In 1821 the Preston historian Peter Whittle, writing as Marmaduke Tulket, published his History of the Borough of Preston and dedicated it to the Earl of Derby. A copy belonging to Nicholas Grimshaw is held at the Harris Library in Preston and is filled with his comments on the text.
Grimshaw finds much to take exception to in Whittle’s history. This is not surprising since they were at opposite ends of the political spectrum. Whittle’s dedication to the Earl of Derby at the front of the book, shows him to have been a supporter of the earl’s faction at a time when a growing hostility between the earl and the Corporation of Preston was fast gathering pace. Grimshaw, seven times mayor of Preston and a former town clerk, was the most powerful member of the Corporation. The Corporation fielded Tory candidates, the Derby faction Whigs.
I have transcribed the relevant comments, ignoring the ones that merely correct such things as spelling mistakes, as when, rather pedantically, he crosses out a ‘where’ and inserts the correct ‘were’. Strangely, he refers to himself in the third person as when he writes about ‘a Portrait of N. Grimshaw Esquire as Guild Mayor of Preston in 1802 and 1822’.
Grimshaw’s notes reveal that the Earl of Derby’s Preston base, Patten House on Church Street, was used as a barracks for a while after the earl abandoned the town after the defeat of his grandson, Edward Stanley, by the Radical Henry Hunt in the 1830 parliamentary election.
Not all of the notes deal with weighty, political matters. Others show him taking umbrage at Whittle’s references to the divisions between the classes at that date. Grimshaw comments: ‘These ridiculous Observations might have been well spared’. He does not approve of the practice of summer bathing in the Ribble on Ashton and Clifton marshes with ‘many of both sexes nearly naked, together in Circles’.
And why did he feel it necessary to add to Whittle’s mention of the marriage of Benjamin Franklin’s daughter to the son of a Preston family, the fact that she was his ‘natural’ daughter, that is, illegitimate.
In the following, the page number of Whittle’s 1821 History of Preston is given, then any relevant extract from that history, then the Grimshaw amendment, and then a note. I’ve expanded Grimshaw’s abbreviations, but left his captilisations.
Pages 22-24
Grimshaw
… adds this comment on Whittle’s account of John Horrocks seeking election unsuccessfully at the general election in 1796, but succeeding in 1802:
‘owing to his [Horrocks] Intentions being too long withheld from his numerous Friends, his Popularity was too evident not to call forth the Fears of his opponents and previous to the General Election in 1802 Sr H. P. Hoghton Bart expressed his Intention of withdrawing himself and offers were made by the Derby Family, thro Thos. B. Bayley Esq and many Friends of the Derby Interest to the Corporation of Preston to form a Junction of these Interests which was agreed to and Mr John Horrocks’
Note
As the 18th century progressed there was a growing division between the Earl of Derby and the Preston Corporation, which flared up when parliamentary elections were held. This culminated in the notorious 1768 general election, in which armed mobs terrorised the townsfolk and the Derby faction persuaded the House of Commons to grant the vote to all the male inhabitants of the town. The Corporation held both seats at that election but at the next election in 1774 the Derby faction took both seats and held them for the rest of the century.
Page 30
Whittle
‘The inhabitants are, generally, industrious and active, but very proud and ostentatious; a regular distance is always kept alive between the various ranks of society; inferiority is often met, in the public walks, with repulsive countenance and half averted eyes; the petty assumptions of ignorance, dressed in the brief authority of office, shows itself occasionally …’
Grimshaw
‘These ridiculous Observations might have been well spared’
Note
Whittle has clearly touched a nerve, to judge by Grimshaw’s response.
Pages 30-31
Whittle
… ‘volunteers were raised, under the superintendence of Lieutenant-Col. Grimshaw, and J. Watson, Esq. in 1797.’
Grimshaw
… crosses out ‘and J. Watson Esq’ and adds the following note: ‘at first supported by the Voluntary Subscriptions of the Inhabitants called The Royal Preston Volunteers consisting of the Gentlemen and respectable Tradesmen of the Town. And in 1798 a second corps of Volunteers was raised by John Watson Esq for Party Purposes.’
