The Preston Collection spans more than four centuries of American family history, drawing on six distinct family lines whose stories intersect through marriage, migration, and shared heritage. From colonial Virginia to the Revolutionary frontier, from the antebellum South to the twentieth-century diaspora, these families left records in courthouses, church registers, land grants, military rolls, and DNA. Explore each surname below to trace the branches of this living family tree.
Preston
Origins of the Preston Name
The Preston name emerged from the transformation of Britain following the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the later reshaping of medieval Scotland during the reign of King David I — a period historians commonly describe as the Davidian Revolution. During this era, Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and native Scottish traditions blended into the feudal society that would define Lowland Scotland for centuries.
The surname “Preston” derives from the Old English words preost (“priest”) and tun (“settlement” or “estate”), meaning “the priest’s town” or “the priest’s estate.” The name first appeared as a locational surname attached to settlements in northern England and southern Scotland bearing that description. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, members of the Preston family had become established in Midlothian and East Lothian, near the political and commercial heart of medieval Scotland.
The rise of the Preston family coincided with the northward spread of Norman feudal influence into Scotland following the Norman Conquest. Through the Davidian Revolution, King David I invited Norman and Anglo-Norman knights, administrators, and landholders into Scotland to modernize military organization, land administration, and royal governance. Families associated with this transformation became woven into the emerging Scottish nobility and administrative class. The Prestons were among the Lowland families whose fortunes rose alongside this new political order.
Craigmillar and Royal Edinburgh
The historical Preston tradition in Scotland is tied most closely to the lands around Edinburgh and, ultimately, to Craigmillar Castle. Early records reference figures such as Alured de Preston, who appears as a charter witness in 1222, anchoring the family firmly within the documented landscape of medieval Lowland Scotland.
By the later Middle Ages, the family’s center of influence had shifted to Craigmillar Castle, southeast of Edinburgh. The oldest portions of the castle date to the late fourteenth century, when the Prestons established the site as their principal seat. More than a defensive structure, Craigmillar represented the family’s integration into the civic and political life of Scotland’s capital region.
The Prestons of Craigmillar served as landholders, royal officials, military officers, and civic leaders. Sir Simon Preston of Craigmillar served as Provost of Edinburgh and was closely connected to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots during the sixteenth century. Through Craigmillar, the family became associated with governance, law, military service, and the administration of Lowland Scotland during one of the most consequential periods in Scottish history.
Like many Lowland Scottish families, the Prestons likely reflected a blend of Norman, Anglo-Saxon, and native Scottish ancestry over time. While the family identity emerged within the Normanized feudal culture of medieval Scotland, centuries of intermarriage connected the surname to the broader historical fabric of Scotland itself.
Arrival in Colonial America
The Preston name reached the Chesapeake region during the earliest generations of English colonial settlement in North America. Historical records place Thomas Preston in Virginia by 1637, where his name appears in Isle of Wight patent records connected to transported headrights and colonial land grants.
In Maryland, the Preston name became connected to the political formation of the colony itself. Richard Preston arrived from Virginia to Maryland in 1649 and established Preston-on-Patuxent, which briefly served as a seat of colonial government. He later served as Speaker of Maryland’s Commonwealth Assembly and participated in the colony’s parliamentary administration during the mid-seventeenth century.
The Preston name also became associated with the early infrastructure and settlement patterns surrounding Baltimore County. While members of the family were not among the formal commissioners who established Baltimore Town in 1729, records place Preston landholders and road overseers within the developing transportation and county systems that supported the region’s growth.
The Virginia Frontier and the Early Republic
One of the most influential American Preston lines emerged through the later Ulster migration into Virginia during the eighteenth century. John Preston and his family settled in Augusta County in the late 1730s, and his son William Preston became a defining figure in Virginia’s frontier expansion.
William Preston served as a surveyor, militia officer, county lieutenant, burgess, and regional political leader during the era of the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore’s War, and the American Revolution. He played a major role in opening western Virginia to organized settlement and became closely associated with the founding landscapes of present-day Blacksburg and Montgomery County.
As with many prominent southern frontier families, portions of the Preston family’s wealth and political influence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were connected to enslaved labor. Modern historical interpretation of the family’s Virginia estates, including Smithfield Plantation, acknowledges the lives and labor of enslaved men, women, and children who were central to the plantation economy.
