Religious differences played a large part in his own early life. His father was a Protestant of strongly
Puritan leanings, with no sympathy for either
Baptists or Quakers. His mother on the other hand was a
Quaker who was arrested in 1664 for publicly attending Quaker meetings. This caused a breach between the couple which was never healed: in his last will his father urged his mother to repent for her unorthodox beliefs.
His wife's first name was Comfort: they had ten children. Only two are known to have survived into adulthood, Michael and
Edward Worth (1678-1733), the noted physician and book collector.
Notes
^"The History and Antiquities of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church of St. Patrick Near Dublin, from it Foundation in 1190, to the Year 1819: Comprising a Topographical Account of the Lands and Parishes Appropriated to the Community of the Cathedral, and to Its Members, and Biographical Memoirs of Its Deans" Mason, W.M. p212:Dublin, W.Folds, 1820
^Ware, Sir James (1739). The whole works of Sir James Ware concerning Ireland, Volume 1. p. 596.