Thanks to questions from members of the House - almost all from America, though one appears to be from Scotland - I have had to put the planned post this month on hold to deal with the questions. For the most part, they have come from people who have contacted me through a genealogy forum about the Preston family. I would encourage you to check it and perhaps to answer questions posters may have.
To that end, please feel free to link to the forum using the link highlighted here.
As to the question, I'll start by letting you know what it is - and please remember this is both history and myth. Separating the two has not been easy and has kept me awake nights trying to work out how to answer. I'd be delighted to hear your views, because I'm far from sure I have a good answer here!
Posing the question
Presumably as a result of something in the press or on television, several people have asked what at first seemed to me to be a silly question. I admit that as I looked into it, the silliness receded - but I fear I will still disappoint those who asked. While it was posed in different ways, the question came down to the same thing. Please forgive me if I miss the point of your own question, but I've had to generalise.The question was: were the Preston Family associated with Robin Hood?
How to answer?
The best way to answer is far from clear, so I have made my own choices. Let me explain those before I begin.First, the oldest associations - not stories, mind you - about Robin Hood refer to times before Christianity in the British Isles. In these, he's linked with spirits of the forest, such as the Green Man.
Second, we have the old ballads, most from the 13th century and the time of the Kings Edward and include references to those kings, particularly Edward I - unlike the later stories.
Finally, we have the stories which refer to Richard the Lionheart rather than Edward, despite Richard having died around 50 years before Edward was born!
What I'll do is to deal with each in turn, before summarising in what I hope will be a sensible and reasonable way. I apologise for those who contacted me in what seems to be the hope that our family may be tied in with "the real Robin Hood" for any cynicism - I'm sure readers will disagree with me on both sides, those who think I'm too dismissive and those who think I've not made it clear it is all myth.
Please feel free - whatever your position - to contact me and let me know your opinion. Obviously, the best place would be in this blog, but I'll leave that up to readers, as usual.
The mythological Robin
To start with, let's look at the Robin Hood from the pagan tales of the Green Man. In these, all of which seem to be later even than the stories of the 15th century, Robin is linked with the Green Man as some sort of forest spirit in his own right or as a human who has some link to the forest through his association with the Jack 'o' Green.Now, it may be true - I am not prepared to comment either way - that our family originated from the Norman "de Tailbois" sent to the North of England to clear the forest, set up towns and establish Norman rule on the Scottish borders. If it is true, our family would be associated with the forest spirits by local inhabitants but it seems to me it would make it likely they would be seen as strongly opposed to the forest spirits since the Tailbois role is essentially to chop trees down! Furthermore, we know our family was pretty much restricted to the Barrow and Furness area of northern England until 1186, which makes it unlikely they would be linked with an outlaw in Sherwood Forest, since it ran south of there from perhaps northern Rossendale down to beyond Nottingham.
If I may, then, I shall simply dismiss this alleged connection as the myth it appears to be. I see no possible way that either the Robin Hood myths or - even more so - an association with our family can be at all credible.
The balladrical Robin
Next, we come to the Robin Hood of the 13th century ballads where there is for the first time historical detail - even though it disagrees with the later stories of the 15th century. Here we have a different issue and it has taken me almost all month to research before posting.First, yes there really does appear to have been a genuine Robin Hood at this time. It was a time when our family was involved with local politics, as already covered in the Family Records when dealing with Adam Preston (born around 1260) and his son Roger. There is equally little doubt that both of these, as already discussed in the Journal last year, were involved in the Lancastrian Rebellion of the 13th century or that this conflict was associated with the ballads of Robin Hood. There is even clear evidence that at this time our family were involved in the area around Gisburn, where we established a farm then known as "Champignon" and now called "Champion Farm".
As far as the ballads are concerned, then, we do have a family involvement in the events described in the ballads and may have a link to "Guy of Gisburn". That is as far as history can take us since the "real" Robin Hood of the time was a convicted criminal from Wakefield called "Robin Hoode" in the court documents.
True, that court would probably have reported to the court where Adam and later his son Roger were judges - but that is as far as it could possibly go, unless you presume Robin's meeting with King Edward is also to be taken as historical. If you do, then yes - we were certainly a Court Family, so there would have been another link there.
The ballads, I admit, are the one area where I think there is some evidence for some link with some events that might be associated with the ballads of Robin Hood; but to be honest I find it difficult to imagine any more tenuous link! Forget the idea that we were either part of Robin Hood's group or even of the people who were hunting him - both are extraordinarily unlikely and there is simply no evidence to support any such claims.
The literary Robin
Finally, we come to the literary Robin of the 15th century, which is probably the one most familiar to people. This set of stories - despite being two centuries later than the ballads - presumes that Robin lived half a century before the ballads were popular.Here, I can be much more brief - our family were clearly involved at that time in the Crusades and there they got themselves hooked up with the Templars. There are, it is true, tales within the family of our ancestors accompanying Richard on his way home from the Holy Land but at the very best that would make them part of the crew who met Robin when they came home and not part of Robin's adventures while they were thousands of miles away!
This particular Robin, then, must I fear join the mythological Robin in the "not a chance" camp of having any family involvement.
Summary
Gathering all this together, we find there is only one reasonable conclusion.There is little or no chance that our family has any real involvement with Robin Hood even if he really did exist. It is marginally possible there could be some link if the ballads are true - but we would have been the "bad guys" on the judges bench.
I am sorry to disappoint those who got in touch, but our role in the Robin Hood tales is unlikely to amount to anything at all. Yes, I admit that it is true that our family seem to have been involved with smuggling cattle from Scotland not long after the ballads and I am happy to agree that we might have been what would now be called criminals at that time.
I can also agree that we did seem to be moving gold to and from London at that time and could be considered to be perhaps "money launderers" of a sort - but I suspect that may have a lot more to do with the Templars than with a bunch of ne'er do well outlaws living in the trees! With all the evidence we have, and I admit it is not much and not conclusive, it seems to me that we have to discard any suggestion that we were either a significant feature in the outlaw life at the time or even all that important in the legal side of affairs.
Much as it may disappoint, I fear the Prestons were not involved with the Robin Hood of mythology or literature and the ballad case seems to be weak in the extreme.
