Part 24: More answers, more questions

Exciting new information has now been found about the Swinfield family of Earl Shilton. This adds significantly to the story of Thomas and Sarah, who had married on 25th January 1829 at Trowell in Nottinghamshire, and their family.

In earlier parts of this Blog, I have told the story of this colourful couple and their children. One of them, William (1841-1905) was to become my great-grandfather. Their first child, Jane, was baptised at Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, which was Thomas's home parish, less than two months after the marriage, on 8th March 1829. Sarah would have been at least seven months pregnant when they were married. Only two further children were baptised. They were Mary and William in 1836 and 1838. William was to die at only 10 months. Two others, Ann and Richard, born in 1831 and 1834, have no recorded baptism. Clearly this was not a happy union as by 1839 Thomas was living in Nottinghamshire with another woman, Maria Cooper, with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth. Meanwhile, Sarah was cohabiting with Thomas Brown and she had two illegitimate children, presumably by him, named as Joseph in 1843 and Sarah in 1845. She was still living with Thomas Brown at her death in 1862!

By June 1841, Jane Swinfield was languishing in Millbank Penitentiary, London, apparently aged 13. In Part 3 of the Blog, I reported how she had been tried by the Leicester Quarter Sessions on 4th January 1841 for larceny and sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia. This week, the latest addition to FindMyPast's extensive collection of databases, a collection of British newspapers from 1750 to 1900 was put online. Of course, the first thing that interested me was, “What Swinfield articles are included?” Brief accounts of her trial and conviction were published in the Leicester Mercury on 9th January and the Leicester Chronicle on 16th January 1841. These tell us that, at the age of only 11, she had stolen some quite valuable property from her mistress, Charlotte Bugg, in August 1840. She was eventually pardoned and released in August 1841.

Leicester Mercury - 9th January 1841

In Part 16, I wrote about what appeared to be her death in the OldWindsor Union Workhouse on 23rd November 1854. She had died aged only 26 of phthisis. There is no other woman in my database who could have been this deceased and, of course, there are no surviving records of the Workhouse for that year. Imagine my surprise when I discovered (thanks to Joan Rowbottom of the Guild of One-Name Studies who completed the Market Bosworth marriage challenge) that a Jane Swinfield, aged 20, had married in Bagworth church, Leicestershire, on 26th March 1848. This is the parish where her two brothers, Richard and William, were working as coal miners in 1851, but were incorrectly given the surname of Hewit. As Jane's father was recorded as Thomas Swinfield, FWK (framework knitter), there is no doubt that she was the child christened at Earl Shilton in March 1829. Her husband was Joseph Rudens, a collier.

1848 Marriage of Jane Swinfield at Bagworth 

Neither Jane Rudens nor Jane Swinfield can be identified in the 1851 census. Her husband, Josh Rudings was a 40 year-old married coal miner in Bagworth, who with his widowed mother, Sarah, was lodging with a family called Kilnam. Where was his wife of just three years? Her death is not recorded under any variant of her husband's surname. Had this marriage broken down too and had she wandered away as far as Windsor, where she was to die as a “spinster” in 1854?

Leicester Mercury - 21st August  1847

The Newspaper Collection includes one more delight. On 21st August 1847, the Leicester Mercury reported the deliberations of the Earl Shilton Petty Sessions held four days earlier. The Overseer of the Poor presented Thomas Swinfield, currently living near Arnold, Nottinghamshire, for deserting his wife. After pleading not guilty, he claimed that she (Sarah) had lived “in a state of adultery for the last eighteen years, and had six illegitimate children”. Sarah admitted that to be true and the case against Thomas was dismissed with costs payable by his wife. There are clearly two sides to every story.

It would appear that the marriage of 1829 had broken down almost immediately and that Jane was probably their only legitimate child! Thomas has sought solace with Maria Cooper, the Chartist movement, and eventually spent the last 40 years of his life in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  

Part 5: A family divided

Thomas Swinfield, the errant Chartist, had left his family and moved to Calverton by 1839. What became of his three “sons”, Richard, William and Joseph, who had survived their childhood, and his wife, Sarah?

1861 census of High Street, Earl Shilton 

In 1861, Sarah Swinfield was still living in the High Street, Earl Shilton. Her partner of the last twenty years, Thomas Brown, was the head of the household. Was he the real father of my great-grandfather, William, and of his illegitimate brother, Joseph, born in 1841 and 1843 respectively? He was then a 52 year-old unmarried framework knitter, who would also have struggled to “make ends meet” in that arduous and depressed trade during the 1840s and 1850s. Sarah, unlike in 1851, was recorded as a married woman of 56. Did she know where her husband lived? With them were Thomas’s daughter and grandson, who both had the surname of Swinfield. Sarah’s son, Joseph, then aged 19, a carter and servant, was living nearby in Church Street. My great-grandfather, William, who had joined the army in 1859, was a private in Winchester Barracks, Hampshire, by 1861.

Where was Richard at that time? He had been a coal miner at the time of the 1851 census. He was nowhere to be found, indexed as Swinfield, and did not seem to have married or died by the age of 27! Perhaps he had given up on his family and fled these shores. I had certainly given up hope of finding him.

