Just before storytelling became a craft, on a warm summer night, an ancient man and his young son went out into a field. The boy tugged his father by the hand, across the shimmering meadow while a chirping cricket chorale sang their purpose. A gentle breeze blew the fragrant smell of anise across the waving grass. The two laid down on the ground and propped their heads against a large rock and pointed up at the clear night sky above. Against the dark velvet canvas, the shiny twinkling dots became warriors, dragons, damsels, messengers, and threaded wisps of whimsy. With these delicate arching strokes in the air, the world was explained and life was good. Connecting the dots is fundamental. It may be why we are here.

Many many years later, another little boy became the king of England. This little boy liked to fight and when he eventually became king he was known as Richard the lion-hearted. Never having been a king myself, I would still imagine that when you do become king, at some point the magnitude of childhood tendencies would no doubt grow into larger enterprise. Richard led crusades. Richard was now engaged in much more than a tussel in the courtyard. It became such a large business effort that it required detailed organization and planning. After all you can't just go off and fight a war without convincing others to help you do it. You needed fighters, you needed money and you needed public support. This was the business of noble death.

While Richard was away killing people, he had entrusted the care of England to his "evil" brother John. Quotation marks are used here because it's hard to know how evil John really was. The way the story goes, John led a rebellion, which failed, and when Richard returned in March of 1194, John and his supporters had to pay heavy fines. 1994 marked the 800th anniversary of the first record of the surname PRESTWICH and Robert de Prestwich made this mark on history by being fined for supporting John. The amount of his fine was four marks, almost three pounds and was very minor in comparison to others listed in the Pipe Rolls. Agents of King were anxious to cleanse the countryside with a bath of fines and Robert caught a little of that splash. So, the first time the name was ever written down it looked like this.

Robert de Prestwich

Is it possible that John was a good guy, who took care of England while his evil brother was off somewhere killing people? And when Richard returned home broke and beaten he persuaded his brother into a sinister plot.

"We need money, John. Here's what I'm going to do. In order to collect more money, I will publicly accuse you of trying to take the throne from me. Then I will send my tax collectors off to collect fines from everyone who supported you when I was gone. That'll be just about everybody. Voila, more money."

John looked up, thinking about the plan and after a pause said "Dick, you're good. If you really feel that's best for England then fine."

"I do, John. I really do."

Could something like that really happen? Naw. Could Robin Hood be the invention of the media, hundreds of years later, who looked back at a point in history and saw an opportunity to tell a story and just got the facts all wrong? Naw.

King Richard still liked to fight and got himself killed in France a few years later and Count John became king anyway. If someone like Robin Hood really existed, Robert and he probably weren't friends.

During those times, one of the newest inventions was a last name or surname. Before that you were simply Robert or William or John. Surnames usually came from one of four different sources. If your occupation was to put shoes on horses then you became John Smith. If you were the son of William you might become John Williamson. If you were short, then you might become John the Short. If you were from an area called Prestwich then you might become Robert of Prestwich. Consequently, the surname PRESTWICH is a place name. Like the sound of name Greenwich, Prestwich was most often pronounced PREST - IDGE. Since literacy was rare during those times, if anything was spelled out, usually a bureaucrat recording a will or marriage would spell a name similar to the way he heard it. As a result, the surname PRESTWICH has over 80 different legitimate spellings that have been recorded throughout history. I refer to all the entire group, with all the different spellings as PRESTOIDs. If you are a Prestoid, however your name is spelled, it should be pronounced the same - PREST-IDGE. In England, the predominant spellings are PRESTWICH, PRESTAGE, PRESTIGE, and PRESTIDGE. In the United States, the predominant spellings are PRESTRIDGE and PRESTWICH. In Australia PRESTWIDGE is the predominant spelling. Jamaica has 2 PRESTWIDGEs. Scotland and Ireland have some PRESTWICKs. It wasn't until the mid 1800's, when compulsory schooling took hold, that people began to spell anything consistently. One classic example that illustrates this is the will of William Shakespeare, in which he spelled his own name three different ways. Relax the spelling is the second rule of genealogy research. The first rule of genealogy research is Only you care about your genealogy. On a good day, your spouse or another genealogist may slightly care. Otherwise, no one else cares. Really. Truly. Deeply. This is closely related to other human syndromes such as "Only you think your children are cute" or "Only you enjoy seeing your vacation pictures" or "Other people's farts smell bad".

PRESTWICH is a contraction for priest's wych. A wych is an area outside of a town and the root meaning of Prestwich is priest's retreat or farm or simply a place where a colony of priests lived. It is fun to believe that if you were from Prestwich you were either the illegitimate offspring of a priest or you worked as a servant to the most powerful people of the time. It is likely that such people understood the swirl of current events from the big picture viewpoint of powerful priests. At the same time, because they were either illegitimate or of the servant class, they moved easily among all classes of society. In reality, it is more likely that the priests of Prestwich were quite poor and little more than serfs.

