Godrey W. Wentworth

Godfrey Wentworth Wentworth was born in 1773 as Godfrey Wentworth Armytage, the son of Sir George Armytage, 3rd baronet, and Anna Maria Wentworth.  His father came from a well-established family in the West Riding of Yorkshire with their main seat at Kirklees Hall in the Calder Valley.  His mother was the daughter of Godfrey Wentworth, owner of Woolley Hall, south of Wakefield. 

Godfrey Armytage was educated at Hipperholme Grammar School and then at Trinity College Cambridge.  In 1789 his maternal grandfather died and Godfrey inherited the bulk of the estate; his eldest brother, George, already held the baronetcy and Kirklees Hall following the death of their father in 1783.  Godfrey was now a wealthy landowner in his own right, and in recognition he changed his surname to Wentworth.

In 1794 he married Amelia Fawkes of Hawksworth Hall.  They had nine children.  Godfrey served as a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant.  He was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1796-1797 and from 1806-1808 he sat in the House of Commons as MP for Tregony.  In 1825 a recession caused the bank to fail in which he was the senior partner and he was forced to declare bankruptcy.  As a consequence he was obliged to sell the bulk of his estates, though Woolley Hall remained in the family.  He spent his final years in London and died there in 1834.