The first time Worsley is known to have been mentioned in a document was in 1195, where Hugh Poutrell gave "Richard, son of Elias de Workesley, for his homage and service, the manors of Worsley and Hulton". There have been various spellings of the name over the years, but the present spelling has been in use since 1450.
Following the Norman conquest, Worsley lay within the manor of Barton, and it is possible that a member of the family that owned Barton took on the name "de Worsley".
By 1385 the male line of the Worsley family came to an end, and by the marriage of its heiress, Worsley came into the possession of Sir John Massey of Tatton, Cheshire.
The Massey line ended after three generations and through marriage the manor, in 1480 belonged to the Breretons of Malpas, Cheshire.
The last Brereton, Sir Richard, married Dorothy Egerton of Ridley in 1572, but he died in 1598 without issue. It was through Dorothy, her half-brother Sir Thomas Egerton, who was the Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of James I, acquired the estate.
The most significant development was when Francis Egerton (3rd Duke Of Bridgewater) inherited the estate in 1748 aged only twelve, where he was sent abroad by his guardians. He returned and settled in Worsley Old Hall in 1759 aged 23, where after John Gilbert suggested it he made an application to Parliament to construct a canal from Worsley to Manchester. James Brindley was brought in as the civil engineer to oversee the project.
This became the first large scale commercially viable canal in Britain, which in turn began a transport revolution with far more reaching significance as this helped the industrialisation of Britain.
The Great Canal Duke died on the 8th March 1803, where as a bachelor it was passed to his cousin General Edward Egerton.
The Duke of Bridgewater bequeathed his canal-property devolved under trust to Lord Francis Leveson Gower (changed his name to Egerton), who was made Earl of Ellesmere in 1846.
From the Canal Dukes death the Worsley undertakings were administered by The Bridgewater Trustees, until 1903.