Colonel Richard Preston, Sr.

GEDCOM Note

GEDCOM data

Speaker of the Assembly of Maryland, sometimes referred to as "king of the Quakers."

A brief biography: https://archive.org/stream/jstor-20083479/20083479_djvu.txt

"He probably came from Great Britain, in 1635, in the vessel " Paul of London," " aged twenty-one years ;" but this is not certain. The Land Records of Virginia show that, in 1636, a Richard Preston, " of Virginia," in consideration of the transportation of his " now wife" and two other persons, not named, received a grant in that province of one hundred and fifty acres. In 1639 he received two grants ; one of one hundred and fifty acres and one of five hundred acres. In 1641, five hundred acres, and in 1651, another of five hun- dred acres, adjoining a former grant. This land was situated in Norfolk County, where, since the early part of the seven- teenth century, Puritans from England had been settled under the protection of the stanch old non-conformist families of "Wyatt and Bennett. Here they had established a little colony, notwithstanding the adverse influence of the Church of England, which, with variable effect, harassed them for several years, until, about the beginning of the latter half of the century, the persecution became so intense that sev- eral families availed themselves of the refuge offered by Captain William Stone, acting Governor of the Province of Maryland, under Cecil, Lord Baltimore, and accepted the offers of land and liberty for all new-comers.