John Worthington, Sr.

Background

John Worthington, Sr. was born on November 24, 1719, in Springfield, Massachussets, the son of John Worthington and Mary Pratt, and the grandson of Nicholas Worthington, who emigrated from England to Saybrook, Connecticut, about 1650.

Education

Worthington, Sr. was graduated from Yale College in 1740 and remained to study theology.

Career

From 1742 to 1743 he was a tutor at Yale, leaving to study law under Phineas Lyman of Suffield, Connecticut, then part of Massachusetts. He began to practise law at Springfield in 1744, where with Joseph Hawley of Northampton he did much to raise the standing of the bar in that part of the province. For many years he was the king's attorney, or public prosecutor, in western Massachusetts. When the French and Indian War broke out he took an active part in the raising and provisioning of troops. He was colonel of one of the Hampshire regiments, a post he held until the outbreak of the Revolution.

Gradually he became a man of considerable wealth, to a large extent through land speculation. One of his ventures resulted in the settlement in 1768 of the town of Worthington, Massachussets, which was named for him. Meanwhile he had become the political dictator of Springfield; he was regularly a member of the board of selectmen and moderator of the town meetings. For many years high sheriff of Hampshire County, he had great influence in the county's affairs. He represented Springfield at the Massachusetts General Court almost continuously from 1747 to 1774, an able legislator who grew steadily more conservative as the province moved towards revolution. He attended the Albany Congress in 1754 and a decade later favored the calling of the Stamp Act Congress, although he declined to be a delegate to its meetings at New York in October 1765. From 1767 to 1769 he was a member of the governor's council but was not reëlected in 1769, apparently because he supported the governor in the quarrel with the House of Representatives. In 1774 he was appointed a mandamus councillor, but a mob forced him to recant his Loyalism. His political influence at an end, he planned to emigrate to Nova Scotia, but friends prevailed upon him to remain in Massachusetts. Gradually he became reconciled to the separation from Great Britain, contributed funds for the army and by 1778 was again active in Springfield politics. He served on the commission that settled the Massachusetts-Connecticut boundary in 1791. Throughout his declining years he was interested in local affairs and was one of the incorporators of the company that began the building of canals around the falls of the Connecticut River in the last decade of the century.

John Worthington died on April 25, 1800, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Achievements

• John Worthington, Sr. was a wealthy and influential lawyer practicing in 18th-century Springfield, Massachusetts, who served for many years as king’s attorney of western Massachusetts and high sheriff of Hampshire County.

Connections

On January 10, 1759, John Worthington, Sr. married Hannah Hopkins, by whom he had five children.

After the death of his wife, on December 7, 1768, he married Mary Stoddard, the daughter of Col. John Stoddard of Northampton.

Father:

John Worthington

Mother:

Mary Worthington (Pratt)

Wife:

Mary Worthington (Stoddard)

Wife:

Hannah Worthington (Hopkins)

Daughter:

Hannah Dwight (Worthington)

Daughter:

Frances Ames (Worthington)

Daughter:

Sophia Williams (Worthington)

Daughter:

Mary Bliss (Worthington)

Son:

John Worthington, Jr.