AMOUNDERNESS HUNDRED 



PRESTON 



over the moor to Fulwood and Cadley Moor ; so he 

 came to Broughton Tower and church and after- 

 wards to St. Lawrence's Chapel and Barton Hall, and 

 passed on to Goosnargh. 64 Celia Fiennes was pleased 

 with it : ' Preston (she says) stands on a hill and is a 

 very good market town. Saturday is their mariker, 

 which day I was there and saw it was provided with 

 all sorts of things : leather, corn, coals, butter, 

 cheese, and fruit and garden things. There is a very 

 spacious market place and pretty church and several 

 good houses. . . . The generality of the build- 

 ings, especially in two or three of the great streets, 

 were very handsome, better than in most country 

 towns, and the streets spacious and well pitched.' ** 

 In 1709 it was thought 'a very pretty town with 

 abundance of gentry in it ; commonly called Proud 

 Preston.' M As a port it had declined. 67 



The religious conditions it is difficult to determine. 

 The corporation was Tory and the vicars of the 

 parish Whig. There were numerous Dissenters, but 

 the relative importance of the Roman Catholics had 

 no doubt declined during the century, and was still 

 further weakened by the disasters of 1715. M 



The invasion of the Scottish Jacobites in that year 

 penetrated as far south as Preston, and drew many 

 adherents from the neighbourhood, but 'all Papists.' 69 

 The army was placed under the command of a 

 lawyer, Thomas Forster of Etherston, member of 

 Parliament for Northumberland, and it arrived at 

 Preston on 9-10 November some 1,700 strong/ 

 James III was proclaimed king in the market place. 



On Saturday the izth orders were given that the 

 whole force was to advance to Manchester, but news 

 being brought, greatly to their surprise, that General 

 Wills was advancing from Wigan to attack them, they 

 resolved to await him. Forster appears to have been 

 badly advised ; he refused to defend Ribble Bridge 

 and the fords, so that the royal troops crossed the 

 river without opposition and at once made a vigorous 

 attack on the town. 71 Some trenches and barricades 

 had been formed, and the defenders repelled all the 

 attacks with success, the king's troops suffering 

 severely. Darkness put a stop to the fighting on 

 Saturday, but next day Wills received a considerable 

 accession of strength from General Carpenter, who 

 came up from the east, and was thus able to surround 

 the town. The Jacobites found that they must 

 either cut their way through the king's forces or 

 surrender, having but slight provision for a sustained 

 defence. The following day accordingly they laid 

 down their arms in the market place, 72 and the king's 

 troops took possession of the town ; it is said that 

 they plundered many of the houses. The prisoners 

 were confined in the church for a month, and fed 

 upon bread and water at the cost of the towns- 

 people. 73 Some were executed ; in December four 

 officers were shot 74 ; the next month some local 

 volunteers were hanged at Gallows Hill, close to 

 the present Moor Park : Richard Shuttleworth of 

 Preston, Roger Muncaster of Garstang, Thomas 

 Cowpe of Walton-le-Dale, William Butler and 

 William Arkwright ; and in the following February 





64 Local Glean. Lanes, and Ches. i, 217. 

 A more elaborate description by the same 

 observer is quoted in Hardwick, Preston, 

 giving the names of many of the streets 

 and passages, the ferry and fords, and 

 particulars of various buildings, including 

 the 'ample, ancient and yet well beau- 

 tified town or guild hall or toll booth,' in 

 which was the council chamber. 



The description in Ogilby's Britannia 

 (1690) calls Preston 'a large and well 

 frequented town, governed by a mayor, 

 eight aldermen, four under-aldermen and 

 twelve common councilmen. . . . Here 

 are kept the chancery courts, &c., for the 

 county palatine of Lancaster.' 



65 Through England on a Side Saddle, 

 155. She, too, was specially struck with 

 the Patten mansion : 'All stone work, 

 five windows in the front and high built 

 according to the eastern building near 

 London. The ascent to the house was 

 fourteen or fifteen stone steps, large, and 

 a handsome court with open iron palisades 

 in the gate and on each side the whole 

 breadth of the house, which discovered 

 the gardens on each side of the house.' 

 Patten House was pulled down in 1835 ; 

 the gateway was re-erected at Howick 

 House ; Hardwick, op. cit. 430-1. The 

 site is marked by Lord's Walk and Derby 

 Street. 



There are said to have been four alms- 

 houses, viz. in Fishergate near the top of 

 Mount Street, at the north ends of Friar- 

 gate and St. John Street, and at the east 

 end of the town ; Hewitson, Preston Ct. 

