PRESTON, Henry I, of Nottingham.

Although he was appointed alnager of the shire in 1411 for one year only, Preston’s accounts refer to additional letters patent dated 8 Feb. 1413, and he continued to assess alnage for another five years.E101/343/21. A lawyer, usually described as ‘of Nottinghamshire’, Preston probably resided in county town where, in April 1414, he was briefed by the mayor and burgesses to act as their attorney in the royal courts ‘ad libertates suas petendas et calumpniandas’. Accordingly, at the assizes held at Nottingham in February 1415, he successfully defended the local authorities’ right to hear cases involving property in the town. It was while holding both posts that Preston was returned to his first Parliament, having shortly before, on 2 Oct. 1414, found mainprise at the Exchequer for William Balchief, Member-elect for Portsmouth. During his second Parliament he was appointed as a j.p. In 1419 he stood surety at the Exchequer for Sir Thomas Chaworth, the sheriff of Lincolnshire; and in later years he provided securities of the peace in Chancery. At the local assizes of 1421 and 1423 he was accused of being illegally in possession of three messuages, a toft and eight acres of land in Nottingham, but how the suit was resolved does not appear.CFR, xiv. 76, 267; CCR, 1419-22, p. 251; JUST 1/1524 m. 10, 1537 m. 17. Nothing more is heard of him, but a new alnager of Nottinghamshire was not appointed until 1434.