Extracts re: Preston from Hertford County Record Sessions
These extracts provide useful family and local information about Preston from the seventeenth
to the nineteenth centuries.
25 April 1636: That the highway in the parishes of King's Walden and Preston between Sutefeild
(Sootfield) Corner and Sutefeild Green, leading from King's Walden towards Hitchin is in decay and
that the inhabitants of the said parishes ought to repair it.
30 March 1643: That John Driver, Robert Barker, Dennis Browne and Richard Clifford, all of Hitchin,
in the hamlet of Preston, kept alehouses without licence.
8 April 1665: That Thomas Driver of Chesthunt, yeoman, kept an unlicensed alehouse at Preston.
1662: Order that George Barker of Preston, who was in His Majesty's service and was wounded in the
late wars, be paid £3 for his present relief.
1 September 1667: That a watercourse in the Back Lane in Stevenage is in decay, and that George
Flyndell of Preston ought to repair it.
January 1674/75: That Samuel Hall of Preston, husbandman, Graveley Marshall and Thomas
Serjant, both of Ippollitts, yeomen, assaulted John Carter of Great Wymondley, yeoman.
1 July, 29 1677: For trading as badgers without licence…William Pretts of Preston.
1680s: Complaint by the inhabitants of Preston and Langley, two Hambletts or divisions within the
parish of Hitchin, that ‘time out of mind’ they have had their own overseer, but that lately differences
have arisen between them and the town of Hitchin concerning the poor rates. Order made that the
hambletts shall, for the future, have their own overseer, as they are some distance from the town of
Hitchin. (Note: This dispute escalated as can be seen below.
It is also featured in this article: Link: Minsden controversy.)
11 January 1684/85: Complaint to the Court that Lady Sadleir refuses to pay the constables' rate of
Preston. Order that .she shall pay it unless she can show good cause to the contrary.
12 July 1686: Upon hearing the differences between Langley, Preston and Hitchin concerning their
poor rates, the two former allege that they ought not to be rated with Hitchin, because they have been
severed for about 40 years and Hitchin alleges that for many years before that time they have been
rated together, and produced an order, dated 18 March 1615 whereby it was ordered that they should,
he rated together. Order made that Langley and Preston shall in future be rated with Hitchin towards
the relief of the poor of the whole parish of Hitchin.
12 July 1686: Many complaints have been made against Lady Sadleir of Preston for refusing to pay
the constable’s rate for Ippollitts, and time was allowed to her to show cause why she should not pay.
1680s: Order that the differences between Preston, Langley and Hitchin concerning John Everard,
overseer of Preston, be referred to certain justices.
On the 12th July, 1686, the Court ordered that the hamlets of Preston and Langley should in future
be rated with the town of Hitchin, and not separately as they have been, and that the overseers of the
hamlets should join with those of Hitchin. The inhabitants of the hamlets moved the Court on 3rd
October 1692 to have a rehearing, as they were not satisfied, but the parishioners of Hitchin were not
ready to defend, and so it was agreed by all parties to refer the matter to the determination of this
Court. After a full hearing, the Court orders that the first order shall be confirmed.
1680s: Order that the differences between Hitchin and the "Hamlets of Preston cum Langley within
the Chapellry of Minsden" be referred to the next Sessions. In the meantime, Leonard King is
appointed to receive and pay their "collect money" without any prejudice to the right on either side."
17th century: Indictment of John Arnold, of Preston-cum-Langley, husbandman, for ploughing up a
common footpath in a place called Highfield in Langley, leading thence to Hill End.
1699: List of copyholders and freeholders with estates worth £10 pa…. John Farr, Thomas Canfield,
John Hobbs, Jere. Marshall, Leonard King, George Welsh, and Tho. Eversley, all of Langley hamlet-
cum-Preston.
17 October 1700: Order adjourning the appeal of Codicote against a warrant removing John
Killenbeck (Kyllinbeck) and his wife and child from Preston in Hitchin.
14 July 1712: Thomas Field of Preston for assaulting John Lyle. Fined 5s.
9 January 1715/16: John Sutton of Preston, for trading as a baker without having been duly
apprenticed.
18th century: Certificate by Samuel Noyes, William Gore, and John Essington, justices of the peace,
that they have viewed the accounts of Henry King, and that there is due to him £7 13s 10d besides
£2. 10s. which he has expended in pressing and hiring of horses and carriages and sending of
messengers in conveying the prisoners, who came from Preston, from St. Alban's to Barnet on their
way to London.
5 October 1761: Chalkley Whitbread of Preston in Ippollitts (imprisoned at the suit of John Cook, alias
Lea) be discharged from gaol under the Act for the relief of insolvent debtors.
(Link: Chalkley Whitbread)
30 June 1769: Apprenticeship of James Swain, son of John Swain, of Preston in the parish of Hitchin,
blacksmith, to John Hayward, of the parish of Stevenage, wheelwright, for seven years.
15 July 1771: Order at Quarter Sessions on the petition of James Swain, apprentice to John Howard
of Stevenage, to be relieved upon certain neglects of his master in not instructing him in his trade and
the ill usage of his master toward his apprentice by beating him and the master having been
summoned to appear to answer the said complaint and having been heard, it is ordered that James
Swain be released from his apprenticeship and that John Howard pay back to John Swain, father of
the apprentice, £6 6/-, part of the money received by John Howard in consideration for taking the
apprentice.
1808: Presentment that there is a highway leading from the town of Hitchin to the parish of King's
Walden, a certain part whereof in the hamlet of Preston commencing at the south corner of a cottage
of Henry Pedder and ending at the place where the same highway enters the parish of King's Walden,
containing in length 780 yards and in breadth 20 feet, is in decay, and that the inhabitants of the
hamlet of Preston ought to repair the same.
1808: The inhabitants of Preston in Hitchin for not repairing part of the highway starting with the
cottage of Henry Pedder and ending at the boundary of the parish of Kings Walden. Fined £30.
22 April, 1811: Depositions of Thomas Brown, of Hitchin, surveyor: that he has viewed the highway in
the hamlet of Preston, between Preston Green and the parish of King's Walden, now under
presentment, and is of opinion that it cannot be put into repair for less than £30.
1826: Henry Bradin of Hitchin, labourer, for stealing 3 bushels of oats, value 7s from Thomas Oakley
of Preston, farmer. Acquitted.
1826: James Humphries of Hitchin, labourer, for uttering a farthing coloured to resemble a sovereign
to William Swain at Preston. Six months hard labour and bound over for six months.
1830s: Mark Waller and George Izzard, both of Hitchin, labourers, for stealing a hen, value 1s, from
Charles Hill of Preston, yeoman. Waller, whipped; Izzard, no true bill.
Gamekeepers at Temple Dinsley:
Robert Rudd 1759
George Oldner 1771
Steven Rowley 1775
Samuel Peete 1784 – 1788
John Young 1789 – 1792 and 1796 – 1797
Thomas Darton 1793 – 1794 and 1799 – 1800
William Darby 1830s