Family and Education

b. by 1520, either s. of Richard Aldworth of Tilehurst, nr. Reading by Elizabeth ?Gerying or s. of Robert Aldworth of Wantage by Alice; bro. of Thomas Aldworth^†. m. Alice, da. and h. of John Barfote of Reading, wid. of one Symonds, 4s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Guardian of London ward, Reading 1541, member of guild 1542, jt. constable 1544-5, mayor 1551-2, Nov. 1557-8, 1561-2, 1571-2.2

Biography

William Aldworth of Clapcot, Berkshire, whose will was proved on 3 Feb. 1525, held some property in Reading but Thomas Aldworth was the first bearer of this common Berkshire name to figure in the corporation diary. He was, like Richard Aldworth of Tilehurst, whose will is dated 8 Nov. 1543, a clothier but he owned a house in Wantage ‘as heir to my father’ and the two brothers whom he named in his will, John and Richard, bore the same names as two other sons of Robert Aldworth, a tanner of Wantage. During the first of his four terms as mayor, Aldworth received Edward VI on 12 Sept. 1552 and during the second, when he replaced the dead William Edmonds (probably the Member of that name), he was returned to Parliament. In the charter of 1560 he was named one of the town’s nine capital burgesses. Although it has been suggested that his intention in purchasing ornaments and vestments from his parish church of St. Giles (where he was churchwarden from 1550 to 1552) during Edward VI’s reign and again on Elizabeth’s accession may have been to preserve them, his will, made on 4 Jan. and proved on 7 Feb. 1577, has a Protestant flavour. Besides his house at Wantage, he left houses and property in Reading and elsewhere in Berkshire and a London house in Watling Street. The Aldworth family continued to sit in Parliament, especially as Members for Reading, and in 1797 succeeded to the barony of Braybrooke.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: T. F.T. Baker

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Reading Chs. ed. Pritchard 38; PCC 6 Daughtry.
• 2. Reading Recs. i. pp. xli, 175, 179, 187, 220, 253, 263, 311.
• 3. PCC 30 Bodfelde, 8 Ketchyn, 17 Wrastley, 6 Daughtry; Quarterly Jnl. Berks. Arch. Soc. ii. 151, 153-4; Misc. Gen. et Her. n.s. iv. 173-4; (ser. 3), v. 107, 114; Reading Recs. i. 228, 253-4; Reading Chs. 36-38, 43; CPR, 1558-60, p. 284; L. Harman, St. Giles, Reading, 20, 21, 50; Reading MPs, 82.