THE MACKWORTH FAMILY HISTORY
This was created by Donald Thomas PARKER of Thousand Oaks, California and converted to html format by myself.
October 2, 1999
SIR JAMES MACKWORTH Knt.
b. 1470 d. 1540
JAMES married ALICE BASYNGES in 1495. Sir James was made Knight Mackworth in 1527. The ancestry of Alice Basynges from Gerald de Normanville is shown below:
Gerald de Normanville b. 1215
wife unknown
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Ralph de Normanville b. 1255
wife unknown
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Thomas de Normanville b. 1290
wife unknown
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Ralph de Normanville b. 1330
Galiena
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Thomas de Normanville b. 1365
Dionicia
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Margaret de Normanville b. 1400
William de Basynges
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Sir John Basynges Knt. b. 1430
wife unknown
James and Alice had a son:
THOMAS - b. 1500 d. 1570. (See Below)
THOMAS MACKWORTH
b. 1500 d. 1570
THOMAS married AGNES in 1524. Thomas was a Groom of the Privy Chamber
to King Henry VIII. Thomas and Agnes had a son:
JOHN - b. 1525 d. 1590 (See Below)
JOHN MACKWORTH
b. 1525 d. 1590
JOHN - b. 1525 d. 1590. John married ELIZABETH HOSIER in 1545. They
resided in Betton Grange, England. They had a son:
THOMAS b. 1546 d. 1600 (See Below)
THOMAS MACKWORTH
b. 1546 d. 1600
THOMAS was from Betton Grange, England. He married DOROTHY LEE
on July 27, 1566. Dorothy was the daughter of Richard Lee Esq., of Salopshire,
England and Eleanor Wrottlesley. Eleanor was the daughter of Richard Wrottesley
the High Sheriff of Staffordshire during 1492, 1502 and 1516 and Dorothy
Sutton the daughter of Sir Edmund Sutton Knt. and Matilda Clifford. Thomas
and Dorothy had a son:
RICHARD - b. 1580 d. 1630. (See Below)
RICHARD MACKWORTH
b. 1580 d. 1630
RICHARD - b. 1580 d. 1630. Richard was from Betton Grange, England.
He married DOROTHY CRANAGE, the daughter of Laurence Cranage a gentleman,
in 1605. One son and one daughter of this marriage are:
COLONEL HUMPHREY - b. 1610 d. 1654. Col. Mackworth was
from Betton Grange, Shropshire England. He was admitted to Gray's Inn on
October 24, 1621, as son and heir of Richard Mackworth, of Betton Grange,
Shropshire. He married 1st, at St. Andrew's, Holborn, on January
30, 1622, Anne Waller, the daughter of Thomas Waller of Beaconsfield, and
kinswoman of Edmund Waller the poet, 2nd Mary Venables the daughter of
Thomas Venables, Esq. titular Baron of Kinderton, county Chester.
Colonel Humphrey became a Colonel in the Parlimentary army, he was at the
taking of Ludlow Castle, upon which he wrote to the House of Commons on
May 20, 1646 and was appointed to be Governor of Shrewsbury on June 2,
1646. On February 12, 1649-50 he was added to the committee for the
assessments for the army in Shropshire; and in October 1651 he transmitted
to the House of Commons an account of the proceedings of the Court Martial
held at Chester on the Earl of Derby, Sir Timothy Fetherstonhaugh, and
John Benbowe. It appears probable that Colonel Mackworth presided
at the Court Martial. (Commons' Journals, iv. 561). Col. Mackworth
was
a member of Cromwell's second parliament and also was one of Cromwell's
council and sat for Shropshire in Cromwell's second parliament. He
died in December 1654, and was buried on December 26, 1654 in Henry
VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. His remains were disinterred with Cromwell's
on September 12, 1660 and thrown into a pit in St. Margaret's Churchyard.
