When his father died, George was a youth of nineteen years. Regardless of his years, he had the tenacity to hold on to his father's land holdings when his stepmother, Jane, tried to take more than George felt was fair. Specifically, Jane "...out of an evil design to prejudice and to damage your petitioner did in the month of November last at ye plantation where the said John Wortham died in this County, took away key to the barn where wheat and corn was stored and caused loss of quantity of wheat and corn and three bushels of English wheat and a cane chair all of which were legal property of Executor. She averred she had a good right to these things, key included," according to a suit filed by George in 1692. Several suits and counter-suits were filed before one or both cases were dismissed April 3, 1693. Whatever the outcome, both parties did not pursue it. Jane died two years later at which time George made an offer to remodel his father's home for use as the first Middlesex County Courthouse.

He also built a jail nearby, leasing both to the county on November 11, 1695, for a period of ten years. However, by 1700 the justices were complaining their quarters were "very leakey." In 1704 they contracted John Hipkins to build a new, improved courthouse which was completed by January, 1706. The old courthouse was probably converted back to family use and named "Edgehill." It was demolished in 1962 because it had deteriorated beyond restoration.

Like his father before him, George made a career of public service. By 1693 he was selected to serve as a member of the Petit Jury, and by the following year he was an Estate Appraiser.

In the late 1690s George built a home for himself on his father's property, setting it on a slight rise of the undeveloped land away from the main road. This home was quite grand for its time, consisting of six rooms (his father only had two rooms and a loft). There are two rooms on the first floor and an enclosed stairway. Upstairs are two identical rooms and an enclosed stairway to the attic. The English basement has two rooms, one of which was used as the dining room. It contains a huge fireplace used for cooking and keeping food warm. The second, smaller room has a waist-level entrance and was used for food storage. There was an outside kitchen with servants quarters above reached by ladder. After the Civil War, the outside kitchen was converted to a spinning and weaving room, the new kitchen being attached to the dining room. The dining room and kitchen were remodeled in 1915, the only additions to the original house. The outside dimensions are 32x22 feet with a foundation of English brick twelve inches thick. The original outside chimneys, of which one remains, were six feet wide and 31 inches deep.

Unique to the house is an enclosed porch-like cover on the rear entrance which has provided an excellent place to play for generations of Wortham children. It is currently occupied by the 12th generation of Wortham descendants, Mr. Walter Major. He has added aluminum siding and brickwork around the perimeter, protecting the house from moisture. Appropriately, this house is known as Wortham Hill. (Historic Buildings in Middlesex County, 1650-1875, Gray, Ryland and Simmons)

George Wortham was appointed Sheriff of Middlesex County, Virginia, May 3, 1708 serving for one year, and again in 1715-16. As Sheriff, it was his duty to to collect public and county taxes, pay and deliver all taxes to respective county creditors. In addition, he was required to determine the amount of land in the county and return a Rent Role of the same.

George was also active in his church, Christ Church Parish in the Middle District. He served as a Vestryman for a period of 23 years. In 1711 he was also made Church Warden, both positions his father had held.

An interesting episode in the life of George Wortham occurred when he was 38. As Captain of a company of Middlesex County Militia, George had called his men to muster and drill on the morning of Thursday, September 13, 1711. After they dispersed, he and many of his men went to, "the running of the Races." When his horse was one of the winners of the afternoon, George bought cider for all at the ordinary near the courthouse. The men urged him to, "stay and drink part with them." The drinking went on for over three hours before the day ended in tragedy. George spotted a man named Benjamin Davis, a man he knew had come upon hard times. He offered Davis a position as his overseer. We don't know what Davis replied, but they had, "some discourse on the matter." Then the general conversation in the ordinary yard turned to the subject of William Matthews, who was then sitting in the county jail. Matthews had been an ordinary keeper, but fell into some trouble and lost his license. He had been in frequent trouble, the most recent over a debt he owned Wortham of eight pounds, seven shillings and sixpence. When he did not pay, George had obtained an attachment of a mare belonging to Matthews. He collected the horse and placed it with his other animals. Matthews retaliated by stealing it back and had been sent to jail by Justice Christopher Robinson. At that moment, he was awaiting trial for theft. At this point I will report the events that followed as they are written in a book called A Place in Time by Garrett B. and Anita H. Ruttman as I'm sure I could not write it better:

