Introduction

In the Beginning

I had to stop/start the story somewhere, so this is the beginning.

The name PRIESTLEY is from the Olde English (7^th cent) preost –priest and leah –forest clearing.

A topographical name, mainly in the Yorkshire area, the family lived in or near a clearing in a wood owned by priests. A name found in early times appearing on early census rolls. The family motto is respice finem “regard the end”.

When JOHN PRIESTLEY was born in 1640 at Hackthorn, Lincolnshire, King Charles I had been on the throne of England for 15 years. It was a time of peace and prosperity, but even so, it was the condition of the Church that caused most discontent and helped lead to the Civil War in England. The elections of 1640 resulted in an overwhelming victory for the party of the big landowners and merchants, not republican, but determined to make the Crown subordinate to Parliament. Charles had alienated almost all the classes. The King wished the church matters to go back to the Catholic rites and ceremonies before the Reformation, while his Parliaments and people were becoming more puritanical. The Protestants called for another Reformation, what they called a “thorough Godly Reformation”. King Charles was offered a treaty by Cromwell, the terms of which Charles refused. The war had led to five years of famine, high prices and general misery from 1646 to 1651.The withdrawal of labour caused by the war, combined with a run of wet summers produced a long run of bad harvests. The main crops grown were wheat, barley, turnips and clover.

1649 saw the King brought to trial, condemned and beheaded, for treason .England now became a Commonwealth and Protectorate and Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector of England.

1650 saw the birth of ALICE (ALLIS) WOOTON.

6 June 1667 at Hackthorn parish church, St Michael and All Angels, ALICE married JOHN PRIESTLEY

Alice and John were to have four children. (Recorded, could have been more).

EDWARD PRIESTLEY baptised 1669 at Hackthorn, he died aged 13, 1682.

RICHARD PRIESTLEY baptised 1672 at Hackthorn, he lived until 1738 dying aged 66.

JOHN PRIESTLEY baptised 1675 at Hackthorn, he died aged 7, 1682.

ANN PRIESTLEY baptised 1680 at Hackthorn, died in infancy 1680.

JOHN PRIESTLEY (the father) died 17 February 1685 aged 45.

Was there an epidemic of some sort for the timing of the deaths of the three children and their father? Scarlet fever, throat distemper, smallpox and diphtheria were common ailments in those days.

1658 Oliver Cromwell died and his son Richard Cromwell took over.

1660 a freely elected Parliament recalled Charles 2 to be King. Charles 2 had been at Breda and was nothing like his late father Charles 1.He cared little for home affairs but was more concerned with foreign politics and expansion of trade. In spite of political disputes, Charles reign was one of progress and prosperity, scientific study. An age of much quiet faith and devotion to duty.

1665 The Great Plague swept over London, followed by the great fire in1666.Samuel Pepys was writing his famous diary of the times.

During the great fire of London 130,000 homes were destroyed and 200,000 people were displaced. 1666 The Hearth Tax was brought in.

1680 Kirch’s comet, (The Great Comet of 1680!)

1681 January, a smallpox epidemic.

1685 Charles II died and his brother James II came to the throne.