Colonel William Preston (December 25, 1729 – June 28, 1783) played a crucial role in surveying and developing the western colonies, exerted great influence in the colonial affairs of his time, enslaved many people on his

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

, and founded a dynasty whose progeny would supply leaders of the South for nearly a century. He served in the

Virginia House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

and was a colonel in the militia during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. He was one of the fifteen signatories of the

Fincastle Resolutions The Fincastle Resolutions was a statement reportedly adopted on January 20, 1775, by fifteen elected representatives of Fincastle County, Virginia. Part of the political movement that became the American Revolution, the resolutions were addressed ...

. He was a founding

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to t ...

of Liberty Hall (later

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

) when it was made into a college in 1776.

Personal life

William Preston was born on Christmas Day in 1729, in

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 12,032 people at the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 Census ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, to

Col. Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

John Preston and his wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth's father, Henry Patton, was a prominent shipwright and merchant, and her brother, James Patton, served with distinction in the Royal Navy. The

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

granted him between 100,000 and 120,000 acres in America to permit British colonization beyond the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

. The family immigrated to

Augusta County Augusta County is a county in the Shenandoah Valley on the western edge of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The second-largest county of Virginia by total area, it completely surrounds the independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro. Its count ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in 1738. Subsequent French and Indian resistance and reversal of British policy limited the impact of the family's grants, but

Prestonsburg, Kentucky Prestonsburg is a small home rule-class city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Kentucky, United States. It is in the eastern part of the state in the valley of the Big Sandy River. The population was 3,255 at the time of the 2010 censu ...

was named in John's honor. In June 1752, William accompanied his uncle James Patton, acting as his secretary at the Logstown Treaty Conference. Patton arranged for William to be apprenticed to Thomas Lewis, the County Surveyor and Patton's cousin, and in November 1752, William was hired as a deputy surveyor.Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756) Part II," ''Smithfield Review,'' vol 19, 2015
/ref> He later served as surveyor in Augusta, Botetourt, Fincastle, and Montgomery Counties, surveying 36 tracts for Patton along the New River.Jim Glanville, "William Preston the Surveyor and the Great Virginia Land Grab," ''Smithfield Review,'' volume 17, pp. 43-74, 2013
/ref> In July 1755, William survived the

Draper's Meadow massacre In July 1755, the Draper's Meadow settlement in southwest Virginia, at the site of present day Blacksburg, was raided by a group of Shawnee warriors, who killed at least four people including an infant, and captured five more. The Indians brough ...

, an attack by the

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

against a settlement that was part of a property later known as Smithfield Plantation, that he purchased in 1773.Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756)," Part I, ''The Smithfield Review,'' Volume 18, 2014
/ref> He completed the construction of his Smithfield Plantation home in 1774. William served as a captain with the

Virginia Regiment The Virginia Regiment was formed in 1754 by Virginia's Royal Governor Robert Dinwiddie, as a provincial corps. The regiment served in the French and Indian War, with members participating in actions at Jumonville Glen and Fort Necessity in 1754, ...

on the

Sandy Creek Expedition The Sandy Creek Expedition, also referred to as the Sandy Expedition or sometimes the Big Sandy Expedition, (not to be confused with the Big Sandy Expedition of 1851) was a 1756 campaign of Virginia soldiers and Cherokee warriors into what is no ...

in 1756, keeping a journal which serves as the only complete record of that campaign.Lyman C. draper, "The expedition of the Virginians against the Shawanoe Indians, 1756," ''Virginia Historical Register and Literary Companion,'' Vol. V, Number II. Richmond: McFarlane & Fergusson, April 1852
/ref> Remaining in Virginia, William married Susanna Smith on January 17, 1761, and together they had 12 children. He and his family moved to Smithfield Plantation, in present-day

Blacksburg, Virginia Blacksburg is an incorporated town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 44,826 at the 2020 census. Blacksburg, as well as the surrounding county, is dominated economically and demographically by the presence of V ...

, in 1774, and it served as his final home. He previously lived at Greenfield Plantation in Fincastle,

Botetourt County, Virginia Botetourt County ( ) is a US county that lies in the Roanoke Region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Located in the mountainous portion of the state, the county is bordered by two major ranges, the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Moun ...

. At least 216 people were enslaved as workers at the Smithfield Plantation. In August 1759, William Preston purchased 16 enslaved people from a slave ship in a single purchase.

