Edward RUSHWORTH (1755-1817)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note 1

... of Freshwater House, Isle of Wight. Edward, was without a break the MP for either Newport or Yarmouth from 1784 until 1797.

Edward Rushworth was a Founders' Kin Scholar of Winchester College (and, I believe, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxon). He took Deacon's Orders in the Church, and was afterwards MP for yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and Recorder of Newport. He built farringford and resided there (it is now the residence of Lord Tennyson). He was also afterwards MP (1784 onwards) for Newport. On his election the unsuccessful candidate, Mr. John Harrington, petitioned the House against the validity of his return on the ground of his being in Holy Orders. A Select Committee was appointed to consider it, and reported that Mr. Rushworth had been "duly elected to serve in this Parliament". Afterwards, in order to get rid of Horne Tooke, an Act was passed disqualifying all the clergy of the Church of England from sitting in the House of Commons. This Act took effect in 1802.

Individual Note 3

EDWARD RUSHWORTH, Esq. . b. At Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, Edward Rushworth, esq. of Farringford Hill, and mayor of Yarmouth. He was seized with apoplexy while sitting on a bench, conversing with a friend, on the Quay at Yarmouth ; a medical gentleman was on the spot, who bled him, and caused him to be carried to the George Inn, where he lingered from Monday till Wednesday, when he expired. The death of this truly respectable gentleman excited a sensation of the deepest regret in all who had the pleasure of knowing him. Mr. Rushworth was many years representative in Parliament for the Boroughs of Yarmouth and Newport, and was much esteemed for the independence of his charaeter and for his intellectual endowments. He was a gentleman of pure and virtuous principles, steadily and zealously attached to the Establishment in Church and State, and eminently distinguished for a sense of duty in every relation of life. He was an intelligent and useful Magistrate, a good father, an affectionate husband, a kind master, and a firm friend. — On the day of his funeral the shops and private houses in the town were closed (a circumstance sufficiently expressive to mark the estimation of his high character). In the immediate neighbourhood of his late residence, his death is an event which will be long and deeply lamented, and by it the community at large have lost the benefit of a valuable example. Mr. Rushworth married the Hon. Catherine Holmes, daughter of the late Lord Holmes, by whom he had a large family. His son and heir is married to a daughter of Sir Everard Home; one of his daughters married to Col. Murray, Deputy-adjutant-general in Ireland, and another to Sir John Pringle Dalrymple, bart. ; and he was father of the late gallant Capt. Rushworth, of the Barbadoes frigate. ISAAC SERRA, Etc. An essential use of this Obituary is that it teaches our best readers, how many fellow Christians have lived with as unblemished a fame, and as sincere a piety, and how many have died with at resigned and fervent a hope of future mercy, as themselves : and we proceed to state the decease of a gentleman, who, although of a different persuasion from ourselves, well deserves " the due meed of fame" from one who, during 30 years past, well knew much of his character, and witnessed much of his liberality.