A Preston Quaker, Dilworth Abbatt, wrote a history of the Friends titled Quaker Annals of Preston and the Fylde 1653-1900. I’ve extracted the chapter relating to Preston along with three appendices relating to the town and published it here.
The book was published in London by a firm named Headley Brothers. There is no date of publication but Abbatt signs off his preface thus: Dilworth Abbatt Fulwood, Preston July 1931
Abbatt, whose ancestors were among the first Quakers in the town, was the clerk of the Preston monthly meeting from 1901 to 1920.
See also: A most disreputable Quaker
This is the material he included relating to Preston:
Preston Meeting
The late Mr. Anthony Hewitson, one of the best informed of local historians, gives some particulars in his History of Preston as to the origin and progress of the various places of worship in the town. Under the heading ‘Friends Meeting House’ Mr. Hewitson wrote :—
“The religion founded by George Fox, obtained a footing at Newton, Freckleton, and Great Eccleston, on the west side of Preston, and at Chipping on the East side, before it actually secured a local habitation and a name in Preston. For a time, the believers in the doctrines of the Society of Friends attended meeting in Freckleton.”
The latter part of the above account may be described as intelligent speculation rather than actual fact. At the same time, except for the record from the Kenyon MSS. that the house of James Jameson was licensed in 1689 for the holding of Quaker meetings, there does not appear to be further evidence of community worship amongst the Friends in Preston till 1731.
Here and there in the town there would doubtless be a few who had become attached to the Principles of the Society, and up to the year 1731, it is quite likely they would meet for worship in the house of one or other of their number. An examination of the registers would seem to indicate that at this period only two or three Quaker families were resident in the borough.
The population of Preston for the hundred years between 1660 and 1760 is stated to have been almost stationary, Hardwick and Hewitson both computing the town’s inhabitants to have been from 5,000 to 6,000.
Preston being on the direct route from London to the north, it is likely that public meetings would be held fairly frequently in the town by itinerant Quaker preachers. Such for example was Thomas Briggs, already mentioned in connection with the Fylde, who in 1653 had a meeting in Preston, when on his way to Manchester where, we are told in his Journal, “many were convinced.”
Joseph Besse in his Book of Sufferings mentions two or three cases of the arrest and imprisonment of Quakers passing through Preston on their way to attend religious meetings—the first of these being in 1656.
It was in this year that an important conference of county officials and some Friends was held in “a great chamber in the Bull Inn.” Lancashire Quakers had been absurdly accused by some of the clergy and other opponents, of having had insurrectionary leanings; and it was to enquire into the truth of this charge or unfounded suspicion, that the meeting had been convened.
Major General Worsley, the Lord Lieutenant of the County, presided, supported by various commissioners: in his opening speech (due to the bigotry of some of his informers), the General showed a strong bias against the Quakers, who in their turn fully, and to General Worsley’s satisfaction, answered the charges made against them.
Alexander Parker, the Chipping Friend before alluded to, writing an account of the conference, details how the tables were turned upon their adversaries the ‘“envious ministers,” and how completely changed became the attitude of the Major General, “who grew,” he says, ““very loving towards us,” and the day after expressed himself as “fully satisfied, and that many things had been cast upon Friends which were not true.”’ (1)
George Fox passed through Preston on three occasions— in 1657, in 1660 and in 1675: on the last occasion he stayed over night in Preston, going forward on the day following to Lancaster, where he attended the Quarterly Meeting, which he describes in his Journal as being “large and peaceable and ye Lord’s power was over ym all and none medled with us”: after this visit Fox continues, “wee came over ye sandes with severall other ffriends and came to Swarthmoor on ye 25th day of 4th month 1675.”
No record exists of George Fox having had a meeting actually in Preston, but it is not unlikely, for in passing through the town in 1660 he writes: ‘from thence I went to Lancaster and soe to Preston and had meetings among ffriends.”
Oliver Atherton of Ormskirk was one of the many Quakers who died during their imprisonment: Atherton died in Lancaster Castle and in Ellwood’s edition of Fox’s Journal there is an account of how relatives and friends of Atherton carried his remains from Lancaster to Ormskirk for interment there: on the way they set down the coffin at Garstang and at Preston, and affixed notices on the market crosses in the towns mentioned, giving particulars of the harsh treatment meted out to Oliver Atherton.
