PRESTONPANS 



6324 



PRESUMPTION 



Prestonpans. Police burgh ol 

 Haddingtonshire, Scotland. It 

 stands on the Firth of Forth, 9 m. 

 from Edinburgh, with a station on 

 the N.B. Rly. The chief indus- 

 tries are the making of bricks and 

 tiles, fishing and brewing, while 

 near are large coal mines. The salt 

 industry, whence the word pans in 

 the name of the town, disappeared 

 about 1800. It was begun about 

 1200 by the monks of Newbattle, 

 and was flourishing in the Middle 

 Ages. Prestonpans was made a 

 burgh in 1617. Pop. 1,900. 



Prestonpans, Haddingtonshire. Highlanders capturing the royalist guns at the 



battle of Frestonpans. From the painting by Sir W. Allan. Top, right, main 



street of the town 



The battle of Prestonpans was 

 fought between the royal troops 

 and the Jacobites in 1745. The 

 former under Sir John Cope, about 

 2,300 strong, landed at Dunbar, 

 and marched towards Edinburgh. 

 Prince Charles Edward with an 

 equal force set out from that city 

 to meet them, and the armies came 

 face to face at Prestonpans on 

 Sept. 21. The Highlanders dashed 

 upon the waiting royalists under 

 cover of the morning mist, and in 

 a few minutes the guns were cap- 

 tured and the infantry put to 

 flight, being cut down as they ran. 

 Cope's army was destroyed, and 

 he, with a few horsemen, fled to 

 Berwick. The Jacobites called the 

 engagement Gladsmuir. 



Prestwich. Urban dist. of 

 Lancashire, England. It is 4 m. 

 from Manchester, with a station 

 on the L. & Y. Ely. The chief 

 building is the 13th century 

 Gothic church of S. Bartholomew, 

 and the chief industry the manu- 

 facture of cotton. Here are reser- 

 voirs for supplying Manchester 

 with water. Near is Heaton Park, 

 once a seat of the earl of Wilton ; 

 it now belongs to the city of Man- 

 chester. Pop. 17,200. 



Prestwich, SIR JOSEPH (1812- 

 96). British scientist. Born at 

 Clapham, March 12, 1812, he was 

 educated at private schools and at 



University College, London. He 

 entered business life in London, 

 but spent his leisure in the study 

 of geology, making himself one of 

 the foremost geologists of the day. 

 His work brought him a number of 

 honours, including that of F.R.S. 

 He was regarded as an authority on 

 coal, was a member of the royal 

 commission on the water supply, 

 and contributed to our knowledge 

 of primitive man. From 1874-87 

 he was professor of geology at 

 Oxford. Knighted in 1896, he died 

 at Shoreham, Kent, June 23, 1896. 

 His chief work was Geology : Chem- 

 ical, Physical, and Stratigraphical, 

 1886-88. See Life and Letters, 

 1899, by his wife, Lady Prestwich. 



Prestwick, Ayrshire. Part of the main street 



P rest wick. 



Police burgh of 

 Ayrshire, Scot- 

 land. It stands on 

 the Firth of Clyde, 

 2 m. from Ayr, 

 with a station on 

 the Glasgow and 

 S. W. R I y. An 

 ancient place, 

 there are ruins of 

 a church said to 

 have been built in 

 the 1 2th century. 

 It was made a 

 burgh in 1600. To- 

 day it is chiefly 

 known as one of the great golfing 

 centres of Scotland. Pop. 4,900. 



Prestwood. Village of Buck- 

 inghamshire, England. It is 11 m. 

 from Aylesbury, and has a modern 

 church, Holy Trinity. There is a 

 memorial to John Hampden, who 

 was assessed for ship money on his 

 lands in this parish. 



Presumption. Legal term for 

 an inference of fact drawn from 

 established facts. Presumptions 

 are a branch of the law of evidence, 

 and are of two kinds : ( 1 ) Juris, 

 or rebuttable, where, a fact or set 

 of facts being proved, the court is 

 bound to draw a particular infer- 

 ence ; but that inference may 

 be disproved by evidence. (2) 

 Juris et de jure, or irrebuttable, 

 where, a fact or facts being proved, 

 the court is bound in law to draw 

 a particular inference ; and no 

 proof can be received that such 

 inference is false. 



PRESUMPTION or DEATH. In the 

 probate court, in England, leave 

 is sometimes granted to presume 

 the death of a person who has for a 

 long time disappeared from his 

 home and friends, or who has 

 probably lost his life in such cir- 

 cumstances as to leave no trace, e.g. 

 a sailor who can be shown to have 

 shipped on a vessel which has not 

 arrived in the port of destination ; 

 or a soldier who was one of a party 

 which was struck by a big shell. 

 Further, by the statute 18 and 19 

 Car. II (England), 

 , when a lease is 

 ' granted for the life 

 j of A, and A has 

 not been heard of 

 for seven years, 

 the lease may be 

 determined, as A 

 is presumed dead. 

 But if A proves to 

 be alive, the lessee 

 must be reinstated. 

 A law of 1841 

 makes provision 

 for Scotland ; but 

 with an absolute 

 bar after 13 years' 

 disappearance. 



