George Acworth (1534 - bef. 1586)

Born 1534 in London, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Horne) Ackworth — married 24 Dec 1564 in Farnham, Surrey, England

Descendants

Died before 1586 before age 52 in Ireland [uncertain]

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Biography

George Acworth is Notable.

George Acworth was born in Middlesex, England.

George was a member of the Church of England

Early Life

George Acworth was born^[1] in London in 1534.

He was the son^[2] of Thomas Acworth and Ann Wylde. George's father was a Freeman of the Merchant Taylor's Company in 1533 and Master of the Company in 1559^[3].

George's siblings were^[2]: Richard (born 1532); Thomasyn (born 1535); Thomas (born 1537); Chad (born 1539) and Anne (born 1545).

Education

George Acworth was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge University^[4]. He matriculated on 12 Nov 1548. He was a B.A. in 1521-2 and an M.A. in 1555, when he subscribed the Roman Catholic Articles imposed that year on all graduates. He was a Fellow of the College 1553-1562 and a LL.D. 1560-61 at Cambridge University. George was also recognised at Oxford University^[5].

He was one of 6 Acworth cousins at Cambridge between 1548 and 1555. He was joined by two brothers (Richard and Thomas and his 3 cousins Henry, Stephen and William. They all had to subscribe to the Roman Catholic articles. Stephen may have been a brother^[1] rather than a cousin. This was a time of intense change in England as noted below.

Life as a Marian Exile

George Acworth left England during the latter part of Queen Mary's reign and spent that period studying the Classics and Civil Law, first in France and then in Italy at Padua^[1]. He wrote to Cardinal Reginald Pole, Queen Mary's Archbishop of Canterbury from Padua on 1 December 1558. He was not aware that the Archbishop and the Queen had died on 17 November 1558. In the letter to Cardinal Pole, George Acworth says his father wanted him to enter commerce and his mother the Common Law. He knew latin and had studied at Cambridge, Louvain, Paris and Padua and desired another position. This letter, written in Latin has been fully translated by Graham Horton-Smith^[1] and published in his book.

It was at that time that he was the elected representative of the English Students and Doctors at the University of Padua and in that capacity and hearing rumours of Elizabeth's Accession to the Throne, he travelled to Venice for confirmation of the news and to write a letter on 13 December 1558 to Queen Elizabeth. This letter in Latin is also translated by Graham Horton-Smith^[1] and published in his book. Thomas Geniston also gave witness to George Acworth in Padua in his book^[6] in 1558.

Professional Life

After completing his studies at Padua he returned to England and through Mathew Parker (soon to be elected Cardinal Pole's successor as Archbishop of Canterbury) he became^[7] Public Orator of Cambridge University on 16 May 1559, at the age of 25. George Acworth wrote to Archbishop Parker on 23 March 1560 from Cambridge^[1] which has been translated by Graham Horton-Smith. While in Cambridge, he delivered a famous speech on 30 July 1560 at the Great St Mary's - The University Church, in memory of the reformers Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius.

On 14 February 1561 he took his LL.D. at Cambridge^[5] and at or about this time he was appointed^[2][1] Chancellor and Vicar-General to Robert Horne, then Bishop of Winchester and an ardent Protestant and zealous advocate of the reformed doctrines that had been consecrated at Lambeth on 16 February 1561.

Family

George Acworth married^[2] Elizabeth Horne, eldest daughter of Robert Horne on 24 December 1564 in the Chapel of Farnham Castle, Surrey. This was one of the residences of the Bishops of Winchester^[1]. They had 3 children^[2]: Richard (born 1565), Frances (born 1567) and Catherine. Richard was baptised^[8] at Winchester: St Swithun in 1565 while Frances was baptised ^[9] there in 1567. St Swithan over Kingsgate in Winchester is a Church that is built into the upper part of the city wall close to the Kingsgate and adjacent to Winchester Cathedral.

St Swithun over King's Gate, Winchester

Interior of St Swithun over Kingsgate. Baptismal Font in middle ground.

