 Son of Betty (née Hargreave) and prominent Lancashire cotton industrialist, Thomas Ainsworth (1758–1831) and grandson of pioneer of chemical bleaching and founder of Halliwell bleach works, Peter Ainsworth (1713–1780).Thomas Ainsworth (1795–1841) was born in Bolton le Moors, Lancashire a textile-producing region in England.He married Jane Bower of West Retford, Nottinghamshire in 1820, and together they had 5 children.