By the early republic, the Preston surname had become associated with public service across multiple states. American Prestons served as governors, members of Congress, senators, diplomats, military officers, judges, educators, and cabinet officials. The surname became woven into the civic and political development of Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Maryland, and the expanding American frontier.
Education, Military Service, and Westward Expansion
As the United States expanded westward, the Preston surname spread throughout the South, Midwest, and frontier territories. The family name became associated with military leadership, education, transportation, surveying, law, commerce, and institution-building.
The Preston surname became especially connected to military and educational institutions in Virginia. John Thomas Lewis Preston was among the founders of Virginia Military Institute and helped shape the school’s enduring ideal of the citizen-soldier. The family also became connected to the educational foundations that later contributed to the development of Virginia Tech through the Preston and Olin Institute system established in the nineteenth century.
In later generations, American Prestons continued to appear in military leadership, scientific research, engineering, higher education, business, and public service throughout the United States.
The Preston Name in America
By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Preston surname had expanded far beyond any single documented Scottish bloodline. As a result, the accomplishments associated with the Preston name in America should be understood as part of the broader history of the surname itself rather than attributed exclusively to direct descendants of the Craigmillar branch.
Even with that distinction, the Preston name appears repeatedly throughout American history in government, military service, science, education, infrastructure, and civic development. Among American Prestons broadly, historical records verify:
- Multiple governors, senators, members of Congress, diplomats, cabinet officials, judges, and military officers
- Major roles in the establishment and leadership of institutions connected to Virginia Military Institute and the educational lineage that contributed to Virginia Tech
- At least 17 verified high-level United States military decorations, including multiple Medals of Honor, Navy Crosses, Distinguished Flying Crosses, Silver Stars, and Distinguished Service Crosses
- Multiple nationally recognized scientific and academic honors associated with researchers, engineers, demographers, and scientists carrying the Preston surname
- Multiple United States patents granted to inventors named Preston across engineering, manufacturing, and industrial innovation
- Enduring connections to significant places and institutions including Craigmillar Castle, Preston-on-Patuxent, Smithfield Plantation, the early settlement patterns of Blacksburg, and infrastructure development tied to colonial Maryland and Virginia
Taken together, the Preston story reflects a recurring pattern across centuries and continents: participation in government, military service, education, frontier expansion, and institution-building. From medieval Scotland to colonial America and across the expanding United States, the Preston name became associated not only with places, but with the shaping of communities, institutions, and public life itself.
Full pedigree charts and source citations are available to verified family members through the family portal.
Hancock
The Hancock line is one of the collection’s oldest and most historically significant branches, with roots reaching back to seventeenth-century colonial Virginia. Research is ongoing and full documentation will be published here as it is completed.
Highlighted ancestor: Lt. Clement Hancock (ca. 1750–1781), who gave his life in service to the American Revolution. Clement was killed at Hayes’ Station on November 19, 1781, and is documented in the DAR Patriot Index (A200677). His service forms the basis of an active application to the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America (OFPA), tracing the line back to William Hancock Jr. of Virginia (ca. 1638) — recognized as the Founder ancestor in that lineage.
Full Hancock family history — coming soon.
Butler
The Butler family line is connected to the Preston Collection through marriage in the nineteenth century. Research into this branch is active and a full family history will be published here as documentation is assembled and verified.
Full Butler family history — coming soon.
LaBaum
The LaBaum family represents a distinctive thread in the collection’s heritage — a surname of French or Germanic origin that entered the family tree through marriage. Research into this line is underway and full documentation will be added here as it is completed.
Full LaBaum family history — coming soon.
Ricketts
The Ricketts family line enters the Preston Collection through a nineteenth-century family connection. An English-origin surname found widely across the American South and Midwest, research is in progress and a full history will be published here as records are located and verified.
Full Ricketts family history — coming soon.
Ruff
The Ruff family line is connected to the Preston Collection through marriage. The Ruff surname is of Germanic origin, found in Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and the broader mid-Atlantic and southern states. Research into this branch is ongoing and the full family history will be published here as it is assembled.
Full Ruff family history — coming soon.