When I began to research the case that inspired my current novel in progress, involving one Ella Preston, a psychic charged under the Criminal Code for witchcraft in 1907, in Canada, I found little to go on: no record of the court case, no reliable records for her birth, death, or marriage. So the next question was whether she was related to other Prestons of the time. Here are some of the candidates:
Isabella Preston (1881-1964), horticulturist, plant hybridist, writer, arrived in Canada after Ella’s trial, but she is interesting. Born in Lancaster, England, she and her sister Margaret (a music teacher) came in 1912, after the death of their mother. In 1906 she was at Swanley Agricultural College. Her first job in Guelph, Ontario, was picking fruit. In 1912, at the age of 31, Preston entered the Ontario Agricultural College (later the University of Guelph). … But she left in 1913 to work for Professor Crow. Between 1914 and 1917, Preston bred hardy lilies at the Ontario Agricultural College. In 1920, she joined the horticultural division of the Central Experimental Farm (CEF) in Ottawa under William T. Macoun. Of 200 hybrids she produced, she is best known for her hybrid, the George C Creelman lily. She published Garden Lilies in 1929 (Orange Judd Publishing Company, Inc.; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., New York, London, 1929).
What of Isabella’s three older sisters?
Agriculture Canada claims Preston Street in Ottawa is named after Isabella Preston, but Brault’s history credits John Honey Preston, city treasurer and tax collector, as its namesake. (Lucien Brault, Ottawa, Old and New, 1946.) The Historical Society of Ottawa, however, suggests it was more likely named after George H. Preston, tailor and men’s clothier, who sat on the City Council and chaired the By-Laws Committee, as the street name predates both Isabella and John. (April 2016 Historical Society of Ottawa Newsletter.)
Did she belong to the family of Sir Robert Preston, whose estate was near Dunfermline, Scotland, which is three miles from the Firth of Forth? This Preston caught my eye for his extensive botanical library and gardens with exotic plants.
What about the author of The Abandoned Farmer (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1901) and On Common Ground (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1906,) Sydney H. Preston (1858-1931)?
Not to be confused with Sydney Preston the bricklayer who emigrated from England in 1911 to join his brother in Hamilton, accompanied by Ella, Doris, and a third person whose name I can’t make out on the ship’s list at Library and Archives Canada. Or the Sydney Prestons who arrived by ship in 1885, 1902, 1904, 1906…
Then there is W.T.R. Preston who wrote The Life and Times of Lord Strathcona, London, 1914.
Could she have known these politicians? W.A. Preston, Member of Provincial Parliament, Rainey River, [Ontario, on the border with Minnesota], 1912. Or Joe Preston, Member of Provincial Parliament, Durham, [district between Oshawa and Whitby, and Kawartha Lakes], 1912.
Or is it more likely that she knew a John E. Preston, who in 1901 was tried by Judge McDougall for the theft of a bicycle in Toronto? Although he pleaded Not Guilty to stealing the property of John Mulvogne, he was given a guilty verdict and sentenced to two months in jail. (Minute Books item 220 for period 1890-1905 Series RG 22-5869 Ontario Archives Microfilm.)
Was Ella Preston even her real name? Perhaps she borrowed the name from the Governor General, as if a prestigious name would give her protection. In 1886, Frederick Arthur Stanley (1841-1908) received the title of Baron Stanley of Preston. He was Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. In 1892, Stanley donated the Stanley Cup.
The temptation to affiliate Ella Preston with famous Prestons is great, but she was most probably connected to the numerous Preston workers who did everything from tailoring to carpentry, as the street directories of both Toronto and Ottawa of the time reveal.
DEBRA MARTENS 