William Whitworth (23 August 1813 – 28 December 1886)[1] was a British cotton manufacturer and politician. He was a Liberal Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and represented the constituency of Newry, Ireland from 1874 to 1880.
Whitworth was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, to Nicholas Whitworth, an iron worker maker, and Sarah Barratt, and was baptised in a Methodist church.[2] He was a prominent local businessman, being a partner with his brother in Benjamin Whitworth and Brothers, in the cotton merchants who by 1876 employed 1,000 people around Drogheda, Ireland.[1] He was sheriff of Drogheda in 1869 and mayor in 1876.[1]
He married Ruth Newton on 11 February 1847 at St Michael, Ashton-under-Lyne. They had a son, Nicholas.[2] [1]
Whitworth died at his home in Drogheda, after suffering a stroke, on 28 December 1886.[1]