PRESTON, William II

Preston had a brief career, surviving his father by only about ten years. Aside from his election to Parliament, only two references to him in an active role have been traced. He was one of only 12 attestors to the county election for the Parliament in which he sat for Stafford; and in January 1450, during the first prorogation of this Parliament, he was named as a feoffee in property in Stafford once held by Sir Philip Chetwynd, for whom his father had often acted.1 C219/15/7; Staffs. RO, Hand, Morgan and Owen mss, D1798/HM Chetwynd/7. He was dead by 20 May 1455, when his daughter and heiress, Margaret, represented by her mother as she was still under age, filed a petition in Chancery against William Wore, dean of Stafford. She claimed that, as her grandfather’s feoffee, the dean had either to make estate to her or allow her to take the issues of the enfeoffed property as he was bound to do. The probable context of the complaint is a dispute between her, as her grandfather’s heir general, and her uncles, who had an interest in remainder under the terms of the will (as that will was described in her petition).2 C1/25/97.