Baptism data for Catherine has not been located. She may have been born in Kent. Her position on the tree is proven by the pedigree of her husband George Barker which is included from Wills and Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica as found on Page 25 of the Acworth Pedigree^[2]

Pedigree of Barker and Bulkeley

Professional Life again

In the capacity of Commissary to Bishop Horne, George visited many Oxford Colleges, namely: Magdalene, New College and Corpus Christi College and also Winchester, the Cathedral College. On 3 November 1562 he was admitted as an Advocate of the Court of Arches: then as now, a Court of Appeal belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury, the Judge was entitled The Dean of the Arches^[1]. Visits to the Oxford Colleges were frequent and repeated. Magdalene College in September 1561 and in 1562, again in September 1566 and in March and September 1567. On 19 December 1566 he has visited Trinity College and was dissatisfied with what he encountered. On 22 March 1566 he had been incorporated at Oxford University as an LL.D. of Cambridge. The last mention of him in Bishop Horne's register is in 1567 when he had left Winchester.

Georgius Ackworthe was one of the Prebends of Southwell Minster^[10] in Nottinghamshire. His appointment was to the North Muskham Prebendary. He was resident^[11] there between 1559 to 1566, when he resigned. His sureties were Thomas Acworth and Thomas Pope - both Merchant Taylors^[2]

His incumbencies were Freckingham Rectory, Suffolk, 7 February 1561; Aston Flamvill, Leicestershire, Rectory, 29 June 1560; The living of Aston Flamvill was in the gift of the same Sir Henry Grey who was named as the supervisor in the will of his grandfather George Acworth of Toddington and Anthony Grey, afterwards Earl of Kent, was his successor in it.

About 1570 George Acworth became a member^[1] of the household of Archbishop Mathew Parker^[12] in Canterbury. He was one of the Archbishop's secretaries helping with the cataloging of all the MSS dispersed by Henry VIII when the monastries were disbanded. He had written to Archbishop Mathew Parker in 1660/61. His letter in his own handwriting is reproduced by the Cambridge Bibliographical Society^[13]

Handwritten letter from George Acworth to Mathew Parker (in Latin)

He helped Archbishop Mathew Parker compile his famous De Antiquitate Brittanicae Ecclesiae (https://www.anglican.net/works/matthew-parker-on-the-antiquity-of-the-church-in-britain-de-antiquitate-britannicae-ecclesiae-1572/). He also wrote a response to Sander's catholic treatise "De Visibili Monarchia Ecclesia" entitled" De Visibili Rom'anarchia"^[7]. George Acworth stayed with Archbishop Mathew Parker until his death on 17 May 1575 and was one of the official mourners at his funeral^[2].

Some two weeks before his death, Archbishop Parker requested Bishop Horne to appoint George Acworth to be Rector of Wroughton with Elingdon^[1] in the Diocese of Sarum, Wiltshire. This appointment was necessary because the previous encumbant John Watson had been made Bishop of Winchester. George Acworth held this appointment between 13 July 1575 to 11 October 1580^[11].

Appointment to Dublin

The Elizabethan Viceroy, Sir Henry Sidney, recruited George Acworth (a noted intellectual, civil layer and apologist for English Protestantism^[7]) in March 1577 to be the Master of Faculties and Judge of the Prerogative Court in Ireland. This was after Archbishop Mathew Parker had died in 1575. Queen Elizabeth had become concerned at the state of the Church in Dublin and decided that there should be a Commission for the granting of Faculties in Ireland. That Commission was granted to George Acworth, Dr of the Civil Laws and Robert Garvey, M.A. and bachelor of Law, under the Supremacy of 2 Elizabeth and the Act of Faculties 28 Henry 8 on 18 March 1767-77^[1]. Queen Elizabeth's Fiat is transcribed below.

In 1578 George is working in Ireland. He receives a request^[14]to investigate the legal proceedings surrounding a marriage of Edward Waterhouse, of the parish of St Peter in Drohega, and Elizabeth Villiers.

It was this granting of significant power over the existing clergy in Dublin that is thought^[1] to have led to major dissatisfaction and 'bad mouthing' of George Acworth that was later taken up without question by other recorders of history^[15].

There is a letter^[16] from The Lords of the Council in England to the Lord Deputy, commanding him to require Doctors Ackworth and Garvey to forebear the execution of their office of faculties, and other ecclesiastical jurisdiction, it having been alleged there were grave objections, and great inconveniences likely to result from the use of the office and the exercise of such ecclesiastical authority. The letter was signed by W Burghly, R Leycester, Chr. Hatton, Thomas Wylson, T. Sussex, F Knollys, F Walsingham and Wa. Mellemay. The letter was from Westminster and signed 25 February 1578.