Had Matthews really,"Stole his Mare or no?" one of the troopers now asked Wortham. Indeed he had, George replied. "No!" Davis interjected. Matthews was "an honest man who took his [own] Mare where he Could find her." He--Wortham--"had done the thing that was unfaire for that he had attached a mans Mare that he had noe more right to then himselfe." Once started, argument escalated. "Matthews did what any honest man would do and what I would have done myself!" "Ah, Davis, do not trouble your head about it. It is no concern of yours. Be pacifyed!" (George replied) "Nay, not for a rogue and knave like yourself!" Gradually, the onlookers pushed between the participants, separating them. Richard Perrott drew Wortham into the ordinary itself to "Smoke a pipe and drink a pot and then they should be free of Davis' noise." But after a while, Davis and some others followed. Sitting apart from Wortham and Perrott, Davis continued ranting. "If I had but four men of my own I would break the prison door open and lett him out." When he raised no response from his prey, Davis rose, crossed the room, and demanded the prison key. Somehow Wortham (or the others) managed to quiet Davis and return him to his seat. It was only for a moment. "Who was such a blockhead to put that man there?" Davis asked the room in general. Rising, he approached Wortham again. "Was it such a pupey as you, or do you know who?" "Mr. Christopher Robinson committed him." "Then Mr. Christopher Robinson is a blockhead and a pupey, and all the Justices are fooles and do not know their Duty." Wortham was by this time obviously angered. He "bid [Davis] hold his tongue." When Davis persisted, Wortham, too, resorted to epithets. Here the record fails us. The witnesses conveniently forgot what Wortham said. "Captain Wortham Said Some word (which the deponent Saith he hath forgot) which disturbed Benjamin Davis who repeated it Severall times after. Whereupon Captain Wortham said, 'Sure, Benjamin, it is not Come to that, that I must be afraid to Speak for you?' and with that bid him hold his tongue and talk noe more of it." The argument continued, but on a level so personal as to defy our understanding. Davis, said Wortham, was too much like his Gloucester Uncle Pritchard. (All we know of Pritchard is that he owed Davis a cow and calf but never delivered them.) "If I am like my Uncle Pritchard I will stand by my Uncle Pritchard till I dye." Wortham had touched a sensitive area! He raised his cane as if to hold Davis away. Davis struck at the cane with his sheathed sword, then drew the sword from its scabbard and cut at the cane again. Wortham backed away toward and through the open door and into the yard, defending himself with the cane until it was finally swept from his hand, then drawing his own sword and offering it toward his attacker. "Stand off, Davis. I have a sword as well." Witness William Cheshire--he would subsequently marry Davis's widow--tells the rest of it: "Davis Still endeavouring to get a blow at [Wortham] followed him very close up and at last turned from him and came towards me...saying in a crying tone that he was a dead man and [he] opening his Shirt to look at Something I saw blood." Two hours later Davis died. He had run himself upon Wortham's outstretched sword. The "duel" was certainly a drunken brawl. One of the witnesses would later confess that he could not "be positive in [his testimony] because he was Something in drink." ...At the root of the duel was status. Benjamin was in danger of losing the status he had, so much so, it seems, as to be affronted by the offer of employment as an overseer. He lashed out at Wortham (who had made the offer) in behalf of a man in prison who could just as easily have been himself. (A Place in Time, Garrett B. Ruttman and Anita H. Ruttman, W.W.Norton and Company) George was found "guilty" of the murder but was aquitted by reason of self-defense. Surely his position as Vestryman, Church Warden, and former Sheriff were factors in his defense.

George died intestate April 5, 1734, according to the Christ Church Register, and buried two days later. From a plate dated 1763, it appears that his grandson James Wortham, son of John Wortham and Judith Stewart, was residing in Wortham Hill. To the east was the home of Thomas Wortham, son of George Wortham, Jr. (Historic Buildings in Middlesex County, ibid.)592