Note
Grimshaw is right to point to the ‘party’ loyalties of the two militias. John Watson was a Derby man, and his militia would have been made up of Derby supporters.
Page 35
Whittle
‘The great remora to improvement in our civil code, is the reduction that such reform must necessarily produce in the revenue. The law’s delays, bills of revival, rejoinder, and renewal, empty the stamp-office of stamps, the pockets of plaintiff and defendant of their money, but unfortunately they fill the exchequer. Some may say, that injustice, if speedy, would, in certain cases, be more desirable than justice, if it be slow ; and although we hear much of the “glorious uncertainty of the law,” yet all who have tried it will find, to their cost, that it can boast of two certainties, expence and delay: when I see what strong temptations there are that government should sympathise with the judge, the judge with the counsellor, and the counsellor with the attorney, in throwing every possible embarrassment in the way of legal dispatch and decision ; and when I weigh the humble, but comparatively insignificant interests of the mere plaintiff or defendant, against this combined array of talent, of influence, and of power, I am no longer astounded at the prolongation of suits, and I wonder only at their termination. Law suits, indeed, do generally originate with the obstinate and the ignorant, but they do not end with them; and that lawyer was right, who left all his money to the support of an asylum for fools and lunatics, saying, that from such he got it, and to such he would bequeath it. Mr. Pitt considered “a law suit a luxury,” and held, that like other luxuries, it ought to be taxed. It would be quite as fair that no physician should write a prescription, unless he wrote it upon a stamp.
Some few, out of the very many attorneys in Preston, claim a superiority over other men, because they are conversant in the practice of courts; and are apt to consider themselves of more importance and utility than men of much more eminent talents. Alas! what is this boasted knowledge of the world but being conversant with the tricks, and chicanery, and roguery of our fellow-creatures? Notwithstanding this, there are many of the profession who disdain all this, and whose public character is an honor and an ornament to society.’
Grimshaw
‘This observation is as unjustified as it is ungenerous’.
Note
‘Remora’: archaic word for an obstacle.
Whittle again offends Grimshaw, although many who had suffered the trials and tribulations of England’s Victorian legal institutions would probably have agreed with Whittle.
Page 41
Whittle
… after mentioning the town’s first paper, writes: ‘The next weekly paper proposed to the inhabitants was published by Mr. Thos. Walker, bookseller, entitled “The Preston Review and County Advertiser” first published June the 1st, 1793, and given gratis for a short period, and afterwards sold at the low price of three-pence halfpenny.’
Grimshaw
… adds: ‘by Wm. Sergeant Printer and Bookseller The [Second crossed out] Third’ meaning a third paper was published, after the Advertiser. This is made clear on the following page when Whittle writes about a third paper, the ‘Preston Journal’. Grimshaw crosses out third and inserts fourth.
Note
Neither is correct. Hewitson, in his History of Preston, lists three newspapers published in Preston in the 18th century: the Preston Journal, The True British Courant and Thomas Walker’s Preston Review. However, Hewitson does not mention the newspaper that Grimshaw says was published by ‘Wm. Sergeant Printer and Bookseller’. I have been unable to discover any more about this paper.
Page 44
Whittle
… writes that Richard Shepherd left his library ‘to the mayor and aldermen of this borough, for the use of the inhabitants …’.
Grimshaw
… corrects this to read ‘to the mayor and aldermen of this borough, for the use of themselves [and?] such others as they may permit to have access there to with a Friend’.
Note
Grimshaw’s response makes it clear that Preston did not possess a library that was free to all inhabitants. They had to wait for the opening of the Harris Library later in the century.
Page 45
Whittle
… writes: ‘Many gross abuses exist in this excellent library, by leaves and plates being torn out, and books actually carried out of the room, some of which are never returned …’.
Grimshaw
… changes ‘exist’ to ‘have existed’.
Note
Grimshaw implies that security had been tightened at the library.
Page 47
Whittle
… writes about Benjamin Franklin visiting Preston in 1771 and staying with the Beche family, in Friargate: ‘He also paid a second visit in the year 1775. It is proper to observe that Mr. Richard Beche married Dr. Benjamin Franklin’s only daughter.’
Grimshaw
… adds the comment: ‘2. Natural daughter.’