 Leet Rec. 54. 



66 Edmund Calamy't Autobiography, 

 quoted by Fishwick, op. cit. 62. See 

 N.andQ.(zeT.j], vii, 428 ; viii, 55, 214. 



67 In a fishery dispute in 1691-2 a 

 witness deposed that he had known vessels 

 and boats, some of 40 tons burthen, sail 

 op the Ribble as far as Preston Marsh, 



and sometimes even as far as Holme. 

 Some of these vessels went to Bristol 

 laden with lead ; other* took millstones 

 to Ireland, and did ' often lie or ride ' at 

 a place called Old Millstones in Ahton ; 

 Fishwick, op. cit. 87. 



68 In 1687, during a moment of liberty, 

 Bishop Leyburne confirmed 1,153 at 

 Preston and Tulketh and 1,099 at Ferny- 

 halgh ; Gillow, Bill. Diet, of Engl. Cath. 

 ii, 145. 



The vicar of Preston wrote thus to the 

 Bishop of Chester in 1715 : 'I beg leave 

 to acquaint your lordship that there are 

 three townships and part of another in 

 this parish, which lie three, four and five 

 miles from the church, and have no other 

 convenient place of public worship ; that 

 by this unhappy situation they have still 

 been exposed to temptations and popery, 

 which is too prevalent in these parts of 

 your lordship's diocese, and are thereby 

 an easier prey to the priests of that com- 

 munion, we having no less than six of 

 these men in the one parish. From my 

 first coming to this place I have wished 

 for some hopeful remedy against this 

 growing evil ' ; Notitia Cestr. (Chet. 

 Soc.), ii, 470. This vicar secured three 

 new churches Grimsargh, Barton and 

 Preston St. George's. This last is a 

 significant dedication. 



In 1717 there were reported to the 

 Bishop of Chester to be only 643 ' Papists ' 

 in the parish, no doubt very much below 

 the true number. Fifty years later the 

 numbers returned to him were: In Preston, 

 1,043, with a resident priest ; in Broughton 

 chapelry, 313, with two priests ; in Grims- 

 argh, 117 ; in Barton, 131 ; "Trans. Hist. 

 Soc. (new ser.), xviii, 218. 



In 1754-5 a religious census was taken, 

 and the Preston return gives the families 

 thus : In the town of Preston Protestants 

 762, Papists 145, Dissenters 21 ; in Lea, 



77 



Ashton, &c. Protestants 47, Papists 30 ; 

 Ribbleton, Grimsargh, Elston and Fish- 

 wick 58, 57 ; Broughton 41, 47 ; 

 Barton 52, 19 ; Haighton 7, 18. No 

 Dissenters are recorded outside the town ; 

 Visitation Returns. 



69 Robert Patten, chaplain to Mr. 

 Forster, was an eye-witness of the whole 

 affair ; he turned king's evidence and 

 wrote a history of the rebellion, which 

 passed through several editions. It appears 

 to be the principal source of other accounts, 

 e.g. that in Hardwick's Preston, 219-33. 

 There are many allusions in the Stuart P. 

 (Hist. MSS. Com.), ii, iii. 



70 Two troops of dragoons quartered in 

 the town retired before them. 



71 Two plans of the operations give the 

 earliest maps of the town. One of them, 

 'drawn on the spot by P. M., esq.,' is 

 given in Hewitson, Preston, 23 ; the other 

 in Fishwick's work, 64. They show the 

 positions of the barricades across the chief 

 streets and the disposition of the king's 

 forces. Several houses in the outskirts 

 are represented as in names. 



78 Patten gives the losses thus : On the 

 king's side killed, five officers and over 

 200 privates ; wounded, sixteen officers, 

 privates not recorded. On the Jacobite 

 side killed seventeen, wounded twenty- 

 five ; prisoners, seven lords and 1,490 

 gentlemen, officers and privates, and two 

 clergymen. There is a note of the 

 prisoners in Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. xi, 

 App. iv, 170. 



73 On the behaviour of the vicar of 

 Preston, the inhabitants and the neigh- 

 bouring gentry, see reports in Payne, 

 Engl. Cath. Rec. 85-8, 97-9. A list of 

 residents in the district who were attainted 

 is printed in Fishwick, op. cit. 66. 



74 Major Nairne, Captains Lockhart, 

 Shaftoe and Erskine. See Hardwick, 

 op. cit. 235-6. 



