Charles Worsley of Platt Hall, Manchester (previously called Ralphe Worsley of Platt Hall)

English School, 17thC

Summary

Three quarter left side head and chest portrait of Charles Worsley of Platt Hall, showing a middle aged man with large brown eyes, a long aquiline nose and long dark receding hair. The background is dark and plain, and his hair almost blends in to it. He wears a suit of armour with a knotted white neckcloth. In the top right corner of the painting is a heraldic shield emblem, topped with a griffin. provenance : collection of Tindall-Carill-Worsley of East Carlton Manor, Norfolk, whose wife was the only daughter of the late Nicholas T.C.Worsley of Platt Hall. literature : another portrait belongs to Lord Kenyon (letter 16.5.1978); see Portraits in Welsh Houses by J.Steegman, I, N.Walls, 1957, p152, no.6. Some confusion over whether this is Charles or Ralph Worsley. Would seem to be Charles, though tablet still says Ralph. Charles Worsley, son of Raphe Worsley, son of Charles Worsley (Manchester haberdasher) who m. Elizabeth, daughter of Ralph Gee 1586, d.1638. Raphe Worsley purchased Platt and m. Isabel, daughter of Edward Massey of Manchester and widow of Alderman Ford of Wigan, in 1620. Their son Charles (1622-1656) became first M.P. for Manchester in 1654 and was one of Cromwell's Major-Generals. (He "removed that bauble" when Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament in 1653). Accessions register records artist as 'School of Van Dyck'.