His son Thomas administered to his estate on January 18th 1654. (Blore,
History of Rutland p. 129; Libscomb, Buckinghamshire, iv. 378). Colonel
Humphrey and Anne had several children one of which was:
THOMAS - b.1630 d. 1690. Thomas was the eldest son of
Co. Humphrey and Anne. He married Anne Bulkeley, the daughter and
heiress of Richard Bulkeley of Buntingsdale, Shropshire. They resided
in Betton Grange, Shropshire. They had several children one of which is:
SIR HUMPHREY - b. January 1657 d. August 25, 1727. Sir
Humphrey matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on December 11, 1674
and entered at the Middle Temple on June 10, 1675, being called to the
bar in 1682. Narcissus Luttrell gives him the title of "comptroller
of the Temple." He was described as of the Middle Temple on being
knighted at Whitehall on January 15, 1682-3, and when James II, on his
accession yo the throne, continued to collect the customs, though they
had been granted for the life of Charles II only, an address of thanks
was presented to him by Mackworth on behalf of that in of the court.
He had a residence at Bentley, in the parish of Tardebigge, Worcestershire,
but his means were inconsiderable until he married Mary Evans in 1686.
Mary was the daughter of Sir Herbert Evans of Gnoll, Glamorganshire.
Mary, by the death of her four sisters became the sole heiress of her father's
property.
In 1695 he was engaged in developing colleries and copper
smelting works at Melincryddan, near Neath, Wales, and the improvements
which he introduced into them are set out by William Waller in his introduction
to an "Essay on the Mines late of Sir Carbery Price," in 1698. He
then spent £15,000 in purchasing the controlling interest in Sir
Carbery's mines and in acquiring additional property in the neighbourhood.
The mines and smelting works were transferred to a company, with
the imposing title of "The Corporation of the Governor and Company of the
Mine Adventurers of England," the Duke of Leeds being governor and
Mackworth deputy-governor. A large sum of money was raised by lottery
in 1698 and 1699 for carrying on these undertakings, and was spent in the
construction of quays, canals, and docks; but the scheme received so much
opposition from local sources that in December 1705 several servants of
Sir Edward Mansel, an adjoining proprietor, were brought before the House
of Commons for breaches of privilege against Mackworth. By 1709, when their
capital had been sunk, the members of the corporation quarrelled among
themselves; William Waller, the manager, was discharged, and Mackworth
was accused by his enemies of peculation. On March 31, 1710 the House
of Commons, without a dissentient voice, voted him guilty of many frauds
in violation of the company's charter, and the next day a bill was brought
in to restrain him, William Shiers, the secretary, and Thomas Dykes, the
treasurer from leaving the country, and to alienate their estates.
The Whigs were then in the ascendant, but their power was passing away,
and although the bill passed the House of Commons it did not become law.
The Rev. Thomas Yalden [q.v.] addressed a poem to Mackworth "on the Mines
late of Sir Carbery Price" (Chalmers, Literary Anecdotes, i, 19-21).
Among those by Mackworth are "The Mine-Adventurers, or an Expedient for
Composing all Differences between the Partners, and for Establishing a
new Method of Management." 1698: "A Short State of the Case and Proceedings
of the Company of Mine-Adventurers," 1710; and "Second Part of the Book
of Vouchers," 1711.
Through his connection with South Wales, Mackworth was
appointed Constable of Neath Castle in 1703, and sat in Parliament for
Cardiganshire from February 1700-1 to November 1701, from August 1702 to
April 1705, and from November 1710 to August 1713. In 1705 he was
a candidate for Oxford University, but was not elected, whereupon there
was issued "The Doleful Complaints of Sir H.M." (State Poems, 1707, iv
22), and from June 1705 until April 1707 he represented the borough of
Totnes in Devonshire. Mackworth was a church tory. He was one
of the four laymen who on March 8, 1608-9 met Dr. Thomas Bray (1656-1730)[q.v.]
and drew up certain resolutions which ended in the formation of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Afterwards he was among its earliest
and largest subscribers, and a member of its committee for establishing
church libraries in Wales. In 1705 there came out a pamphlet called
"The Memorial of the Church of England," with the object of exposing the
designs of the Whigs against the church. It attracted great attention,
and was presented as a "seditious and treasonable libel," and it was discovered
that as soon as it was struck off 150 copies were sent to Mackworth.
