Born at Hertford in 1768, Israel Worsley entered at Daventry Academy in 1786, under Thomas Belsham who made him a Unitarian.
by Peter Hall, who seemed unaware that it was itself a reprint of the ‘reformed’ prayer book of Theophilus Lindsey.
After the outbreak of the war between Britain and France in 1793 he made his way to England, but returned after the peace of Amiens (1802), only to be arrested on the resumption of hostilities (1803), ultimately making his escape with difficulty through the Netherlands.
From 1806 to 1813 he ministered at Lincoln, and from 1813 to February 1831 at Plymouth, where he established a fellowship fund and a chapel library.
He left Plymouth with his family for Paris, intending a six months' stay, but was persuaded to open (in June) a place for Unitarian worship (in the Rue de Provence).
Buckinghamshire, in 1807 (Monthly Repository, 1808, p. 515), had continued the school at Hertford for thirty years, with less success, being too easy a disciplinarian; he published a Latin grammar (1771, 8vo).
Glasgow 1816, studied at Manchester College 1816−19, and was Unitarian minister at Thorne (1819−22), Hull (1822−25), and Gainsborough (1825−1875).