Information concerning the first Friends’ Meeting House in Preston is only sparse; possibly if one searched the Quarterly Meeting records, more information might be forthcoming—probably it was built out of that Meeting’s funds.
There is however no doubt that the Meeting House which was, as stated previously, in Lord’s Walk was opened in 1731, for under that date Thomas Story in visiting the town, writes in his Journal:—
“On the 10th of 4th mo 1731 to Preston, and next day being the first of the week was at a meeting in their new Meeting House, being the first in it, where came many sober people. That evening I went to Wigan.”
Local historians state that at this period there were only four other places of worship in Preston, these being St. John’s Parish Church, first erected it is supposed in the tenth century; St. George’s in Chapel Walks, built 1723; St. Mary’s Catholic in Friargate, and the Independent (now the Unitarian) Church in 1718.
The first burial ground for Preston Friends which has already been referred to would be contiguous to the Meeting House in Lord’s Walk: there are records of eighteen burials having taken place there, which, strange though it may appear, seems almost to have escaped notice: the site of this first Quaker burial ground is in a now thickly populated district and has long since been built upon. No record of its actual location appears in the register beyond the mere statement in 1763 of “the new burial ground”—quite a score of years before the Friargate ground was opened.
In the year 1903, an old Prestonian giving some of his early recollections” wrote as follows:—
“I mentioned last week the coaches: those to the north did not run, as some people suppose, by way of Lancaster Road, but by North Road.
“That recalls to me the Everton Gardens of old, which was then a street of good houses, with nice flower and vegetable gardens reaching now to what is North Road. In North Road, there was an open space on the site of which there stands at the present day a veterinary surgeon’s house and stable.
“When they were excavating for this building I remember they came across a number of coffins, which I saw myself: there were six or eight in number and from spaces in some of them, I saw fine hair hanging out, the length of my stick; I thought this supported the theory that hair grows after death.
“On enquiry, it transpired that the site was that of a former Quaker Burial Ground: as you will know the Quakers do not believe in pretentious monuments, so that the little disused cemetery had nothing to indicate that it had been used as a burial ground.
“I mentioned this matter to my friend, Mr. Hewitson, years ago, when he was compiling his History of Preston, and he found on enquiry that there was once a Quaker Meeting House somewhere between Spring Gardens and Everton Gardens on the North side of Lord’s Walk.”
The writer of the above recollections, Mr. Pateson, concludes in presuming that the Meeting place in Lord’s Walk had been in use from the days of George Fox up to the building of the Friargate Meeting House in 1782.
In 1731, when the Lord’s Walk Meeting House was first occupied, it is probable that the building stood on the outskirts of Preston, contiguous to green fields and country lanes. The houses in the narrow street which a later generation called Everton Gardens, would not be built until sixty years after the Quaker Meeting House was opened. There were no suburbs, properly so called, in Preston in the early days of the nineteenth century and the terrace of houses on the western side of Everton Gardens (for they would be built first) would be considered highly desirable for residential purposes.
In Preston’s oldest directory printed by “T. Rogerson of Manchester 1818,” there is a list of the inhabitants of Everton Gardens, which at that date consisted of twenty-six houses—most of the occupiers were apparently of the fairly well-to-do class. At Nos. 1 and 8 lived two brothers, William and Henry Blackhurst, described as ‘‘ Attornies”; No. 12 was occupied by “John Horrocks, Manufacturer’ (probably the founder of the great cotton firm of Horrocks, Miller & Co.), at No. 14 there was another manufacturer named Beesley; a machine maker, named Hope, lived at 18; while two “Brewers,” William Brewer and Charles Lindon lived respectively at 25 and 26: in two or three cases the occupation is not mentioned, and one concludes they were retired people, but Richard Threlfall whose number is not given is designated as a “Gentleman”: possibly he resided at the large house at the corner of Lord’s Walk, a street not mentioned in the 1818 directory.
