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Henry Augustus Preestonc Married: 1842 Martha Blanche Southwell F/Mc | ||||||||
| Percival Robert Southwell Preeston [CFT #1108] Born: 1847 Died: 1906-Jun-9 |
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| b Islington, London d Braintree, Essex Percival was educated at the very famous Bruce Castle School. He was there during the time when Arthur Hill was headmaster. Bruce Castle School was revolutionary in its time because its curriculum covered Physical Science, Engineering and Modern Foreign Languages. When Percival attended from about 1859 to 1867 he appears to have opted for Spanish as the foreign language and took the standard physical sciences and mathematics. He appears to have done well. On completion he joined his father’s business as a junior. His father’s business was H.A. Preeston & Co. which had two offices viz : 7 Mincing Lane and 34 Fenchurch St. It was an international commercial merchant business. The business was financially very successful. Two things happened to Percival after he turned 21 years old in Sept 1868. The first was his father made him a partner in the business. The second was that his father gave him a 45 foot sailing yacht as a 21st birthday present. It was named “Kittiwake”, weighed 14 tons, and had a 63 foot high mast. Its Lloyds registration number was 81943. For the benefit of any non-sailing reader: - A 45 foot sailing yacht is big; one would need a minimum of three people to crew it [in those days] although a crew of five would be more comfortable. Undoubtedly, his father choose wisely in selecting a 45 foot yacht for a weekend sailor because a yacht of that size would be safe in a storm on the open sea. Percival owned it for 15 years. Its end came early in the morning of 1st Sept 1883 when it was damaged beyond repair when the worst hurricane in living memory hit Dartmouth Harbour where it was moored. A large number of other yachts were destroyed in the same storm. The business of father and son Preeston prospered and by 1870 Percival had taken over the running of one of the two offices. Percival married a widow Caroline Maria Wilkinson nee Hartley on 15 oct 1872 at St. James, Westminster. Caroline Maria was staying with her also widowed sister Mary Elizabeth Stapleton in “Holmwood”, Clapham Common, and Percival had bought Crescent House also in Clapham Common very close to “Holmwood”. At the time of the marriage Percival was 25 years old and Caroline Maria was 33. By 1881 Percival’s family was growing and Crescent House was not large enough. Percival decided to set out on his own and established himself as Percival Preeston & Co of 48, Cornhill, E.C.1. He was a commodity broker but his real desire was to be admitted to the stock-exchange and thus become a stockbroker. His opportunity came the following year in 1882 when Alfred Joseph Baker agreed to provide the capital needed for Percival Preeston & Co to qualify for membership of the stock-exchange. A few months later Percival was elected to membership and so Percival Preeston & Co become stockbrokers. It took a further five years until 1887 before the public at large in England started to take an interest in the stock-market. This was spurred on by mining companies going to the Stock exchange to raise money for new gold and silver mines and thus started the golden age of stock-brokering. Percival benefited enormously from this stock-market boom and through 1887 and 1888 he made a substantial fortune raising money for new companies and generally trading as a stock-broker. By early spring 1888 Percival had earned enough money to buy and furnish The Red House, 10 Chelsea Embankment. The house cost him £ 4,000 with a further £ 3,000 needed to furnish it including Caroline Maria’s organ. Accordingly, they moved with their seven children from Clapham Common to Chelsea. (Today nos 8,9 and 10 Chelsea Embankment have been bought by a developer who has knocked the three houses together to form a block of 29 flats called Turner’s Reach House [SW3 4LE].) By now Caroline Maria had stopped producing children and was enjoying her love of music although we still wonder how the neighbours [she had a very famous one next door] tolerated the full blown organ ! The year 1890 went even better until 1 Sept 1890 when Percival was accused by a client [W.R. Brand] of having forestalled his market. Percival, appeared before a full meeting of the board of the Stock Exchange and he and Brand gave their evidence. On 16 October the Full Committee of the Board of the Stock Exchange voted by 21-0 to believe Brand’s version and found Percival guilty of ‘disgraceful and dishonourable conduct’. A fortnight later they voted unanimously to expel him. Immediately after the Stock Exchange expulsion order was made public [8 nov 1890] Alfred Joseph Baker wound up Percival Preeston & Co. Percival and Caroline stayed on in Chelsea for a while but by June, 1881, they realised that the situation was hopeless and put The Red House, 10 Chelsea Embankment up for sale. They choose to retire to Braintree in Essex. It is possible that they choose Braintree because it is close to Felsted, the school that their three sons went on to attend with distinction. Percival still had reasonable financial resources from investments, savings and the sale of The Red House and Caroline Maria still had the income from the estate of her first husband so they were reasonably comfortable in retirement in Braintree. They acquired a modest house named “Marshalls” and remained there until Percival died on 9 june 1906 age 58. His wife Caroline Maria died the following year on 22 april 1907 age 67. Rodney Gilbert 2012 |
1: 1873 Madelene Hartley Preestonc 2: 1875 Caroline Stapleton Preestonc H 3: 1877 Olive Haygarth Southwell Preestonc H/C 4: 1879 Phyllis Mary Preestonc H/C 5: 1880 Noel Percival Richard Preestonc W 6: 1883 Philip Southwell Preestonc 7: 1885 Ralph (Shrimp) Septimus Preestonc | |||||||
| 7 Children | ||||||||
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