Alexander Rigby (1594 – 18 August 1650) was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

between 1640 and 1650. He was a colonel in the

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

army in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Life

Rigby was the son of Alexander Rigby and his wife Ann Asshaw of

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

and was baptised on 9 July 1594 in Flixton, a village that was historically within the boundaries of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. He was a member of the Puritan branch of the Rigby family seated at Middleton in Goosnargh near Preston.William Duncombe Pink, Alfred B. Beaven ''The parliamentary representation of Lancashire, (county and borough), 1258-1885, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, &c.'' (1889)
/ref> He was admitted to

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in 1610 and became a lawyer.Frederick Lewis Weis, Walter Lee Sheppard, David Faris ''Ancestral roots of certain American colonists who came to America before 1700''
/ref> In April 1640, Rigby was elected Member of Parliament for

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was re-elected MP for Wigan in November 1640 for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

and sat until his death in 1650. He was Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire in 1641 and became a colonel in the Parliamentary army in 1643. Also in 1643 he purchased the Plough Patent for land in

Lygonia Lygonia was a proprietary province in pre-colonial Maine, created through a grant from the Plymouth Council for New England in 1630 to lands then under control of Sir Ferdinando Gorges. The province was named for his mother, Cicely (Lygon) Gorges ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

between

Cape Porpoise Cape Porpoise is a small coastal village in the town of Kennebunkport, Maine, United States, and was the original English settlement of the town. It is located northeast of Dock Square and southwest of Goose Rocks Beach. The village occupies th ...

and

Kennebec River The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 natural river within the U.S. state of Ma ...

, which includes the area occupied by today's town of Portland. Rigby was chief commander of forces in Lancashire and at the beginning of 1644, led the attack on Lathom House defended by

Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby (December 1599 – 31 March 1664), born Charlotte de La Trémoille, is famous for her robust Siege of Lathom House, defence of Lathom House during the English Civil War. Early life Charlotte, born at the chat ...

in the Siege of Lathom House. After withdrawing his forces from Lathom, he was caught in the

Bolton Massacre The Storming of Bolton, sometimes referred to as the "Bolton massacre", was an event in the First English Civil War which happened on 28 May 1644. The strongly Parliamentarian town was stormed and captured by Royalist forces under Prince Ru ...

when the parliamentarians were surprised in an attack by Prince Rupert. He took his surviving forces to meet the main parliamentarian army at York, and led a regiment at the

Battle of Marston Moor The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639–1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters unde ...

on 2 July 1644. In 1649 Rigby was nominated one of judges in the trial of the King, but declined to act. He was appointed Serjeant-at-law to the Commonwealth in May 1649 and became a

Baron of the Exchequer The Barons of the Exchequer, or ''barones scaccarii'', were the judges of the English court known as the Exchequer of Pleas. The Barons consisted of a Chief Baron of the Exchequer and several puisne (''inferior'') barons. When Robert Shute was ...

on 1 June 1649. Rigby contracted an infection at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

while on circuit and died at the age of 56. Rigby married Lucy Legh of Manchester and was succeeded by his son

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

.William Duncombe Pink, Alfred B. Beaven ''The parliamentary representation of Lancashire, (county and borough), 1258-1885, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, &c.'' (1889)
/ref>

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rigby, Alexander 1594 births 1650 deaths People from Wigan Roundheads English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 Serjeants-at-law (England) Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Members of Gray's Inn 17th-century English lawyers