PRESTON, JOHN: Puritan; b. at Upper Heyford (6 m. w. of Northampton) in the latter half of 1587; d. at Preston-Capes (12 m. w.s.w. of Northampton) July 20, 1628. He was educated at King's College (1604-06) and Queen's College, Cambridge (1606-07), and became fellow at the latter, 1609. He took orders and became dean and catechist at Queen's. On the nomination of the duke of Buckingham, he was made chaplain to Prince Charles, preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and master of Emanuel College (1622). He was the chaplain-in-waiting at the death of King James I. (1625). In his closing years, his stanch Puritanism cost him the duke's patronage. As a preacher, he attracted great attention. He was also a vigorous defender of Calvinism. His writings were very popular; a few of which are: The New Covenant, or the Saints' Portion (London, 1629); The Saint's Daily Exercise (1629); and The Breastplate of Faith (1630).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: The life of the Renowned Doctor Preston, written by Thomas Ball in 1628, was abridged by Samuel Clarks and several times printed, e.g., in Lives of Thirtytwo English Divines, pp. 75 sqq,. London, 1877, and is edited by E. W. Harcourt, Oxford, 1885. Consult further: D. Neal, Hist. of Puritans, ed, J. Toulmin, ii. 124 sqq., 5 vols, Bath 1793-97; B. Brooke, Lives of the Puritans, ii. 356 sqq., 3 vols., London, 1813; DNB, xlvi. 308-312 (gives a list of twenty-four works).

PRESTON, THOMAS SCOTT: Roman Catholic; b. at Hartford, Conn., July 23, 1824; d. in New York Nov. 4, 1891. He was brought up in the Protestant Episcopal Church; was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford,, 1843, and from the General Theological Seminary, New York, 1846; was ordained in 1846, and served as assistant rector at the Church of the Annunciation and subsequently at St. Luke's, both in New York City, till 1849, when he entered the Roman Catholic Church; he studied a year at St. Joseph's Seminary, Fordham, and was ordained priest in 1850; served as assistant at the cathedral in New York and at St. Mary's, Yonkers; became chancellor of the diocese of New York in 1853 and vicar-general in 1873, and was also rector of St. Anne's, New York, after 1861. Among his books are: Sermons for the Principal seasons of the Sacred Year (New York, 1864); Christian Unity (1867); Reason and Revelation (1868); Christ and the Church (1870); Catholic View of the Public School System (1870); The Vicar of Christ (1871); Divine Paraclete: Sermons (1880); Protestantism and the Bible (1880); and God and Reason (1884).