Short acccount of the Rebellion at Preston, in November, 1715 263 Blazonry of the Coat Armour of many ancient fami- lies in Preston and its immediate vicinage ADVERTISEMENT. IN presenting this work to the notice of my fellow-townsmen, and the public in general, it appears necessary for the compiler to state the views he has of its necessity and utility. The labours of those who have preceded him have been either too brief to contain all that is necessary to be said, or otherwise, not containing that original information from want of having recourse to ancient documents; but the task would be merely invidious, were he building his hope of success upon any depreciation of the praiseworthy efforts of any of his predecessors. What is now offered to the public relative to the topographical and historical particulars of Preston, will show to those who have a competent knowledge of the subject, how much remains undone even in those productions which have appeared. If any light should happen to be thrown upon this subject, by any resident Gentlemen or Antiquaries the Author would be glad to elicit the earliest information. It is now submitted to all, without exception, in the full hope that the present inhabitants of the town it describes will over-look, or pardon, any casual omission, or erroneous statement, occasioned by the want of a complete knowledge of every requisite relative to the town. The compiler is truly sensible that errors will be found in his publication; to have rendered it perfectly immaculate would have been impossible; it has been embodied under the hand of a person who has been interrupted by a multiplicity of imperious calls, to which every man of business is perpetually liable; indeed, with what documents, and his situation in life, he has done all that could be reasonably expected, leaving an impartial public to decide whether he merits censure or praise, for thus endeavouring to add to the amusement of those who find satisfaction in the perusal of works tending to throw a light upon the state of Preston in former days. HISTORY OF THE BOROUGH OF PRESTON. GENERAL REMARKS. "No air-built castles, and no fairy bowers, But thou fair Priest's-Town, and thy well known towers ~ THE study of topography combines rational recreation with the most valuable instruction; in attentively considering the familiar customs and habits of our forefathers, the rise and progress of towns and villages, from a state of barbarism, to civilization, order, opu lence, industry, and refinement. It is of the highest individual importance; the character of man is developed, and whatever has tended to accelerate or retard national improvement, dignity, and happiness, is strongly marked by the comparison of the past with the present, whilst it excites admiration, and swells the bosom with the most delicious feelings of patriotie attachment. Simple military stations, the casual assemblages of the cottages of peasants, and the huts of the hind, have risen into large commercial towns and cities, where an extensive population, by habits of industry, and the culture of science, obtain the comforts, and not unfrequently the elegancies of life. As the Aborigines of Preston where of the Phonecian race, and existed one thousand years before the Christian era, the ancient Britons, or Druids, succeeded them as natives congenial to the soil, of which many places may still be found retaining British names, for instance, Greaves Town (within Ashton-upon-Ribble,) is of Druidic origin, the secluded places were groves, where Druidical Priests seem to have been numerous in these parts. According to Ptolemy, they lived in groves, and the places of their residence are still to be found under the name of Greaves. The learning which they possessed was confined to their priests, who passed their lives in seclusion and retirement; numbers of the inhabitants in these vales retain British names: it is much to be wished that some learned person could give us a few names of real British origin. This race of people lived as late as A. D. 60. The Brigantes of Preston and its vicinity, were compelled to bend under the authority of their Roman governors, or induced to assimilate with the invaders; afterwards the Romans abandoned the country of Sistunii, they (the Britons) then became dreadfully infested by the Scots and Picts, who plundered them so much that they were necessitated to make application to their neighburs the Saxons, for assistance; these, in their turn, became absolutely masters over them, and they were once more reduced to a state of vassalage, and actually driven into the principality of Wales, and Cornwall, A. D. 485. Amongst all these agitations, no surprise need remain, for in the rude ages of early times, the plunderer and the plundered were alike inattentive to the inquiries of posterity; no doubt remains but that a quantity of information, dates, records, and facts were preserved with pious veneration in the different religious houses throughout this county, which the historian might have turned to good account, but for the desolating vandalic rage of those who are gone before us; even those deposits of antiquarian resource, now left consist chiefly in tedious collations and fatiguing research. Preston was called by Ptolemy, Tibe Dunum ; and inhabited by that race of people called Phoenecians; the river was titled Bellisamia; by the Romans, Ribo Dunum; by the Saxons,, Prest-ton in Agmounderness. According to Domesday book, 16 villages were contained within the cantred or hundred, the rest of the land lay waste, and was possessed by Roger of Poictiers, and afterwards by Theobald Walter (from whom the Butlers, of Ireland, are descended.) Theobald Walter was brother to Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and was elected sheriff of this county, which office he filled to the This |