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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2016
The iron-mining by Sir Thomas Preston of The Manor in Furness, Bart., is an interesting interlude in Restoration economic and legal history. First, it attests to the existence of iron-mining in Furness long before the eighteenth century and provides valuable insights into mining conditions and operations. Secondly, when Sir Thomas, a Catholic, attempted to dispose of his properties, including the iron-mines, to the Jesuits and the poor of Dalton parish, his cousin, Thomas Preston of Holker, Esq., initiated proceedings in the Court of Exchequer, claiming that the estates were forfeit because they had been granted for superstitious uses. In this article, the iron-mines will be examined both as lucrative producers of haematite ore and as a focal point of legal controversy.
Sir Thomas Preston, second son of Sir John, was born in 1643. By 1665 he had succeeded to the family titles and estates after the deaths of his father and brother. He married twice, his second wife being Mary, the daughter of Caryll, Viscount Molyneux of Sefton, whose marriage portion was £4,000, with £2,000 paid in 1666 and the remainder in 1667. They had three children: Francis, who died an infant in 1672; Mary, who married William, Marquis of Powis; and Anne, who married Hugh, Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. Thus the 1660’s brought a happy marriage, children, and an improving financial position. The 1670’s brought the loss of his son and heir in 1672 and the sudden death of his second wife, after which Sir Thomas elected to abandon the world and enter the Society of Jesus. The two decades in his life are mirrored in the fate of his iron enterprise, which prospered in the ’sixties but then decayed rapidly.
Research for this essay was made possible by a grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
1 Lancashire Record Office, Preston, Cavendish of Holker Papers, DDCa/16/3, 21 July 1663. Hereinafter cited as Lanes. R.O., and DDCa. William, Farrer and Brownbill, J., eds., The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, 7 (London, 1912), 631 Google Scholar; 8 (London, 1914), 312. See also, Gibson, T.E., ‘Lancashire Mortuary Letters, 1666-1672, from the Crosby Records’, Proceedings of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 36 (1884), 46 Google Scholar. Finally, Lancs. R.O., Clifton of Lytham Papers, DDC1/966; Molyneux, Earls of Sefton Papers, DDM 11/21.
2 Fell, Alfred, The Early Iron Industry of Furness and District; An Historical and Descriptive Account from Earliest Times to the End of the 18th Century, with an Account of Furness Ironmasters in Scotland, 1726-1800 (Ulverston, Lancashire, 1908), p. 29 Google Scholar. Moller, Asta, ‘Coal-Mining in the Seventeenth Century’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th Series, 8 (1925), 80 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1663.
4 Ibid., Accounts for 1664.
5 Ibid., Accounts for 1666.
6 Ibid., Accounts for 1664, 1666.
7 Ibid., Accounts for 1665.
8 Ibid., Accounts for 1664.
9 Ibid., Accounts for 1664.
10 Ibid., Accounts for 1665.
11 Ibid., Accounts for 1665, 1666.
12 Schubert, H.R., History of the British Iron and Steel Industry from c. 450 to A.D. 1775 (London, 1957), p. 159 Google Scholar.
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14 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1665, 1666.
15 Fell, Early Iron Industry of Furness, p. 134; Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1665.
16 Lancs, R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1666.
17 Ibid., Accounts for 1664, 1665, 1666.
18 Ibid., Accounts for 1666. Schubert, pp. 214-18.
19 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1664, 1665.
20 Lancs. R.O., Register of Recusants, 1678-1679, QDV/5, vol. 1, and, The Court of Quarter Sessions, Petitions, QSP/515/9, Easter, 1680; Hesketh of Rufford Papers, DDHe/61/20; Stanning, J.H., ed., The Royalist Composition Papers, 1643-1660, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 36 (1898), 131–135 Google Scholar.
21 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1665.
22 Ibid., Accounts for 1665.
23 Ibid., Accounts for 1665.
24 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/2.
25 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/2, 7 June 1674.
26 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/52.
27 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/9/1, DDCa/9/2.
28 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/2.
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30 Lancs. R.O., ARR 15/19-22, ARR 15/58-61.
31 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/2.
32 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/2, DDCa/16/4-29.
33 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/16/33.
34 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1664. Gillow, , Bibliographical Dictionary (London, 1887), pp. 459–640 Google Scholar and Foley 6, p. 330.
35 Lancs. R.O., DDCa/1/106, Accounts for 1664, 1665; ARR 15/18-22.
36 Blackwood, B.G., ‘The Lancashire Cavaliers and their Tenants’, Proceedings of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 108 (1965), 24 Google Scholar.
37 Roberts, Frank, ‘The Society of Jesus in Staffordshire’, Staffordshire Catholic History, No. 3 (1963), 3 Google Scholar.
38 Foley, 7, pt. 1 cl.
