Alexander Rigby (1594 – 18 August 1650) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the
House of Commons between 1640 and 1650. He was a colonel in the
Parliamentary army in the
English Civil War.
Life
Rigby was the son of Alexander Rigby and his wife Ann Asshaw of
Wigan and was baptised on 9 July 1594 in
Flixton, a village that was historically within the boundaries of
Lancashire.
He was a member of the Puritan branch of the Rigby family seated at Middleton in Goosnargh near Preston.
[William Duncombe Pink, Alfred B. Beaven ''The parliamentary representation of Lancashire, (county and borough), 1258-1885, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, &c.'' (1889)]
/ref> He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1610 and became a lawyer.[Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, David Faris ''Ancestral roots of certain American colonists who came to America before 1700'']
/ref>
In April 1640, Rigby was elected Member of Parliament for Wigan in the Short Parliament
The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks.
Aft ...
. He was re-elected MP for Wigan in November 1640 for the Long Parliament and sat until his death in 1650.Lygonia
Lygonia was a proprietary province in pre-colonial Maine, created through a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England in 1630 to lands then under control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The province was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges. ...
, Maine between Cape Porpoise and Kennebec River
The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river within the U.S. state of Maine. It ri ...
, which includes the area occupied by today's town of Portland.Lathom House
Lathom House was a large country house in the parish of Lathom in Lancashire, England. Built between 1725 and 1740, the main block was demolished in 1925.
Early history
A wooden castle is believed to have stood on the site in mediaeval times. ...
defended by Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby
Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby (December 1599 – 31 March 1664), born Charlotte de La Trémoille, is famous for her robust defence of Lathom House during the English Civil War.
Early life
Charlotte, born at the chateau of Thouars, Poitou ...
in the Siege of Lathom House.[ After withdrawing his forces from Lathom, he was caught in the Bolton Massacre when the parliamentarians were surprised in an attack by Prince Rupert. He took his surviving forces to meet the main parliamentarian army at York, and led a regiment at the Battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644.
In 1649 Rigby was nominated one of judges in the trial of the King, but declined to act. He was appointed Serjeant-at-law to the Commonwealth in May 1649 and became a ]Baron of the Exchequer
The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was a ...
on 1 June 1649.
Rigby contracted an infection at Croydon while on circuit and died at the age of 56.[
Rigby married Lucy Legh of Manchester]
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigby, Alexander
1594 births
1650 deaths
People from Wigan
Roundheads
English MPs 1640 (April)
English MPs 1640–1648
English MPs 1648–1653
Serjeants-at-law (England)
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Members of Gray's Inn