Formerly “proud” Preston was a place of “fashion and society but the introduction of the linen manufacture at the end of the 18th century completely altered its character. The inventions of Sir Richard Arkwright, who was a native of the town, found in Preston early acceptance; and owing to its convenient communications by river, canal, and railway, aided by native enterprise, it has become one of the principal seats of the cotton manufacture in Lancashire. There are also iron and brass foundries, engineering works, cotton-machinery works, and steam-boiler works, and a considerable and increasing coasting trade with Ireland and England. In 1826 Preston became a creek of Lancaster; in 1839 it was included in the new port of Fleetwood; and in 1843 it was constituted an independent port. The number of vessels that entered the port in 1883 was 129 of 9365 tons, the number that cleared 137 of 9854 tons. By the deepening of the Ribble vessels of considerable tonnage can now unload at the new quay. But much more extensive operations in connexion with the improvement of the port have (1885) been projected. At an estimate cost of £800,000 the Ribble is to be deepened for a distance of about 12 miles to the point where it falls into the Irish Sea, and a new wet dock is to be constructed, with an area of 40 acres, in the centre of the Ribble valley, between the existing river-course and the intended diversion of the channel. The dock will be 13,240 feet long and 600 feet wide. Four large warehouses are to be erected along the entire length of its east side. In addition to the main dock a timber dock of 25 acres is to be constructed, and also two large graving-docks, enabling vessels up to 1000 tons burden to be constructed.

The population of the parliamentary borough in 1811 was 17,115, in 1841 50,073, in 1871 85,427, and in 1881 93,720; that of the municipal borough, the area of which was extended in 1880 to 3721 acres, amounted in 1881 to 96,537 (males 44,264, females 52,273). Preston returns two members to the House of Commons.

At Waiton-le-Dale, close to Preston, where the Roman road crosses the Ribble, there are remains of a Roman post. Saxon ware, as well as Roman remains and coins, have been found in the neighbourhood. The mound at Penwortham, to the south-west of the town, was probably a mote-hill of the Saxons. Preston owes its rise to the decay of Ribchester, which it gradually superseded as the port of the Ribble. In the reign of Athelstane the whole district of Amounderness was granted to the cathedral-church of York. The capital of the hundred, on account of this ecclesiastical connexion, came to be known as “Priest’s town,” afterwards changed to “Preston.” It possessed two monastic foundations, (1) a convent of Grey Friars founded in 1221 by Edmund, earl of Lancaster, son of Henry II., a little to the west of the Friargate, and occupied after the dissolution first as a private residence, then until 1790 as the house of correction, and subsequently as cottages, and now super-

seded by an iι ’ on-foundry; and (2) an ancient hospital dedicated to St Mary Magdalen, now occupied by the Roman Catholic church of St Walpurgis. The town is celebrated for its merchant guild celebrations, of which the earliest on record is that of 1329. On account of the devastations to which the district was subjected by the Danes the church of York abandoned its possessions, and Tostig, brother of Harold, became lord paramount. At the Conquest it was granted, along with other possessions, to Roger de Poictou, and on his defection was forfeited to the crown. It possessed at an early period the charter of “a guild merchant, with hanse” and other customs belonging to such guild. Another charter was granted by Henry II., conferring on the inhabitants similar privileges and liberties to those enjoyed by the inhabitants of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Its privileges were confirmed and extended by King John, and in the 23d of Edward I. it obtained the right to send members to parliament. In 1323 Robert Bruce partly destroyed it by fire. In 1617 it was visited by James I. on his return from Scotland. On the outbreak of the Civil War it declared for King Charles, but on the 12th February 1643 it was taken by the Parliamentary forces under Sir John Seaton. Near the town, on the 17th of August 1648, the Scots under Hamilton sustained an overwhelming defeat from Oliver Cromwell. On the 9th of November 1715 Preston was occupied by the troops of the Pretender, and by their surrender on the 13th of the same month the death-blow was given to his cause. On the 27th of November 1745 it was entered by Charles, the young Pretender, on his Quixotic march towards London. By the Municipal Act of 1835 the borough is divided into six wards, comprising the ancient borough of Preston and the township of Fishwick, and is governed by a mayor, twelve aidermen, and thirty-six councillors.

Whittle, Historical Account of Preston, 1821-37; Dobson, History of the Parliamentary Representation of Preston, 1856, 2d ed. 1868; Id., Preston in the Olden Time, 1856; Id., History of Preston Guild, 1862; Hardwick, History of Preston, 1857; Hewitson, History of Preston, 1883.