Hull History Centre: Papers of the Preston Family of Moreby U DDPR Papers of the Preston Family of Moreby 1331 - 1992 Biographical Background: The Preston family originated in Westmorland but were living in Holker by the seventeenth century. The second son of George Preston of Holker, Christopher Preston (b.1639) became a Leeds merchant. The family remained as merchants in Leeds through the rest of the seventeenth century and Christopher Preston's grandson, John Preston (d.1710) was an alderman and mayor of Leeds in 1692. Papers relating to the pew he purchased in Leeds church are in the collection. One of his daughters married Marmaduke Lawson (b.1685) of Moreby whose estates passed to the Preston family after he died without issue. The Preston family made good marriages in the early eighteenth century. William Preston (d.1772) married Ellen or Helen Farrer in 1721 and she brought a marriage portion of £600 and ultimately family estates as represented in the estate papers in the collection. His son, also William Preston (1723-1791), married Elizabeth Kilvington in 1756 and her marriage portion was £4000. When he inherited Moreby from Marmaduke Lawson he left Leeds to reside there. His brother, Henry Preston (1737-1808), stayed in Leeds and married Ann Fourness. Two of their sons died as young men in 1804 and their youngest son, also Henry Preston (1779-1837), married Maria Ann Crompton, ultimately succeeded to Moreby after the death of his uncle and became High Sheriff in 1834. His other uncle, Thomas Preston (1742- 1827) became vicar of Scalby and died childless, his estate passing then to Henry Preston's son, Thomas Henry Preston. Thomas Henry Preston's sister, Anna Maria Preston, married Baron Friederich Franz von Langan and lived in Germany. Moreby and Kelfield are included in Stillingfleet which is about seven miles south of York. After inheriting Moreby from his brother William, Henry Preston set about expanding the estates, buying 500 acres in Stillingfleet in 1827 and the manor of Kelfield in 1828. In the same years he began building a new house, designed by Anthony Salvin in neo-Tudor style, with multiple gabling and interior oak panelling. Like his brother Thomas in Scalby, he benefitted from enclosures and they were able to consolidate other estates too in places like Great Kelk where 94 acres were bought in 1829. These estates descended in the Preston family until the 1940s and 1950s when they were sold in several lots by Beatrice Preston. She retained the hall and its 90 acre park (Foster, Pedigrees, iii; Pevsner & Neave, York and the East Riding, p.713; Allison, History of Yorkshire, ii, pp.183, 185, iii, 14, 102-6). Custodial history: Deposited in the East Riding Record Office and transferred to Hull University Archives in 1974. Description: The papers of the Preston family comprise estate papers, especially for Kelfield and Moreby in the East Riding, though there are estate papers also in some number for Stillingfleet. In addition there are a few papers for estates in the North and West Ridings and there are seventeenth and nineteenth century manorial records for Kelfield. Family correspondence is reasonably extensive, especially the letters of the Reverend Thomas Preston of Scalby and Henry Preston and his family of Moreby Hall. The collection also contains a fair amount of material related to the will of Marmaduke Lawson, from whom the family inherited Moreby in the eighteenth century. His account books and those of Henry Preston are also useful for information on estates and the account books and other papers of Thomas Preston are page 1 of 182 Hull History Centre: Papers of the Preston Family of Moreby useful for information on tithe rents. The collection also contains some magistrates' forms, several of them filled out for bastardy cases and the rest blank for all occasions from disorderly servants to masters misbehaving. The estate papers in more detail are as follows: (East Riding) Beilby (1564-1643); Dringhoe (1563); Elvington (1774-1818) including an abstract of the title of Richard Sterne and the title deeds of Ralph and John Dodsworth and two letters one of them being from John Hotham to Thomas Preston dated 1809; Hayton (1806-1818) including conveyance documents for the sale of a farm to Thomas Preston for £13,000; Holme upon Spalding Moor (1573-1860) including the marriage settlements of the Boswell/Bosvile family and papers for the Belt, Savage and Rolleston families and a will for George Savage (1815); Howden (1618); Kelfield (1479-1880) including papers for the Vavasour, Carter, Stillington, Cock, Wray, Sturdy and Johnson families, the marriage settlements of Henry Wray and Susanna Lloyd (1776) and Edward Stillingfleet and Mary Peirse (1779), the wills of Thomas Smith (1676), Thomas Smith (1699), John Laycock (1700), Joshua Stillington (1743), Robert Cock (1682), George Wray (1707), Frances Pool (1769), Henry Wray (1812), George Wray (1761), William Peirse (1753), Frances Wanley (1791), Peter Johnson (1797), Mary Stillington (1802), Samuel Hague (1818), Mary Stillington (1755), Dorothy Peirse (1769), William Johnson (1759), William