In January 1705-6 Shiers, his associate, was taken into custody about it,
and the next month a man named Powell was brought before the privy council
at Whitehall to see if he would implicate Mackworth.
Sir Humphrey's political and financial publications comprised:
1. "England's Glory, or the Great Improvement of Trade
by a Royal Bank or Office of Credit to be erected in London," 1694.
2. "A Vindication of the Rights of Commons of England,"
1701. This tract was included in the editions of "Somers Tracts," 1751
and 1809.
3. "Peace at Home,or a Vindication of the Proceedings
of the House of Commons on the Bill for Preventing Danger from Occasional
Conformity," 1703 which provoked many replies, including one from Defoe,
entitled "Peace without Union."
4. "A Letter from a Member of Parliament to his Friend
in the Country, giving a Short Account of the Proceedings of the Tackers"
[anon], 1704.
5. "A Bill for the better Relief, Imployment, and Settlement
of the Poor," 1704.
6. "Free Parliaments, or a Vindication of the Fundamental
Rights of the Commons of England to be sole Judges of the Privileges of
the Electors and of the Elected; being a Vindication of the Proceedings
in the Case between Ashby against White," 1704. An abstract of this work
appeared in 1705; it was reproduced as an appendix to "The State of the
Case between Ashby and White," 1705, and it was included in the editions
of "Somers Tracts." 1751 and 1809.
7. "A Brief Account of the Tack, in a letter to a Friend"
[anon] 1705.
8. "Down with the Mug, or Reasons for Suppressing the
Mug Houses" [anon], 1717.
9. "A Proposal for Paying off the Public Debts by the
appropriated Funds, without raising Taxes upon Land, Malt, or other things
for that purpose" [anon], 1720.
10. "Sir Humphrey Mackworth's Proposal, being a new Scheme
offer'd for the Payment of the Public Debts," 1720. This scheme, which
passed through five editions in 1720, was of the same kind as that suggested
by John Law in France, and involved the creation of "a new species of money"
Sir Humphrey was also the author of a "Treatise concerning
the Divine Authority of the Scriptures, the Divinity of our blessed Savior,"
&c., 2nd edit. 1704, which was supplemented by "A Discourse by way
of Dialogue concerning (1) Providence, (2) the Happiness of a Religious
Life," &c., 1705.
References: Le Neve's Knights (Harl. Soc.), p. 369; Meyrick's
Cardiganshire, pp. ccxxiv-xxxiii; Foster's AlumniOxon.; Foster's Peerage;
Nicholas's Glamorganshire, pp 88, 127-8; G. Grant Francis's Copper Smelting
at Swansea, 1881, pp. 81-96; Return of Members of Parliament, i, 592, 606,
ii, 2, 26; Luttrell's Hist. Relation, i 246, iv. 434, v. 61, 627, vi. 13,
564-6; Hearne's Collections, ed. Doble, i. 170-80; Bagford Ballads, ii
825-34; Overton's English Church, 1660-1714, p 216; McClure's Minutes of
S.P.C.K. pp. 1-11, 31, 35, 246, 269; Halkett and Laing's Anon. Literature,
pp 259, 702, 1351, 2035; House of Commons' Journals, xv. 69, 75, 122, 405,
xvi. 391-5.
Mackworth died on August 25, 1727, and was buried on August
27, 1727. His wife died before 1705.
Col. Humphrey and Mary had three sons, the youngest son was:
William Morgan - b. 1690 d. 1750. William married
Martha Praed the daughter of John Praed of Trevathen, Cornwall. John was
a Minister to Parliament from St. Ives in 1708. He took the additional
name of Praed, and was an ancestor of the poet.
AGNES - b. 1617 d. 1670. (See Below).
AGNES MACKWORTH
b. 1617 d. 1670
AGNES - b. 1617 d. 1670. Agnes was from Betton Grange, England. She
married COL. WILLIAM CROWNE between 1635 and 1640. She was previously married
to Richard Watts of Hertfordshire who died in 1635. Both Agnes and William
emigrated to Massachusetts and both died in Boston, MA. (See page 30 in
the Crowne Family History for a list of their children).
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