The Rigby Family

Extracts taken from “A DISCOURSE of the WARR IN LANCASHIRE” edited by W. Beamont and published by the Chetham Society Vol. LXII

Alexander Rigby (1594-1660)---of Middleton Hall in Goosnargh near Preston (Route No 20) was connected with some of the best families in Lancashire and Cheshire. He married Lucy, daughter of Sir Uriah Leigh of Adlington in Cheshire, and had issue:

(1) Alexander, his successor.

(2) Uriah, who died without issue.

(3) Edward, a barrister at law, who married first, Alice daughter of Sir Thomas Wilford, by whom he had issue Alexander Thomas, Edward, Charles, Lucy and Elizabeth; he married secondly, Frances, daughter of Sir Francis Molyneux baronet.

(4) Lucy, who married Robert Hesketh of Rufford esquire. Some of his family is remembered in the will of Dorothy Legh of Lyme.

Alexander Rigby, senior, who had been bred to the law, was elected M.P. for Wigan in the two parliaments of 1640. In 1658 he was elected M.P. for the county of Lancaster. He took arms as a colonel in the service of the Parliament, and at the sieges of Lathom and Thurland, the defence of Bolton and on many other occasions, had the command.

At the siege of Lathom his son Alexander Rigby, then serving under him as a lieutenant colonel, was taken prisoner, and only released after a long negotiation in exchange for his relation, Uriah Legh. Death overtook the father on 19th August 1660 when holding the assizes at Croydon, a prisoner sick with goal fever was brought before them and the two judges took the infection and both of them fell victims to it.

Edward Rigby, a barrister, son of Alexander Rigby, referred to as sergeant Rigby in other parts of this text, fell into pecuniary difficulties and was thrown into prison for debt. On the 15th February 1646 his father, who said he had been his servant for three months, and was thereby exempt from imprisonment as being in the service of a Parliament man, sought to have him released. His creditors, however, who were not inclined to yield obedience to this very creditable claim of parliamentary privilege, persisted in detaining him until the 18th January following. They were stopped by an order of the House, which commanded both the judges and the counsel and solicitors concerned to yield obedience to the privilege claimed. The prisoner thus released, only a few days after was put forward as a candidate for the office of clerk of the crown for Lancashire. This office was vacant by the removal for delinquency of a different Colonel Alexander Rigby of the Burge in Standish and of Layton-with-Warbreck an active royalist. On the question being proposed the House decided that it should not be put to the vote, and immediately appointed William Ashurst to the office.

Edward Rigby, who served during the Usurpation as a sequestrator of delinquents’ estates, ultimately attained the rank of a sergeant-at-law. After the Restoration he became a deputy-lieutenant, and in that character he dealt out the saving mercies of the party he had formerly persecuted. In 1660, 1661, 1678 and 1679 he was M.P. for Preston.

On the 22nd December 1663 he was appointed one of the commissioners to see Lancaster Castle repaired. On the 10th January 1665 he joined his brother magistrates in apportioning among the several hundreds the sum ordered by parliament to be raised for the county.

Immediately after the accession of James II in February 1685, the year of Gregory King’s survey, when the king was suspected of a design upon the constitution, Edward Rigby and his brother Alexander, well known as friends of liberty, fell under suspicion, and the following warrant was issued against them;

“Having received intimation that Alexander Rigby of Middleton Hall in Goosnargh and Edward Rigby of Preston sergeant-at-law are persons disloyal to his majesty government and of principles obnoxious to the public peace and at this juncture not fit to be at large. These are to command you that you forthwith take into your custody the body of them and each of them and keep a guard upon them in some convenient place till you receive further order herein. Given under my hand and seal at Knowsley this 18th day of June 1685 DERBY”

In pursuance of this warrant Edward Rigby was taken and lodged in Chester castle four days afterwards. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Rigby, of Longley Hall, Inglewhite, eldest son of Colonel Alexander Rigby of Middleton Hall promoted the measures taken against Lady Derby after her husband’s death in October 1651. In 1658 he was M.P. for Lancaster, and in that and the following year he was a frequent speaker. It does not appear whether he was ever taken under the warrant mentioned as issued against him and Edward Rigby.

Major Joseph Rigby, one of the numerous Rigbys on the parliamentary side, was the brother of George Rigby, and had a grant from King James I, of the reversion of the clerkship of the peace for Lancashire.