George Rigby Collection

Two notebooks containing notes and calendars of Lancashire deeds and evidences. Both notebooks appear to have been written by George Rigby (the first volume identified by his name on the flyleaf, the second is attributed to the clerk of the peace, at that time George Rigby). The first notebook includes some details of Rigby's personal finances and estates.

George Rigby (bap. 1602, d. 1644), of Wigan and Peel, Lancashire, was a lawyer and clerk of the peace. He was educated at Gray's Inn and St John's College, Cambridge, remaining at Gray's Inn and then Lincoln's Inn until 1627 when he became clerk of the peace for Lancashire. This office had passed to George after the death of his father, Alexander Rigby (d 1621) through a reversionary interest granted in 1615. His grandfather, also Alexander, had secured the clerkship of peace by letters patent in 1612. In 1630, George married Beatrice, daughter of William Hulton. The couple settled at Peel and by 1634 George had built Peel Hall. From the start of the Civil Wars, Rigby rallied support for the parliamentarians. Later he was captain of one of the south Lancashire companies.

Source: Brian Quintrell, 'Rigby, George (bap. 1602, d. 1644)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. By permission of Oxford University Press - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/70487.

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Purchased by the John Rylands Library at auction at Hodgson's on 10 December 1930 (also purchased at this sale was English MS 702).

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan and Jo Klett, project archivists, with reference to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article on George Rigby.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928-35 (English MSS 663-664).

Lancashire Record Office holds records of the Rigby and Kenyon families of Peel, Lancashire (ref.: GB 055 DD/Ke). These include papers relating to the clerkship of the peace, legal, military, and property, and correspondence, including letters to George Rigby 1622-1644.