The younger son of Benjamin Haworth, of Haworth Hall and Anne Booth, he was educated at Hull Grammar School and by tutors who steered him towards a career in the law. After inheriting the family estate, he devoted all his time to natural history.
He married three times, firstly in 1792 to Elizabeth Sidney Cumbrey (died 1803), secondly in 1805 to Amy Baines (died 1813), and lastly in 1819 to Elizabeth Maria Coombs, who survived him. By his first wife, he left children from whom descend the Haworth-Booths.[2]
His Yorkshire estate is now represented by Haworth Hall, in Beverley Road, Hull.
He was the author of Lepidoptera Britannica (1803–1828), the most authoritative work on British butterflies and moths until Henry Tibbats Stainton's Manual in 1857. He was also a carcinologist, specialising in shrimp. He is responsible for the names of several taxa, including:
In 1812 he wrote the first paper in Volume 1 of the Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, a review of previous work on British insects. In 1833, he lent support to the founding of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London having been President of its predecessor. He was a Fellow of the Horticultural Society and a Fellow of the Linnean Society.
His botanical contributions included the first monograph on the genus Crocus (1809).[5] The plant genus Haworthia is named after Adrian Hardy Haworth.