The old Meeting House in Friargate (3) was built by the Lancashire and Cheshire Quarterly Meeting purposely to accommodate the large gatherings which were held there once in the winter; every year over a lengthy period the other Quarterly assemblies were held, in the spring at Manchester, in summer at Lancaster, and in the autumn at Liverpool—these gatherings still continue to be held in the places named except that the winter gathering is held in turn at other Lancashire and Cheshire towns in addition to Preston. It had for long been felt that the Friargate Meeting House was much too large for the requirements of the local Friends and, in 1925 the premises in Friargate were sold, and a new Meeting House was built in St. George’s Road, Deepdale out of the proceeds. (4)
Reverting to the early days of the Society, it is difficult to ascertain during the first eighty years of its existence the actual or approximate membership of each of its meetings: it was not till 1737 that formal membership amongst “Friends” was definitely instituted. The earliest records of the Fylde Monthly Meeting Registers go back to a birth in 1651, a marriage in 1656 and a burial in 1684: one assumes therefore that up to the year 1737 the recorded entries of births, marriages and burials will relate to those Friends who were looked upon as concerned Quakers, or whose relatives were interested sufficiently enough to desire that the names of such should be recorded in the registers. Since about the year 1860 it has been the custom to render to the Yearly Meeting of the Society, a carefully prepared Tabular Statement, compiled by each Monthly Meeting in Great Britain, with the result that the number of members in each meeting is definitely ascertained every year.
Ireland, which possesses its own Yearly Meeting, also takes an annual census of .its membership in a similar manner.
Occasionally in the Journals of Friends who “travelled in the Ministry,” brief references are made to the state of some of the meetings they visited, and sometimes in a general way as to the numbers comprising such gatherings.
For example when Thomas Story, the Cumbrian Quaker already quoted, paid a visit to Preston in 1732, he wrote in his Journal:—“24. iv. 1732. Went to Preston where the meeting is a small one.”
Seven years later, the same Friend attended a General Meeting in Preston when no doubt a number of Fylde Friends and others would be present; on this occasion Thomas Story records as follows:—“11 v 1739. The next day we went to a General Meeting at Preston, which was large and for the most part composed of young people: the Lord blessed us together in His Presence; many of the young were baptised in the Lord and the Meeting ended in the Gravity of Truth.”
A month later on a return call, he speaks about “meeting with the few Friends in Preston, where we were favoured with a renewed sense of the truth of the promise—‘where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst.’ ”
At a later period Preston Meeting was visited by Sarah Stephenson, 1740-1802, who wrote in her Journal:—“1780. We went to Lancaster and Preston, and at the last place had the company of William Rathbone of Liverpool and William Dillworth of Lancaster. And there I felt an engagement to visit the families, under the influence of that love which enableth to search the camp and deal plainly.”
And again fourteen years later Sarah Stephenson says:—“1794. We went to Preston and had a meeting with the few Friends there: the spring of life seemed low, though I believe there is a little exercised remnant.”
When the Quarterly Meeting built the Friargate Meeting House in Preston in 1782, Preston Friends made a collection which was reported as follows:—“3. xi. 1782. The subscriptions in Preston Meeting towards the building of the new Meeting House (lately finished) appear as under:—”’
Then follow the names of sixteen Friends, the amount of their contributions ranging from twenty- five shillings to ten guineas; this sum plus a general collection in the meeting itself making a total of £42—7—0. Of those subscribers whose names are given, fourteen would probably be householders, with families: from these figures a rough deduction could be arrived at that the membership of Preston Meeting in 1782 might be between forty and fifty, exclusive of those, who though belonging to the congregation, were not actually members of the body.
The names of the subscribers in alphabetical order were:—
Robert Abbatt
William Abbatt
Henry Binns
George Brown
Jane Chew
John Danson
Richard Danson
Richard Danson, Junr.
John Dickinson
John Lancaster
Edward Satterthwaite
Thomas Smith
Shadrach Smithson
Anthony Thistlethwaite
John Thistlethwaite
David Wilcockson.
In the last decade of the eighteenth century Preston Meeting seems to have been in a low condition spiritually and numerically: committees appointed by Quarterly Meeting visited the Monthly Meeting to see what could be done. Like Blackburn however, with the advent of industrial extension, more members of the Society came to reside in the town, some amongst them being well concerned members and the small meeting benefited considerably.
About 1841, George Edmondson and Dr. Satterthwaite established a boarding school at Tulketh Hall in Ashton (George Edmondson had previously conducted a day school in Blackburn). This institution soon acquired a good reputation and was successfully carried on for ten years—until owing to industrial encroachment the felling of the fine trees which surrounded the grounds caused the proprietors to close the School.
George Edmondson opened another establishment— Queenwood College in Hants—which had a prosperous career, and Dr. Satterthwaite and William Thistlethwaite (who married a sister of the former) removed to Wilmslow in Cheshire where they built Lindow Grove School, which was also a successful venture.