Politics came to the fore and the commision to these preferements was revoked^[17] by Queen Elizabeth in a letter to the Lord Deputy from Westminster on 21 March 1578/9. The letter instructs the Lord Deputy to suspend Doctors Acworth and Garvey in the execution of their office in consideration of their mean quality.

George Acworth stayed in Ireland on working for the Archbishop of Armagh. He was Vicar-General of Dublin - before 2/12/1578.

George Acworth was still Vicar General^[2] to Archbishop of Armagh (Thomas Lancaster) 26 April 1581 in Ireland. The Archbishop of Armagh writes that Dr Acworth is to stay in Ireland and that he is working as his Vicar General.

It is not recorded exactly where or when George Acworth died. A death before 1586^[1] is suggested. George Acworth's widow married Anthony Dering of Charing, Kent and the baptism of their first born, Elizabeth was on 27 August 1587.

Research Notes

Fiat of Queen Elizabeth to George Acworth and Robert Garvey

The Fiat of Queen Elizabeth is included in the Deputy Keeper's Report on Public Records in Ireland, Report B, No 2996 (1576-77). This has been transcribed from the Monograph by Horton-Smith^[1].

Commission to George Acworthe, Dr. of the Civil Laws, and Robert Garvey, M.A. and bachelor of Law, under the Act of Supremacy 2 Eliz. and the Act of Faculties 28 Hen. 8 for the granting of licences, dispensations, faculties and all other writings which may be given virtue of the Act of of Faculties to remove the inconveniences of having to apply for such to the Archbishop of Canterbury; with power to call before them all persons having ecclesiastical benefices or promotions, to compel them to exhibit their titles and letters of orders and to revoke them if not conversant with the Act of Faculties and other Ecclesiastical laws, remove the incumbents and notify the patrons of the Crown if, by lapse of time, the benefice devolve to its gift, and to give institution and collation to such as the Crown shall nominate; they shall hear and determine all causes of devolutions; they shall prove and insinuate testaments and wills, and grant letters of administration of the goods of persons having goods in diverse diocese, and take accounts of executors according to the usage of the perogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they shall hear and determine all testamentary causes, and do any other such thing as the said Archbishop may do. This Commission to supersede all former or future Commissions of the same nature. To hold for their lives and that of the survivor receiving half of the fees prescribed by the Act of Faculties. They are further empowered to exercise ecclesiastical censure and coersion upon such as shall not obey their lawful commands, and to sequester their fruits and impose reasonable fines and to bind them in reconisance.

18 March [1576-77].

Events in English History at the time

The period at Cambridge and after was one of major changes in English Society brought about by King Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. Some of these events include^[18]:

Inaccuracies in biographies

George Acworth has his own Wikipedia page^[15]There are two serious inaccuracies in this Wikipedia article.

He was not actually a 'Divine'^[1] and he did not leave England for Ireland on account of being turned out "due to his dissolute behaviour". He had resigned his appointments before his appointment by Queen Elizabeth to the Commission in Ireland.

A full and detailed account of his life is given by Horton-Smith^[1] including a detailed refutation of the suggestion that he lost his preferments in England as a result of his dissolute behaviour. This is shown by Horton-Smith to be the result of a malignant letter from a deposed Irish Cleric that had been embellished and quoted by later historians that did not check their sources! In an Addendum to his book, Horton-Smith refers to the works of Dean Walter Farquhar Hook, D.D., F.R.S., Dean of Chichester: Volume IV, New Series, 1872 includes a 600 page account of the life of Archbishop Parker. Dr Hook records George Acworth as amongst Archbishop Parker's special friends - "found among the excellent of the earth - and, after first mentioning the Archbishop's Chaplains and other clerical friends, inclusive of seven Bishops and of John Mann, Warden of New College, Oxford, then proceeds:

In the line of general literature, of philosophy and of political science, where could we find men superior to that wisest of ministers Sir William Cecil, 'a name dear to many hearts', Lord Keeper Bacon, Sir John Cheke, Whitgift (destined to occupy the episcopal throne of Canterbury), Robert Talbot, George Owen (physician to Henry VIII), Martin Bucer, William Lambarde, John Stow, Walter Haddon, Dr Ackworth, Sir Thomas Smith and the Archbishop's Secretaries John Josceline and Alexander Neville. Thus, in this group of cultured and distinguished personalities of that time, we find Dr Acworth himself to occupy a due and honoured place. Not the person who could have lost his preferments due to his disolute behaviour!

