Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

sylvania, and finally located in Hartford,
Connecticut, in 1896. He is one of the
visiting physicians to the Hartford Hospital,
a member of the City, County and
State Medical societies and of the American
Medical Association. He is a member
of several clubs and of the Asylum
Hill Congregational Church. In December,
1898, Dr. Cochran married Mary
Louise Bronson, of Lowville, Lewis
county, New York.
PRESTON, Major Edward Varrance,
Civil War Veteran, Insurance Official.
Major Edward Varrance Preston, gen-
eral manager of agencies of the Travelers
Insurance Company of Hartford, is one
of the best known insurance men in Connecticut,
his native State. He was born
June 1, 1837, in Willington, son of Joshua
and Caroline (Eldredge) Preston. Major
Preston was born under the handicap of
having to maintain the prestige of a dis-
tinguished ancestry, which has been
traced back through a number of families
to early Colonial days. Major Preston
has made good, not only as a volunteer
when the unity of the Nation was threat-
ened, but in the more peaceful paths of
business, and as a worker in the cause of
religion, in which his family through
many generations has been prominent.
The Prestons have been in Connecticut
for many generations, and prior to locat-
ing in this State were early settlers of
Massachusetts. He also traces to Elder
Thomas Dimock, Dorchester, Massachu-
setts, 1635 ; Lieutenant Abel Wright, to
whom a "homelot" was granted in
Springfield, Massachusetts, January 2,
1665 ; Zoeth
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
Eldredge, a soldier in the
Revolution from Willington, Connecticut
; Samuel Hinckley, of Scituate, in
1635, whose descendants were patriots of
the Revolution. The list of Revolution-
73
ary soldiers published by Connecticut
shows twenty-five representatives of the
Preston family of Connecticut in the serv-
ice. Another ancestor was Deacon Joseph
Huntington, of Norwich. The Preston
family is one of the oldest in New Eng-
land, and the surname Preston is of great
antiquity in North Britain. It was assumed
by the family from territorial pos-
sessions in Mid-Lothian, in the time of
Malcolm, King of Scots, Leophus de
Preston, of the time of William the Lion,
in 1040, was grandfather of Sir William
de Preston, one of the Scotch noblemen
summoned to Berwick by Edward I. in
the competition for the crown of Scot-
land between Bruce and Baliol, the division
having been referred to Edward.
After the death of Alexander III., in 1291,
this Sir William de Preston was suc-
ceeded by his son, Nicol de Preston, one
of the Scottish barons who swore fealty
to Edward I. He died in the beginning
of the reign of David II. of Scotland, son
of Robert Bruce, and was succeeded by
his son, Sir Lawrence de Preston, who
was seated at Preston in Westmoreland
in the time of Henry II. Sir Richard de
Preston, fifth in descent from the above
Richard de Preston, represented the
county of Westmoreland in Parliament in
the seventeenth year of Edward III. His
son, Richard de Preston, had likewise the
honor of being knight of the shire of
Westmoreland in the same reign, twentyseventh,
Edward III., and in the same
year, 1368, obtained license to embark
five hundred acres. His successor was
Sir John de Preston, of Preston Richard
and Preston Patrick, and was a member
of Parliament for Westmoreland in the
thirty-sixth, thirty-ninth and forty-sixth
years of Edward II. His son Richard
had no male issue. His son John was the
judge of the Court of Common Pleas in
the reigns of Henry IV. and VI. and re-