Eventually the family name was represented by an armorial bearing or coat of arms. The one below came into use in 1530.

The ancient arms for the PRESTWICH family had a mermaid on a red shield with a porcupine crest. It was in use by the Prestwich family during the 14th century. The motto "IN TE DOMINE SPERAVI" translates to "In God Have I Put My Trust". This bearing had some effect on another part of history, the creation of The Great Seal of The United States of America. Some authorities hold that the original design was created by Sir John Prestwich. The motto from the Prestwich coat of arms didn't make it to the Great Seal of the United States, but the very similar motto "In God We Trust" appears elsewhere in the US symbology.

Sir John wasn't actually knighted or of royal heritage. He lived in Ireland. Apparently there was a group of people who were still loyal to somebody after the English Civil War (1642-1649) and he was descended from one of the Prestwiches who went there. He married but never had kids. His progeny were his pursuits, both intellectual and social standing.

Sir John did author a book entitled Prestwich's Respublica . I've read it and it's a great resource to find some of the color detail between the outlines of history.

One of the important figures in English history was a bloke named Oliver Cromwell. Prestwich's Respublica is a written record of many of the announcements or declarations made during occasions when Cromwell, or those around him, would gather. Sir John didn't live during Cromwell's time so I'm not sure where he got a hold of these declarations. If you ever get a chance to read through it, it's actually fairly humorous in spots.

During the early 1530's, the increasing misuse of armorial bearings was so bad that King Henry VIII commissioned Thomas Benolt, the first herald, to straighten things out. Heralds were supposed to travel throughout provinces with the authority to survey and record all arms, correct those where necessary, deface or take away those used unlawfully, and to take note of descents. When the herald came to your part of the world for his business, it was referred to as a visitation. Because the work of heralds contains information about descendants of this family or that family they're an excellent source of genealogical information.

The visitation of William Fellow, on behalf of Thomas Benolt, in 1533 to Lancashire recorded a different arms. "Ermine, on a chevron (field), a bezant between two Leopards' faces erased Or; on a chief of the last a Wolf passant Sable between two fleurs-de-lis Gules". This one looks a lot more like what you'd expect a coat of arms to look like. But if I had to choose, I'd take the earlier one.

There are also 3 modern arms recorded with the College of Arms, all recorded by modern Prestoids in the 1900's. One is recorded by Adrian Neville Prestige, noted historian and Prestoid researcher.

So what does the mermaid image mean? That's anybody's guess. Here are a few thoughts.

an obvious interest in the sea
the fact that the mermaid is combing her hair might suggest vanity or that might simply be one of the things that that mermaids are seen doing when you find them
since mermaids are myths they are also elusive and only appear when they choose to appear
since most arms display dragons or lions or something which would repulse, a mermaid is a siren of the sea and beckons more that repulses
she uses technology to know herself
she is a being from two worlds.

I invite you to invent more speculation about such an image. Or you can write and tell me what it is like being part of a river that has been flowing for 800 years. So far, there are over 5,700 records of Prestoids in The River Prestwich dating from 1194 to the present. You've read about the river. It's time to take a dip. Maybe you are in there already.

The records before 1600 (88k), the 1600's (223k), the 1700's (334k), the 1800's (326k), the 1900's (267k).

See the dots. Draw the lines. Tell a story.

On the internet, you can find these Prestoids.
In Australia, Rochelle Prestwidge is a nurse and has started a Prestwidge discussion board.  Chris Prestwich is a medical technician. When he isn't saving lives, you can find him building pretty nice web sites.  Rick Crofts is a retired computer manager and G-Grandson of Henry Adolphus Prestwidge. He plans to include his own lineage into The River Prestwich.  Scott Prestwidge, plays cricket.  Steve Prestwich plays drums professionally. Apologies to Steve as I confused him with Steve Prestwich who, In Europe, does computer research on parallel processing algorithms while being a musician on the side.  Meryl Prestidge is a scientist working at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in Devon, UK. John Alfred Prestwich made early motion picture cameras and film projectors and later motorbikes.  In France, Jon Prestwich designs furniture.  In the USA, Andrea Prestwich is a physicist at Harvard. Howard Prestwich is an attorney. The Prestwich Research Group in Utah, USA does scientific research while Priscilla Prestwidge, Dawn Prestwich, Bill Prestwidge and Linda Prestwidge work in Hollywood. Probably the largest group of Prestoids are the US Prestridges. A very nice web site entitled Descendants of Thomas Prestridge has detail about this tributary. Dr. Kathleen J. Prestwidge is a retired biologist who is busier now with projects than when she was working.

Off the internet, you can contact these Prestoid researchers for help.

Tell me what you think of this page via email - prestwidgew@earthlink.net. Go to top of site.