Robert was die seun van Nicolaas Wortley en Isabella Tunstall.
(Foster, Joseph: Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, Vol. 2, West Riding. London. 1874)
Die sheriff of Staffordshire was Nicholas Montgomery van Cubley, Derbyshire, wat aangestel was op 5 November 1482. He was opgevolg deur Sir Thomas Wortley van Sheffield. Na afloop van die ontering en onthoofding van Henry Duke of Buckingham op 2 November 1483, het die Crown die stewardship van sy Staffordshire lordships en gronde aan Thomas Wortley, een van die knights of the body, verleen. (Midgley, L. Margaret, ed.: 'Castle Church', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5, East Cuttlestone Hundred, (London, 1959), pp. 82-100. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol5/pp82-100) After Henry Stafford the second Duke of Buckingham had been seised and put to death, (1483) the office of " bailiff of Stafford Grene" was granted to Robert Wortley for life; that of the office of keeper of the park of Stafford to Thomas Belle for life; whilst grant was made to Thomas Wortley, Knight of the Royal body, of the important office of Steward of the lands of the late Duke in Staffordshire generally, as also of Master of the Hunt there for life. (Collections for a history of Staffordshire)