Political and military life

Preston was elected to Virginia colony's

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

in 1765 to represent

and served until the county was divided around 1770. In 1775, Preston was one of the signatories of the Fincastle Resolutions. Preston served in both the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

and

. During

Lord Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War—or Dunmore's War—was a 1774 conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations. The Governor of Virginia during the conflict was John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore—Lord Dunmore. H ...

of 1773–1774, while fighting against the

Shawnee Indians The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...

, he urged Virginians to join the militia to enact revenge on the Indians and plunder their stock of horses. A colonel in the militia, one of Preston's greatest contributions to the

was his ability to suppress the

Tories A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

(British loyalists) from uprising in southwest Virginia during the Revolution. He also helped fight

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

and the British in the Carolinas. He served as a founding trustee of Liberty Hall (chartered in 1782), formerly named the Augusta Academy, when in 1776 it was renamed in a burst of revolutionary fervor and moved to

Lexington, Virginia Lexington is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 7,320. It is the county seat of Rockbridge County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines ...

. Other founding trustees Preston worked with were prominent men in the area, including

Andrew Lewis Andrew Lewis may refer to: Law and politics * Sir Andrew J. W. Lewis (1875-1952), Scottish businessman and politician; Lord Provost of Aberdeen * Andrew L. Lewis Jr. (1931–2016), American railroad executive and US Secretary of Transportation *And ...

, Thomas Lewis, Samuel McDowell,

Sampson Mathews Sampson Mathews (c. 1737 – January 20, 1807) was an American merchant, soldier, and legislator in the colony (and later U.S. state) of Virginia. A son of John and Ann (Archer) Mathews, Mathews was an early merchant in the Shenandoah Val ...

, George Moffett, and

James Waddel James Waddel (or Waddell, July 1739 – September 17, 1805) was an Irish American Presbyterian preacher from Virginia noted for his eloquence. He was a founding trustee of Liberty Hall (later Washington and Lee University), when it was made into ...

. It is the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the country.

Legacy

Preston died during a military muster near Price's Fork, Virginia, in 1783. The cause of death is unknown, but it is believed that he either suffered from a heat stroke or a heart attack. He is buried in the family cemetery on

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

's campus in

near Smithfield Plantation. His final home, Smithfield Plantation, has been restored and is listed on the U.S. Historical Registry, and it is open for tours from April through the first week in December. Many prominent Americans descended from Preston and his wife Susanna, for whom the plantation is named. They were parents or grandparents to governors, senators, presidential cabinet members, university founders, university presidents, and military leaders. The Prestons' son

James Patton Preston James Patton Preston (June 21, 1774May 4, 1843) was a U.S. political figure who served as Governor of Virginia. Biography James Patton Preston was born at Smithfield (Blacksburg, Virginia), Smithfield Plantation, in what is now Blacksburg, Virg ...

was governor of Virginia from 1816 to 1819 and helped charter the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

. Their grandson

William Ballard Preston William Ballard Preston (November 25, 1805 – November 16, 1862) was an American politician who served as a Confederate States Senator from Virginia from February 18, 1862, until his death in November. He previously served as the 19th United S ...

was a congressman, Secretary of the Navy under

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

, and later a senator from the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. William Ballard Preston also offered the

Ordinance of Secession An Ordinance of Secession was the name given to multiple resolutions drafted and ratified in 1860 and 1861, at or near the beginning of the Civil War, by which each seceding Southern state or territory formally declared secession from the United ...

to the Virginia Legislature that resulted in Virginia joining the Confederacy, and he co-founded a small Methodist college, the Olin and Preston Institute, which was in financial difficulty by 1872. The trustees relinquished its charter and donated its property to the state, which reorganized the campus as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Today, it is known as

. Preston was memorialized on July 27, 2011, with the Colonel William Preston highway in

. The city of

Prestonville, Kentucky Prestonville is a home rule-class city located at the confluence of the Ohio and Kentucky rivers in Carroll County, Kentucky, in the United States. It lies across the Kentucky River from Carrollton. The population was 161 at the 2010 U.S. Cens ...

, was erected on one of his land grants and named in his honor. Before 1800, it was the most important town in the county and larger than Port William. One of the first roads built in this section of the state was from the mouth of the Kentucky to New Castle in Henry County.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Preston, William 1729 births 1783 deaths 18th-century Irish people Continental Army officers from Ireland People from Limavady American surveyors Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Signers of the Fincastle Resolutions Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution 18th-century American politicians Preston family of Virginia Military personnel from County Londonderry

Personal life

Political and military life

Legacy

Further reading

See also

References