Note
By ‘natural daughter’, Grimshaw means that Franklin’s daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache, was illegitimate, because the product of a common law marriage. Her mother’s first husband had decamped to Barbados with her dowry, so any legal marriage would have been bigamous.
Page 50
Whittle
… mentions two engravings from ‘the portraits of the celebrated Lonsdale’ of Wm. St. Clare M.D. and Samuel Horrocks.
Grimshaw
… writes: ‘a third Engraving but upon a small scale by Scriven from a Portrait of N. Grimshaw Esquire as Guild Mayor of Preston in 1802 and 1822 by Lonsdale also, has appeared since the latter Guild and will be found in the History of that Guild by Wilcocks a beautifully executed Medal by of Mr. Grimshaw in Silver – Silver Gold Bronze and other Metals, likewise appeared before the Guild which had a great sale The Portrait is in Mr. Grimshaws Possession’
Page 119
Whittle
… mentions a plan for a new corn market.
Grimshaw
… adds ‘a Corn Exchange was begun to be erected in the latter end of 1821 in Lune Street, and containing a Cloth Hall and Shops of various Descriptions.’
Page 122
Whittle
… provides an account of Patten House, the Earl of Derby’s Preston base.
Grimshaw
… ‘now 1836 Taken down to open a street Northwards and several handsome shops have also erected’
Note
The street would be the present Derby Street and the shops would have been on Church Street.
Page 123
Whittle
… writes ‘This house forms the Earl of Derby’s residence during the races and guild. Persons are duly appointed to live within it, in order to keep it clean, and prepare the apartments when the family pay a visit upon the above and other occasions.’
Grimshaw
… adds ‘now deserted by the Family and converted in Barracks for Foot Soldiers November 1831 now taken down 1835’. [two indecipherable words]
Note
This is the only mention I have come across of Patten House being used as a barracks.
Pages 124-125
Whittle
… has the following: ‘The Preston Chronicle of October 7th, 1820, states the following act of munificence. “We are much gratified to hear that the Right Hon. the Earl of Derby, Lord Lieutenant of this County, has been pleased to make the following liberal donations to various charitable institutions in this town, on occasion of his grandson, the Hon. E. G. Stanley, attaining the age of twenty-one:-To the Dispensary £50., National school £50., Methodist school £25., Catholic school £25., Ladies’ Charity £25.’
Grimshaw
… adds ‘but has now withdrawn his Bounty from the Town’.
Note
This was part of the Stanleys withdrawal from the town after the grandson’s defeat by the Radical Henry Hunt in the parliamentary election of 1830. They also closed Patten House, their cockpit in Stoneygate and abandoned the annual horse races in Fulwood.
Page 144
Whittle
… describes street lighting in the town following the Police Act, which ‘put the whole expense of lighting, paving, &c. upon the inhabitants’.
Grimshaw
… adds ‘The Corporation formerly allowed a Lamp at the Doors of the Mayor and Aldermen and a few at the obelisk in the Market Place but after the Police Act was passed and a general Lighting of the Town was commenced, the partial lighting ceased’.
Note
The ‘police act’ would have been the Preston Local Improvement Act of 1815.
Page 146
Whittle
… writes ‘The large square leading out of Winckley-street will, in process of time, be elegant; the houses are mostly spacious and uniform, and form an agreeable proximity with the town; they are inhabited by some of the first families, such as N. Grimshaw, Esq. J. Gorst, Esq. E. Gorst, Esq. J. Dalton, Esq. Mrs. Fielding, J. S. Aspden, Esq. J. Addison, Esq. &c.’
Grimshaw
… notes ‘Those of Mr Grimshaw, Mr Gorst Mrs Fielding and Mr Cross, which is occupied by Mr Addison, are situated in Winckley Place – not in Winckley Square’.
Note
In its early days, according to Hewitson in his History of Preston, the north side of Winckley Square was known as Winckley Place. Whittle includes Winckley Place in his list of streets and in his second edition of 1837 refers to Mrs Dalton living in Walton Place
Page 169
Whittle
… mentions a reputed chapel near Tulketh Hall
Grimshaw
‘There was a chapel there formerly dedicated to St. Mary Madelen as appeared by Tithe Deeds of the maudland in the Possession of Mr. James Pedder’.
