Richard Hollinworth

Richard Hollinworth (also Hollingworth) (1607–1656) was an English clergyman of presbyterian views, an influential figure in North-West England in the 1640s.

Life The son of Francis Hollinworth and Margaret Wharmby his wife, he was born at Manchester, and was baptised on 15 November 1607. He was educated at the Manchester grammar school and Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1626–7, and M.A. in 1630. After ordination he became curate of Middleton, near Manchester, under Abdias Assheton.

At the consecration of Sacred Trinity Chapel in Salford, on 20 May 1635, Hollinworth preached the sermon, and after the resignation of Thomas Case, who held the living for a short time, he was appointed minister there. He was in that position in 1636, and until a short time before 1649, holding the preferment along with offices at Manchester Collegiate Church. In 1643 he is styled chaplain of the collegiate church, and in the same year succeeded William Bourne in the fellowship there. During the suspension of the corporate body by parliament he officiated, along with Richard Heyrick, the warden, as a "minister"; the college was dissolved in 1650. The "protestation" of the people of Salford in 1642 was taken before him as minister of the town. In 1644 he is named in an ordinance of parliament for ordaining ministers in Lancashire. During the plague outbreak of 1645 in Manchester he worked among the people, Heyrick being absent in London at the Assembly of Divines. Hollinworth was a prominent figure at a meeting held at Warrington to consider the question of taking the oath called the Engagement, requiring the people to be faithful to the Commonwealth. In the Manchester classis he generally acted as moderator during Heyrick's absence. He was named in the parliamentary ordinance of 29 August 1654 as a commissioner for ejecting scandalous and ignorant ministers and schoolmasters in Lancashire. When Humphrey Chetham drew up his will for the foundation of what now is Chetham's Library, he nominated Hollinworth one of his feoffees. Details of this controversy are contained in Thomas Edwards's Gangræna (1646), based on information Hollingworth passed to Edwards.

Hollinworth assisted in preparing the Lancashire answer to the Agreement of the People, 1649. In 1649, also, he wrote a popular work in favour of the presbyterian system, entitled The Main Points of Church Government and Discipline plainly and modestly handled by way of question and answer; the introductory epistle was signed by Christopher Love.

In 1653 Hollinworth published The Catechist Catechised, or an Examination of an Anabaptisticall Catechism. … Also some observations … concerning the … present Roman Church and Religion. In 1656 appeared another short book, The Holy Ghost on the Bench, other Spirits at the Barre; or the Judgement of the Holy Spirit of God upon the Spirit of the Times (second edition dated 1657).

He was interested in the history of his native parish, and left in manuscript a volume of historical notes entitled Mancuniensis, which went to Chetham' Library. It was printed in 1839 by William Willis.

Adam Martindale wrongly credited him with writing the An Exercitation concerning Usurped Powers (1650). It has also been assigned to Charles Herle.