1861 census of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire  

Imagine my delight when just two months ago I was contacted through Genes Reunited by Helen Warburton. She had been seeking the origins of her great-great-grandfather, who had been born in Earl Shilton about 1834 and was working as a coal miner in Ecclesfield, Sheffield, in 1861. She had searched unsuccessfully for his origins in the records of that parish and had then come across a Richard Swinfield on my online tree. Her ancestor was calling himself Richard Brown! Indeed, at his marriage in Norton Canes, Staffordshire, in 1854, he recorded his father as Thomas Brown, miner. Did he know something that I didn’t about his paternity? Had his parents separated even earlier than the parish registers suggested? Richard Brown died in 1869 at Darfield, Yorkshire, of typhoid, aged only 35. It seemed that the fate of my great-great-uncle had been determined at last. 

Sarah Swinfield died on 25^th February 1862 at Earl Shilton and was registered, according to the handwritten copy which was issued in 1980, by Elizabeth “Bown”. She recorded the deceased as “wife of Thomas Swinfield a stocking maker”. Was he still alive and where was he? 

1881 census of Wood Street, Earl Shilton

Thomas Brown continued to live with his Swinfield “children” and “grandchildren” at Earl Shilton until his death in 1893, when he aged 84.

Part 4: Looking for justice

Thomas Swinfield had left his wife and young family at Earl Shilton by 1839 and had taken up residence with Maria Cooper at Calverton in Nottinghamshire, some 40 miles away. His daughter, Elizabeth Swinfield Cooper, was born there on 28^th May that year, albeit illegitimately. Interestingly, this locality was less than 10 miles from where his wife, Sarah Hewitt, had originated and where they had married in 1829.

Sarah had been left behind in the parish in Leicestershire, where she had gone immediately after her wedding and where all her 8 children had been born. As my great-grandfather, William, was born as late as January 1841, his paternity was seriously in doubt! Was he really the son of Thomas Brown, the lodger, who lived with Sarah from 1841 to 1861? Why had Sarah recorded herself as a spinster at the 1851 census?

At that very time, there was a great deal of unrest throughout the country. The very depressed economic conditions lead to much social and industrial action by those employed in occupations which did not provide sufficient remuneration to feed and clothe their families. This was encouraged and fuelled by the Chartist Movement from 1838 to 1850. Members demanded that six points, outlined by the People’s Charter, be addressed by the Government. These demands for reform centred on universal franchise for adult males, a secret ballot and Members of Parliament who were more representative of the common labourer.

Buildings used for framework knitting in Calverton

The Midlands was an especially militant centre of demonstration as the framework knitters were particularly poorly paid and lived in dreadful conditions, with long hours of work for little remuneration. Thomas or George (as he often called himself) Swinfield became actively involved in the movement. The Northern Star & Leeds General Advertiser, the Chartist newspaper published from 1837 to 1852, reported its activities. This can be searched online for names of those involved.  

                                                       

George was nominated for its General Council in December 1842, being sub-secretary of the Calverton branch and was present at a meeting at Arnold in Nottinghamshire in March 1844. Thomas paid 3d into the Winding-up Fund in July 1850.

Most importantly, the Chartists attempted to increase the size of the electorate by giving land to their members thus satisfying the voting qualification. The small parcels of land were allocated by ballot. Unfortunately, Thomas Swinfield was one of the runners-up in the “Three Acres” category published on 12^th December 1846. This must have added to his disillusionment with his lot in England.   

Part 2: A tale of two families

We left the family of Sarah Swinfield and her four children living in Earl Shilton at the time of the 1841 census. The children included William Swinfield, my great-grandfather, then aged just 5 months. His birth certificate shows that he was born there on 11^th January 1841. His mother recorded the event and gave the father as Thomas Swinfield, a framework knitter. Where was he living just five months later?

Strangely, in 1843 and 1845, Sarah Swinfield gave birth to two further children in Earl Shilton whom she named as Joseph and Sarah. Neither had a father named at their registration. Who were the parents?

1851 census of High Street, Earl Shilton

On 30^th March 1851, when the next census was compiled, the Swinfield family was found living at an address on the High Street there. Sarah Swinfield was the housekeeper to Thomas Brown, an unmarried framework knitter. Although Sarah was recorded as an unmarried woman of 44, there can be no doubt that she was the wife of Thomas Swinfield as she recorded her birthplace as Trowell Moor, Nottinghamshire. Three of her children, Mary who was 15, Joseph 8 and Sarah aged just 5 were with them. Ten years earlier, the same Thomas Brown had been lurking at the end of Sarah’s household, possibly as her lodger. He had now elevated himself to its head.  Had he taken Thomas Swinfield’s place in her bed too? Missing from the group were William, then only 10, his older brother Richard, and, of course, their dad, Thomas. Were they all together somewhere?

1851 census of Bagworth

Eventually, after much searching in census indexes, Richard and William were identified living 5 miles away at Bagworth. Young coal miners of just 16 and 9 respectively, they had been enumerated with the surname of Hewit but their birthplace was “Shilton”. They were lodging with Thomas Hewit, a native of “Trowel Moor” and his family. Surely the two young Swinfield boys were living with relatives of their mother, whose maiden name has been Hewitt. Still no sign of Thomas Swinfield though!

Even more delving in census indexes, finally revealed George Swinfield, a 30 year-old “FWK” at Calverton in Nottinghamshire in 1841. With him were a woman called Maria Cooper and a two year old, Elizabeth Cooper.

       Calverton 2011

1851 census of Town Street, Calverton 

They were all still there in 1851 in a house on Town Street. The 42 year-old framework knitter, now listed as Thomas Swnfield (sic) gave his place of birth as “Earl Shelton”. He had a “wife” named Maria and an 11 year-old daughter called Elizabeth. Did Sarah, his real wife, know where he had gone and that he had started a new family? Who had left who?