Not the MP for Hindon in Wiltshire

Some authorities (Such as the HoP^[19]) have reported that George Acworth was also the MP for Hindon in Wiltshire in 1562/63. The area is in the giving of the Bishop of Winchester and based on that and the fact that there was a close relationship between Bishop Horne - Archbishop of Winchester (he was George's Father-in-law) it had been assumed that George Acworth filled this role. However, it was George Acworth - Merchant Taylor^[1][2] his cousin that actually held this role. Possibly George Acworth recommended his cousin to his father-in-law!

Children of George Acworth

His first two children Richard and Frances were baptised at Winchester in 1565 and 1567. He left Winchester in 1567 and by 1570 was working for Archbishop Parker in Canterbury. This is probably where his third child Catherine was born, most likely in 1569.

The Acworth Pedigree^[1][2] has four children for George. There is a Fraunce and another unknown daughter that marries Achilles Giffard. The Will of Achilles' brother John Giffard refers to his sister-in-law as "Frances Ackworthe of Kent". From this it seems that Fraunce was in fact Frances and these two daughters identified in the Acworth Pedigree are now merged as Frances Acworth who married Achilles Giffard. There is extensive Giffard Family history^[20] available.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18} 'George Acworth - A Full account of his life':
   "L. Graham H. Horton-Smith (1953) George Acworth - A full account of his life together with a translation of his letters in Latin and a complete refutation of all aspersions. A monograph revised and much implemented from Notes and Queries (Oxford University Press) of 7 and 21 September 1947 and 1 and 29 April, 27 May, 24 June and 5 August 1950
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10} Acworth Family Pedigree:
   Green, W.A. and G. Brindley Acworth. Pedigree of Acworth of Bedfordshire, Etc.: Together with some notes on the genealogy. London: Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1905. FamilySearch. See also this space page: Acworth Pedigree
3. ↑ ["The History of Merchant-Taylors School, from Its Foundation to the present time, Volume 1" by Rev. H. B. Wilson [1]]
4. ↑ [Venn, John Archibald, Comp. Alumni Cantabrigienses (Cambridge University Press, 1922)]
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} ["Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886" Ancestry Record 8942 #396350]
6. ↑ ["Padua and the Tudors: English Students in Italy, 1485-1603" (1998) by Jonathan Woolfson published by James Clarke & Co Ltd, Cambridge. ISBN 0 227 67942 3]
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2} [Murray, James (2009) Enforcing the English Reformation in Ireland - Clerical Resistance and Political Conflict in the Diocese of Dublin, 1534-1590. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77038-5]
8. ↑ ["Winchester : St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate Unspecified" FreeReg on-line database accessed 12 December 2020 Richard Ackworthe [2]]
9. ↑ ["Winchester : St Swithun-upon-Kingsgate Parish Record Unspecified" FreeReg on-line database accessed 11 December 2020 Fraunce Ackworthe [3]]
10. ↑ [Wikipedia contributors, "Prebends of Southwell," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [4] (accessed July 10, 2021).]
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} ["Clergy of the Church of England database" [5]]
12. ↑ [Wikipedia contributors, "Matthew Parker," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [6] (accessed July 15, 2021).]]
13. ↑ ["The Dispersal of the Monastic Libraries and the Beginnings of Anglosaxon Studies: Mathew Parker and his Circle: A Preliminary Study." C. E. Wright. Source: Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society , 1951, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1951), pp. 208-237. Published by: Cambridge Bibliographical Society Stable [7]]
14. ↑ ["Calendar of the patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth" [8]]
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} [Wikipedia contributors, "George Acworth (Anglican divine)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, [9] (accessed February 27, 2022).]
16. ↑ "Calendar of the patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth" - Membrane 17 [[10]]
17. ↑ "Calendar of the patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, of the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth - Membrane 17 "[[11]]
18. ↑ ["English History Years 1530 to 1560" [12]]
19. ↑ ["History of Parliament 1558 - 1603 for George Acworth" [13]]
20. ↑ ["Note from Giffard Family Bloodline" [14]]