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William Rushworth (priest)

English Roman Catholic priest

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ21400352 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Rushworth (died 1637), or William Richworth, was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist.

Biography

Rushworth was a native of Lincolnshire. He received his education in the English College at Douay, where he went by the name of Charles Ross. He was ordained priest on 29 September 1615, and on 8 March 1617–18 he undertook the office of general prefect, which he resigned on 18 August 1618. Soon afterwards he was sent to the mission in England, where he died in 1637. His anonymous biographer says: "He was a man curious in divinity, controversies, mathematicks, and physick, but chiefly delighted in mathematics, and, by the name of Robinson, entertained correspondence with the learned Oughtred."

Rushworth left in manuscript a work which was published under the title of "The Dialogves of William Richworth; or, the iudgmend [sic] of common sense in the choise of Religion," Paris (John Mestais), 1640 (12mo, pp. 582; reprinted, Paris, 1648, 12mo). Another edition, corrected and enlarged by the Rev. Thomas White, who added a fourth dialogue, is entitled: "Rushworth's Dialogues. Or the Judgment of common sence in the choyce of Religion," Paris, 1654, 8vo, pp.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “William Rushworth (priest)” as english Roman Catholic priest. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Rushworth and priest.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1637, 1615, 1617, 1618—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1594. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with William, Rushworth and priest providing the first useful test.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William Rushworth (priest)”, the useful work is to connect “english Roman Catholic priest” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21400352. VIAF identifies the subject as 29879332. The Library of Congress control number is n85086662. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1637, 1615, 1617 and 1618.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Rushworth (priest)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.