Page 192
Whittle
… writes about Lytham: ‘It would be praiseworthy in John Clifton, Esq. the owner, if he would form a public promenade along the sea side, as such an improvement would add greatly to the interest of the inhabitants of this pleasant village.’
Grimshaw
‘This Improvement is now made and many others, and more are in contemplation – 1824 – some completed at great expense 1831.’
Page 193
Whittle
‘Just above the Chain, and upon Clifton marsh, may be seen, during the same season [July], immense quantities of men, women, and children, bathing in the river.’
Grimshaw
‘many of both sexes nearly naked, together in Circles’.
Note
By ‘Just above the Chain’ I think Whittle is referring to Ashton Marsh. Grimshaw clearly disapproved of the activity.
Page 195
Whittle
… has a description of how the bailiffs are to present their accounts for their year of office.
Grimshaw
‘This Description is taken from a manuscript stolen from a drawer at Green Bank the House of the late Richard Atherton Esquire. It appears to have been written about the end of 1616 and 1702 but the Proceedings are very materially altered now, and newly regulated by Guild Bye Laws of 1742’.
Pages 198-204
Whittle
… has a chapter, ‘Government of the Borough’.
Grimshaw
From half way down p198 to near the end of page 204, he draws a line across the text, but adds no comment.
Page 253
Whittle
… has this on election of MP ‘January 16th, 1706 – A petition from Henry Fleetwood, Esq. against the return of Arthur Mainwaring, Esq. by certain means of many wilful, corrupt, and illegal practices, which was withdrawn on the 15th of February, in the same year.’
Grimshaw
… on Mainwaring: ‘who was elected by the mayor aldermen and Council at the then Lord Derby’s request See the Corporation Order Book 26th April 1708 – Strange’.
Note
It looks like the Corporation and the Earl of Derby were politically in step at this date.. Does Grimshaw’s comment ‘Strange’ signify mystification or disapproval? The Order Book entry came two years after the event.
Page 255
Whittle
… describes the decision in the 1768 election to give the vote to all the inhabitants of Preston.
Grimshaw
… ‘an unjust Decision deservedly punished in December 1830’.
Note
Grimshaw clearly disapproved of the decision. The 1830 punishment refers to the defeat of the Earl of Derby’s grandson, Edward Stanley, by the Radical, Henry Hunt, in the parliamentary election of that year.
Page 256
Whittle
… records John Horrocks standing against the Earl of Derby’s candidates in 1796 ‘supported by the late Earl of Liverpool, then chancellor of the Duchy court of Lancaster; and by the whole weight of the Church and King club at Manchester’.
Grimshaw
… crosses out from ‘late’ and inserts ‘Corporation, and a powerful interest of his own’.
Page 257
Whittle
‘Many attempts have been made to abridge the right of election in this town, by petition, and to obtain the determination of a committee, “that all the inhabitants,” meant only a select number in the Preston case; but the real meaning is, “all the inhabitants at large, of the said town, have voices at the election of a member to serve the borough in parliament”.’
Grimshaw
… crosses out ‘abridge’ and substitutes ‘explain’. He underlines ‘a select number in the Preston case’ and indicates that this means the in-burgesses. He crosses out ‘the usual meaning is’, adds at the end of the paragraph ‘according to a Decision of the House of Commons in 1661 – which doubtly meant the In-Burgage Inhabitants’.
Page 309
Whittle
… in his Chronology has ‘1802 The Wooden bridge over Ribble, for the Rail-road erected. John Horrocks, Esq . returned for the first time as representative in Parliament for Preston’.
Grimshaw
… adds ‘Preston Guild Nicholas Grimshaw Esquire Mayor’.
Page 322
Grimshaw
… adds to Whittle’s chronology:
1822 Preston Guild Nicholas Grimshaw Esquire Mayor of his second Guild.
1824 September Lancaster assizes Freemen of Preston indicted and tried for a Riot having thrown into the River Ribble a Number of Stones deposited [?] for the Purpose of building a wharf by a [word indecipherable] under the Corporation and were convicted’.