James Bass Mullinger

“ WORTHINGTON, JOHN (1618−1671) , master of Jesus College, Cambridge, was a native of Manchester, where he was born in February 1617−18. He was the son of Roger Worthington and Katharine Heywood his wife, both members of families of the corresponding names in the county palatine ofLancaster, and described as ‘persons of chief note and esteem in the town’ (Diary and Corresp. i. 2−3, ii. 372) . ”

“ Anne married Meshach Smith, formerly of Jesus College, Cambridge, and afterwards vicar of Hendon in Middlesex; the other two died in infancy.
By his contemporaries Worthington was generally regarded as an Arminian; but his sympathies were rather philosophical than theological, and he shared with the school of the Cambridge Platonists (to which he stood in close relation) their dislike to dogmatic intolerance. ”

“ In 1663, however, he resigned the living of Ditton for that of Barking and Needham in Suffolk, and about the same time was collated to the sinecure living of Moulton All Saints in Norfolk. He was still far from affluent, and writing to a friend (28 Oct. 1664) he says: ‘Our expenses will be beyond our receipts, and yet we are as frugal, both for diet and apparel, as we can be’ (Diary, ii. 139) . He was now appointed preacher at the church of St. Benet Fink in London, and removed to the city. ”