Home is the Castle of the Lord, but the soul and heart of that home is its Mistress. Through out our family history, women have played a very important part of where we stand as a family today. Our Ancestresses were brave, encouraging, loving, gentle, stern, pioneers, supporting, but above all else they were "The Spirit" of life. When her husband was off to battle, it was she that kept the fire going at home and made ends meet. And when her husband didn't return from war, it was she who nutured her children, raise them with hope of a better tomorrow and days to come. It was she who would tell her children of the yesterdays and the glories of their father. For her, today was only a glimpse of a wonderful future and the tomorrows that would follow. Lady de Prestwich
Such was our ancestresses. From powerful and wealthy families they married into the family and to them they bore many frutiful children, who in turn would create their own legacies. Her daughters married powerful men and gave birth to sons of some of the most wealthiest and powerful families of Europe, Radcliff, Langley, Holland, de Wolveley, de Trafford and de Tetlow. These families were spread out through Lancashire, England. Her sons were raised with honor and chilvery. Many would leave the battlefields soak with their blood, so that their women and children would have a better tomorrow. These family characteristics haven't change through the ages. Today her descendants continue to represent those same characteristics of honor, bravery, chilvery, caring, working hard, defending the family freedom and pledging to create a better world for thier children to live in.
The first mention of our name is found at the time of the 2nd Crusades. While King Richard "The Lion Heart" was being held hostage on Germany on his return from his victories in the middle east, his youngest brother, John decided to claim the throne. With doubt that the English could raise the ransom money for the release of King Richard, our ancestor, Robert de Prestwych threw in his lot with Count John. Surprisingly King Richard and Count John's mother, Eleanor of Antiquine, was able to secure the money by selling almost everything in the realm. Everyone who had a title had to essentially re-buy their titles. Once the ransom for King Richard was raise he was released and returned to England. He was displeased with his brother for having institute a rebellion. But he forgave his brother and those that supported him. However, no deed goes unpunished and King Richard leavied fines on all those that support Count John in his abscense. Thus we find the first mention of our ancestor, Robert de Prestwych, who was fined 4 marks to regain his possession of his inheritance which had been detained by the king as security.
Thus this section of the CD is dedicated to all the Ladies de Prestwich to whom the fortunes and history of the family have been kept through out the years for her descendants.
The Manor of Agecroft
Adam (IV) de Prestwich resided at Agecroft. The family de Prestwych resided at Agecroft and continued possesion of the Prestwich Manor for another five generations. During this time the Prestwich wives had brought into the family inheritance, the Manors of Tetlow, Oldham, Pendlebury and Hulme. These vast inheritances brought the family wealth and distinction of nobility. By the mid 1300s the family daughters were Mistresses of some of the most prominant families in England. Two sons were born to Adam de Prestwich (IV) and Alice de Wolveley, Robert and Thomas. The two seemed to have quarreled, and Robert inhertited the Manor of Pendlebury and Thomas the Manor of Prestwich and the Manor of Wolveley. Neither son was to enjoy their family fortunes for long. Thomas died in 1346 leaving his estate to his two young daughters, Margaret and Agnes. Robert died three years later in 1349, leaving his estate to his deceased sister, Alice, who was married to a son of Adam de Jordan. Alice's daughter, Joan, thus became the heiress of the Manor of Pendlebury. Thus the family fortunes of Pendlebury became the property of the Joan and her husband Sir Richard de Langley and thus remained for many generations.
Now Margaret and Agnes as the heirs of Manor of Prestwich and lands in Oldham, were the focus of attention. They became wards of Henry, 4th Duke of Lancaster. Henry, and accoridng to custom, appointing Richard de Radcliffe as their guardian. Richard had eyes on the vast estates of Prestwich and started to plot on how to increase his family wealth. For some reason Richard found the older sister, Margaret undesirable. Perhaps she was a potential threat to his plot to claim the Prestwich fortune or maybe she wasn't mentally all there. Whatever the reason, Richard had Margaret committed to a Benedictine Convent at Seton in Cumblerand, where she apprently took her vow on November 26, 1360. As a nun can not inherit or own any property, the Radcliffes could now claim full title to the Manor. With the road now clear, Richard married his son John to the younger sister Agnes. Just as Richard had seemed to gloat that he had acquired the vast Prestwich fortune for his son and his descendants he was foiled with the untimely death of Agnes in 1362. Agnes had born no children to John de Radcliffe and thus the vast estates were inherited by Agnes' first cousin Joan de Langley. This unfortunate event brought the Prestwich fortunes back under one family.
But things were not to be that easy. Robert de Holland knowing the situation, rescued or perhaps captured Margaret from the convent. He proceeded to marry Margaret and lay claim to the Prestwich estate. Thus things hinged on who was to be awarded the Prestwich estates, Margaret, daughter of Thomas, or Joan de Langley, daughter of Robert's deceased sister Alice. If it could be proved that Margaret had taken her vows as a Nun then she would have no claim to the estate. In and out of court, Margaret would never admit that she had taken her vows, thus she and her husband continued to stake a claim for the Prestwich estate. Upon Joan de Langley's death in 1375 the disputed estated came to her 9 year old son Roger. The war between Roger de Langley and Robert de Holland continued until about 1401 when Margert and Robert de Holland quit claimed the Prestwich estate to Roger. It is a mystery today why Robert and Margaret made this choice. Thus the vast estates of Prestwich Manor came into the de Langley family. Neither were to know the the de Langley family would five generations later marrying to the Prestwich family of Hulme.
John, brother of Adam (IV) inherited the Manor of Hulme. John was married twice, once to a woman only known as Emmota and his other wife was named Beatrice de Pendlebury. Which one he was married to first is not known. In the generations that followed, the Prestwich of Hulmes married both into the de Holland family and the de Langley family. The same families that had married into the Prestwichs of Agecroft. By the 1330s Hulme Hall had become the Manor home of the this branch of the family and was to remain in the families pocession until 17th Century. The last to hold the estate was Thomas de Prestwich. The de Prestwich family had sided with King Charles 1st and the royalist against Oliver Cromwell. With the defeat and execution of King Charles 1st, the Prestwich family found itself improvished; resulting in the sale of the family estate to Sir Edward Mossley. The Manor home switched hands several times and was finaly torn down about 1840 during the industrial revolution. Click the link below to learn the family legend and folklore about the demise of Hume Hall.
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