The scholars at “Tulketh Hall Academy,” to give the school its full title, were by no means all members of the Quaker body, but many of them attended the Meeting for Worship in Friargate. They helped to increase the attendance there when the Government Census was taken in 1851.
Tulketh Hall Academy, Preston
From an advertisement in the Irish Friend, 1st of 6th mo. 1841:—
“22 v1 841
Lower Bank Academy near Blackburn
George Edmondson has the pleasure of informing his friends, that, at the close of the present half year, it is his intention to remove from his present residence to Tulketh Hall in the neighbourhood of Preston, where he proposes, after the approaching vacation to Re-open his school, for the accommodation of Boarders only.
Tulketh Hall is delightfully situated at a short distance from the town, yet is so secluded as to have all the advantages of the country. Surrounded by extensive walks, which form part of its grounds, having a view of the beautiful scenery on the banks of the Ribble, and being within the influences of the exhilarating sea breeze, it possesses—combined with the advantages which a town residence affords—facilities for a School of no ordinary character.
Hoping that he will have contributed by this change to the increased comfort and welfare of his pupils, G.E. confidently solicits the continued support of Friends.
Terms
Board, Washing, Instruction in the English, Latin, Greek and French languages and Mechanical, Architectural and Landscape Drawing, including Books, and all other stationery, and the use of Philosophical and Mathematical Apparatus, £40 per annum.
Pupils under ten years of age £35.
Each pupil to bring 4 towels. An Annual Examination is held on the day preceding the Quarterly Meeting at Preston.”
The pupils at Tulketh Hall published and printed a News Sheet, called the Tulketh Hall Mercury: it was issued monthly and consisted of six pages small octavo. On the front page, a wood engraving shows Tulketh Hall as a castellated building with a dense background of lofty trees. In an issue of the magazine dated “Aug. 15th, 1844, N° 1, Vol. 2” a list of the pupils who had the conduct of the Mercury is given, the date of their election being given as the “22nd of August 1844”— their names were :—
“Editor, E. D. Burrowes; sub-Editor, J. Edmondson; Compositors, J. Booth, A. Buchan, A. Eccles, W. Johnson, R. Thompson, W. Williamson; Printer, W. F. A. Shearson; sub-Printer, L. Hindle.”
One of the “ushers,” as the Junior Masters were called, was Mr. John Isherwood, who, with his son, acquired in the sixties and seventies a high reputation in the scholastic profession in Preston. The well-known Professor Tyndall was for a short while a Master at Tulketh Hall and afterwards was with George Edmondson at Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hants.
Lord Derby and the Quaker
A tale, of which there is more than one version, is related of the interview which a Preston Quaker is reported to have had with the same Lord Derby who was the kind host of Joseph John Gurney and Elizabeth Fry [refers to another appendix, not included here].
Though by repetition, the story may have become embellished with some trimmings, it is not unlikely that its origin had some foundation in fact; at any rate the name of one, John Danson, Gardener, appears in the Registers of the Society as having died in the year 1812 at the age of seventy-three. He seems to have been the son of Richard and Jane Danson of Woodplumpton.
The tale runs that John Danson was of a “whimmy” nature, fond of making alterations and experiments, with the result that he had found himself on more than one occasion financially embarrassed, so much so that at last he was threatened with distraint for rent by his landlord’s agent.
Fearing that if the Monthly Meeting got to know of his inability to pay his just debts, he would incur the stringent discipline of the Society, he decided at last to go direct to Lord Derby who was his landlord and plead with him for a little longer grace in which to pay off his arrears.
And so, one Tuesday, John Danson started off to walk all the way to Knowsley, trusting that, on account of their former schoolfellowship at Preston Grammar School, his Lordship’s heart would not prove so hard as that of his agent.
The story relates how John Danson walked up to the Hall door and rang the bell and how, when a footman appeared, John put to him the simple question—”Is Edward in?”
“Edward!” exclaimed the footman, “What Edward do you mean?”
“Edward Stanley thy master,’ replied John, “Is he in? for I want to see him.”
“Go away,” said the footman and the door closed.
But John Danson was not easily disconcerted, and he again rang the bell vigorously. The footman re-appearing haughtily asked him his business and was for turning him away, but John said:— “I want to see Edward very particularly, and I can tell thee another thing—I won’t go away till I have seen him —so now thou knows.”
The footman went to the Earl and told him that an obstinate man who looked like a Quaker, was at the door and would not go away.
