Charles Worsley

Worsley was the son of Ralph Worsley, of The Platt, Rusholme and his wife Isabel Massy, daughter of Edward Massy of Manchester.[3] He was a parliamentary captain in Lancashire in 1644. By 1650 he was lieutenant colonel of regiment raised in Lancashire for Cromwell. In 1651 he was employed in the reduction of the Isle of Man.

Worsley commanded the detachment used in the expulsion of the Long Parliament[4] in 1653 and took charge of the "bauble" when Cromwell ordered it to be removed.[3]

In 1654, Worsley was elected the first Member of Parliament for Manchester in the First Protectorate Parliament.[5][4] During the Rule of the Major-Generals, Worsley governed a district consisting of Cheshire, Lancashire and Staffordshire.[2][4] He confiscated the property of Royalists, put Roman Catholics in jail, suppressed horse-racing, and promoted the public good according to his own ideals. He died suddenly in 1656 at the age of 33 and was buried in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey.[3]

• Plant, David (18 December 2007). Charles Worsley, Major-General, 1622-56. British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website. Retrieved 8 July 2009.
• Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 263.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1903). "Worsley, Charles". Index and Epitome. Dictionary of National Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 1437. (see also main entry lxiii 32)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Firth, Charles (1900). "Worsley, Charles". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 63. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 32–33.

• Espinasse, Francis (1874). "VI. The First Member for Manchester". Lancashire Worthies. Simpkin, Marshall, & Co . pp. 96–114.
• Royle, William (1941). "Major General Worsley". History of Rusholme: With a gossipy talk of men and things (PDF). Manchester: Printed at the William Morris Press. pp. 14–17.