William Oldsworth was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1597 and 1601.

Life

Oldsworth was admitted to

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

in 1564 and became a bencher in 1584. He was appointed Recorder of Gloucester in 1587, being nominated by his predecessor Richard Pate, who may have sold him the office. Luke Garnons was instrumental in blocking the appointment during his term as mayor and Oldsworth was not elected to parliament, as would have been usual, in the 1588 or 1593 elections. There was continuous political factionalism in Gloucester as the corporation was split between an establishment group which was sympathetic to puritan ideas, and a more populist faction, led by Garnons and John Jones, who had strong links with the cathedral and tried to encourage the freeman vote. In 1597, Garnons and Oldsworth representing opposing factions were elected

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

Browne Willis ''Notitia parliamentaria, or, An history of the counties, cities, and boroughs in England and Wales: ... The whole extracted from mss. and printed evidences'' 1750
/ref> and it was alleged that the bench had deliberately excluded from the poll many freemen who supported Atkyns. Oldsworth was agan elected in 1601. He was named to a number of committees in both parliaments. He may have been a kinsman of Arnold Oldsworth, who was elected for Cirencester in 1604.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldsworth, William English MPs 1597–1598 Year of death unknown Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Gloucester Year of birth missing English MPs 1601