Catholic hysteria engendered by thePopish Plot. Hismother was a Quaker, who was arrestedin 1664 for attending a Quaker meeting,buther husband's outraged reactionwhen he learned of this is evidence of his own beliefs. His parents were estranged, andnever reconciled: his father in his last will and testamentreferred grimly to his mother's "fallen( i.e. sinful) condition", and urged her to perform her "first act" (i.e. of repentance).
As a strongProtestant,William was naturally assumedto be asupporter ofthe Glorious Revolution of 1688, and after the arrival ofthe Roman CatholicKing James II of England in Ireland in 1689 he was removed from office. Unlikesome of hisjudicial colleagues (like Sir John Lyndon, whowas detained when he tried to flee from Ireland) Worthwas given leave to go to England. On his return to Irelandhe sought reappointment as a Baron of the Exchequer, andis latersaid to have lobbied to be appointedas Lord Chancellor of Ireland, but to no avail. His failure to secure reappointment is perhapssurprising, sinceotherProtestant High Court judges who had beenremoved from the Bench by James II,includingSir John Lyndon andSir Standish Hartstonge, 1st Baronet,returned to their former positions.He spent some time managing the estates of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde.
He was a man of considerable wealth, and a generous benefactor of his old University. He had a town house at Aungier Street in Dublin; he also had a house at Rathfarnham (then in the countryside, now a suburb of south Dublin)and another at nearbyOldbawn, which he probably acquired from his second wife's family, the Tyntes, who are recorded as its earlier owners.
Family
He was married four times: his marital career is unusual in that his third and fourth wives were respectively the widows of a father and son. His first wife was Alicia, daughter of William Barnet, of YoxfordinSussex, by whom he had a son, Edward. He married secondly Mabel, daughter of Sir Henry Tynte of Ballycrenane,County Cork,and his wife Mabel Smythe, by whom he had asecond son,James. He married thirdly about 1687, Dorothy, daughter of Henry Whitfield MP and his wife Hester Temple, and widow of Sir Richard Bulkeley, 1st Baronet; she died in 1705. His fourth wife was Lucy Downing. daughter of the eminent statesman Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet and his wife Frances Howard; she was also,rather strangely by modern standards, the widow of Dorothy's stepson, Sir Richard Bulkeley, 2nd Baronet. Worth's fourth marriage was short-lived:Lucy died in October 1711, only 18 months after her first husband.
Worth died in 1721 and was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral.
Sources
- Ball, F. ElringtonThe Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 LondonJohn Murray 1926
- Cokayne, George EdwardComplete BaronetageReprinted Gloucester 1983
- Mason, William MonckThe History and Antiquities of St. Patrick's Cathedral, DublinDublin 1820