Johnson (1776), Mary Cock (1783), Edward Stillingfleet (1792), Maria Louisa Cayley (1825), William Sampson (1843), Thomas Mitchell (1820), Barnard Clarkson (1825), Joshua Walls (1823), Thomas Creaser (1855), Robert Buckle (1864), William Williamson (1780) and in addition the enclosure act of 1806, a summary of tithes for 1838, some documents about fishing rentals in the late sixteenth century, the succession accounts of Frances and Mary Reeves, the marriage certificate of Robert Guy and Jane Fisher (1833) and the burial certificate of the Reverend Edward William Barnard of South Cave (1828); manor of Kelfield (1617-1820) comprising court rolls for 1660, 1662, 1664, 1672 and 1675 and nineteenth century call rolls, pains and verdicts; Great Kelk (1627-1828) including two letters to Thomas Preston, papers on local families including Langdale and Grimston, the burial certificates of Hannah Hustler (1794) and Jane Fisher (1818), the wills of Blashell Taylor (1775), Mary Taylor (1776), Edward Wingate (17th century), Susanna Dickinson (1715) and William Fisher (1826) and the marriage settlements of John Hodgson and Joyce Foster (1651), Robert Langdale and Elizabeth Smith (1688), Jeremiah Bateson and Susanna Dickinson (1712) and Robert Grimston and Esther Eyres (1741); Little Kelk (1799); Market Weighton Canal (1772- 1850) including the subscriptions of Thomas Preston and William Preston for 1772 and the sale to the York and North Midland Railway Company in 1850; Moreby (1598-1830) including papers of George Lawson (1606-1670; not to be confused with the more famous George Lawson of More in Shropshire) and his son, and Henry Slingsby in the seventeenth century and the Milbank family in the eighteenth century, deeds of Marmaduke Lawson from 1680 to 1748, a summary account of Moreby tithes in 1824, the marriage settlements of George Lawson and Elizabeth Boswell (1680) and Ralph Milbank and Judith Noel (1776) and the wills of Alicia Iveson (1730) and Mark Milbank (1680); Naburn (1708-1764) including papers about Ralph Milbank; Seaton Ross (1637-1839) including an inventory of the goods of Marmaduke Lawson (1761); Stillingfleet (1755-1876) including some papers of the Leedle family, some of Dr James Wood, the inclosure act of 1755, various burial and marriage certficates for the Turner, Hunt and Masterman families, papers of Henry Preston and the wills of John Lazenby (1826), George Lazenby (1871), George Hunt (1860) and Elizabeth Hunt (1863); Turnham Hall (1667); Wold Newton (1786); (North Riding) Huntington (1633, 1666); North Holme (1510-1727) including the marriage settlement of William Peirse and Dorothy Stillington (1727); Scalby (1776-1826) comprising largely the tithe rent accounts of Thomas Preston; (West Riding) Armley (1670-1808); Cawood (1827-1884); Cracoe (1787); Drighlington (1794-1813); Fenwick (1591); Gomersall (1646-1867) including some material on the Taylors a merchant family in the seventeenth century; Hemsworth and Heckmondwike page 2 of 182 Hull History Centre: Papers of the Preston Family of Moreby (1655-1825) including the wills of Francis Fourness (1796), John Fourness (1723), William Copley (1738) and William Copley (1752); Hightown in Liversedge (1790-1814) including correspondence and other papers in the dispute between Henry Preston and Joshua Waller over a dam in 1800; Kirk Bramwith and Braithwaite (1604-1607); Leeds (1702-1802) being all material about the Preston family pew in Leeds parish church; Liversedge (1602-1818) including papers of the Dawson family in the seventeenth century and of the Oldroyd, Wray, Green, Brock and Farrer families of the eighteenth century and the will of Abraham Farrer (1740); Methley (1818, 1835); Morley (1799, 1817); Moss alias Mossley in the parish of Campsall (1341-1743) including a reasonable number of medieval title documents especially for the Doughty, Ode and Edlington families, the will of Richard Stowe (1620) and a plan of Robert Matson's estate in 1743; Pudsey (1600-1832) including the lease of Thomas Preston in 1779, the enclosure act of 1811 and the will of Michael Jenkinson (1623); Robert Town and Mill Bridge (1603-1818) including papers of the Farrer family in the seventeenth century and an estimate for the working of the Robert Town Colliery in 1818; Saddleworth (1785- 1814) including estimates for repairs to property; South Hindley (1619); Staincliffe (1802); Trumfleet (1377, 1573); (Other counties) York (1752-1769) being papers about navigation and fishing in the River Ouse; Eakring, Nottinghamshire (1619-1621); Darlington, county Durham (1715, 1750); Norwich, county Norfolk (1788); Tittensor, Staffordshire (1667); various townships (1550-1814) including the rentals and crops of Henry Preston's various estates. Accounts and vouchers in the collection include the account books for Marmaduke Lawson 1718-58; the account and tithe rental books of Thomas Preston, his bank book and notes about servants' wages; the bank books of Henry Preston in the 1820s and 1830s; lawyers' accounts for William Preston in the 1760s and 1770s and some early nineteenth century farm accounts including details of wages.