“Enquire his name,” said Lord Derby—and on hearing that the caller’s name was Danson, and that he had come from Preston, his lordship after some little cogitation said—”Oh! show him in immediately,” and John was ushered into Lord Derby’s presence and at once saluted him with the remark, “Well, Edward, how art thou getting on?”
“Very well, thank you John,” replied his Lordship, warmly shaking his visitor’s hand.
“It’s a long time since thee and me went to Preston Grammar School together,” added the Quaker.
“It is indeed, John, a very long time,” replied his Lordship, ““I am very glad to see you, and how are you getting on? And what has brought you over to Knowsley?”
“I am sorry to say,” responded John, “I’ve been getting on vast badly lately, for I cannot raise my rent and that man of thine at Preston says if I don’t pay up by next Thursday I’se have to turn out. And so I’ve come to ask thee to give me a bit longer time to pay up in.”
“Well, John,” said his Lordship, “I suppose you’ve been a bit unfortunate lately, so I’ll forgive you the rent altogether.”
“I’m sure I’m very much obliged to thee, Edward,” said the delighted Quaker.
“And,” added Lord Derby, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do further. You may live in your cottage, rent free, as long as you do live.”
John Danson’s gratitude on hearing this good news was unbounded, and after being liberally regaled he took his departure from Knowsley with a much lighter heart than when he approached it, and for many years lived to enjoy his kind landlord’s generosity, undisturbed by fears of being turned out.
Some time after John Danson’s visit to Knowsley during one of the Preston Race weeks—it is said that Lord Derby when on his way to the Cock Pit to engage in his favourite sport, met John Danson in Stoneygate, when after a friendly salute the latter said:—
“I see, Edward, thou hasn’t given up thy silly, sinful practices yet!”
“No, John,” replied the Earl, “I have not, but if all my tenants paid their rents as you do I should very soon have to give up altogether “—and with this rebuke his Lordship walked on.
David and Isaac Wilcockson
David Wilcockson came from Wray near Hornby about 1775. He was a hatter by trade and had a small manufactory at Walton and a house at Fishwick; then a small village. According to the customs then prevailing (trade being confined to the freemen of the borough), he was not allowed to sell his wares in the town of Preston except at fair times—so that on market days it was his custom to have a stall on the top of Walton Brow as near to the town as he could get.
Subsequently, when the Preston bye-laws became less stringent, David Wilcockson conducted a successful trade in the market place, in premises where the Harris Library now stands. In old prints depicting the market place the shop he occupied is clearly seen.
Isaac Wilcockson was born in 1783, he was the third of David and Esther’s eleven children.
After an Ackworth School education he was apprenticed to Thomas Walker a rather noted Printer in Preston. Several of his apprentices became successful men in after life —amongst them being Sir Edward Baines, M.P. for Leeds and the compiler of a history of Lancashire.
Gaining more experience during a sojourn in London, Isaac Wilcockson returned to Preston and became a useful townsman.
At the early age of twenty-nine he became the proprietor of the Preston Review which he re-named the Preston Chronicle: he published a number of books including Dr. Kuerden’s quaint records of Preston in the 17th century, with notes by John Taylor and he was the author of books about the “Preston Guild.”
Isaac Wilcockson was one of the founders of the Preston Gas Company, and his portrait by Westcote still hangs in the board-room, along with that of Father Dunn, who was his associate in the formation of the company. He was eighty-two years of age when he died at the house which he built in Ribblesdale Place. In 1837 he joined the Town Council—he strongly advocated the building of a covered market nearly forty years before any such erection was made.
Isaac Wilcockson lost his membership on his marriage. He died in 1864 at the age of eighty-one.
His nephew David Wilcockson, a cotton manufacturer, was also a member of the council in the sixties of last century.
Notes
1. See Braithwaite’s Beginnings of Quakerism, pp. 448-9 for a fuller account of this incident. Also History of Preston by H. W. Clemesha, M.A.
2. Preston Guardian.
3. A marginal note in the Minute Book of the Monthly Meeting states:— ‘The first meeting in the new Meeting House at Preston was on a First-day 9th of 2nd mo. 1782.”
4. Contributions from the same proceeds have been also made to the building of a new Blackpool Meeting House and to structural alterations at Blackburn.
I remember a Ruth E. Abbott who attended Preston meeting in the 1950s-60s. She must have been in her 70s at that time. She lived in Victoria Road.