79 
THE WoRDSWORTHS. 
This will be a suitable place to speak about the Wordsworths of 
Westmorland and Cumberland. The first of the name was Mr. 
Richard Wordsworth, attorney at law. He came to Westmorland 
to manage the law business of the Lowthers. He was of a good 
old family of Wordsworths in Yorkshire. On coming into West- 
morland he purchased a house and small estate at Sockbridge, 
and married Mary Robinson, of a notable Appleby family. Mrs. 
Wordsworth is said to have been a clever, brave: woman—valuable 
qualities for the times in which she lived. At the time of the 1745 
rebellion, Mr. Wordsworth was receiver-general for the county, 
and for the security of the public money in his charge, on the 
approach of the rebels, he went off with his money bags to a 
remote glen at Patterdale, leaving his wife to face the foe; and 
this she well knew how to do. Her plan was to stock the larder 
abundantly, make them smilingly welcome, and so send them 
away contented. This estimable couple’s family consisted of two 
sons, Richard and John, and one daughter, Anne. Richard was 
sent into Yorkshire to his father’s friends to complete his education, 
which he did in a way of his own by marrying his cousin while he 
was yet a mere youth, which so offended his father that it is said 
he disinherited him. John appears to have been always a good 
boy. He served his articles with his father at Sockbridge, and as 
from that place it was only a short pleasant walk to Penrith, no 
doubt he frequently took it. ‘ Perhaps also he got a cup of tea 
and had a delightful hour or two at the house of Mr. William 
Cookson, mercer—not at Mr. William Cookson’s, grocer—oh, no! 
there was no attraction there! Mr. Cookson, mercer, lived in the 
house, since rebuilt, and now the premises of Messrs. Arnison, 
drapers. The situation was then called Burrowgate, which then 
comprised the Market-place—in fact all the heart of the business 
part of the town. 
When John Wordsworth became a fully fledged attorney at law, 
he went to Cockermouth to manage the law business of the 
Lowther estates in West Cumberland; and to that town, as we 
