SIE JOSEPH PBESTWICH. 



CHAPTEE I. 

 ANCESTRY AND YOUTH. 



THE family of Prestwich of Prestwich 1 and Hulme, 

 from whom the subject of this memoir was descended, 

 were holders of land in the county of Lancaster at 

 a very early date. In the end of the twelfth century 

 they possessed estates in this county, and the name 

 occurs as Prestwych or Prestwich again and again, 

 now in one reign, now in another of the early English 

 kings, chiefly in records touching tenures of land, 

 marriages, &c. In 1301, among the nine witnesses to 

 Thomas de Grelle's charter to the burgesses of Man- 

 chester, are the signatures of Adam de Prestwiche, the 

 fifth witness, and Johe de Prestwyche, the ninth. 



A curious document among the family papers is the 

 copy of a letter now in the British Museum, and dated 

 2nd April 1573, from Queen Elizabeth " To our trusty e 

 and well -beloved Edmunde Prestwyche Ar." After 

 recounting the necessity of putting the kingdom in 

 a state of defence, "the Queene" requires from him 



1 The village of Prestwich is situated on the Coal Measures, about three 

 and a half miles north-west of Salford. 



