Richard Shuttleworth (MP)

Richard Shuttleworth (1587 – 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1640 and 1659.

Shuttleworth was the son of Thomas Shuttleworth and his wife Anne Lever, daughter of Richard Lever. in 1607 he inherited the family estates of Gawthorpe from his uncle, the Rev Lawrence Shuttleworth.^[1]

He served as High Sheriff of Lancashire for 1618 and 1637 and in April 1640 was elected as Member of Parliament for Preston in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the Long Parliament and sat until 1648 when he was possibly secluded or chose not to sit after Pride's Purge. In 1654 Shuttleworth was re-elected for Preston in the First Protectorate Parliament. He was re-elected for Preston for the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656 and for the Third Protectorate Parliament in 1659.^[2]

During the interregnum, Shuttleworth was a leading magistrate for Blackburn hundred with John Starkie of Huntroyde and was frequently recorded as officiating at marriages.^[1] He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War, serving as a Colonel in the parliamentary army.^[3]

Shuttleworth died at the age of 82.^[1] He had married Fleetwood Barton, daughter of Richard Barton of Barton-in-Amounderness^[1] with whom he had two sons, Nicholas and Richard. He later married Judith Thorpe, with whom he had a further six sons and a daughter. Four of his sons fought in the Parliamentary army in the Civil War. His son Richard was MP for Clitheroe.^[3]

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