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 3: A Child in prison!

One person, who was missing from the family of Sarah Swinfield, which was at Earl Shilton in 1841, was Jane. She had been baptised in 1829. Where was she?

1841 census of Millbank Prison

The census taken in June that year reveals that a girl of that name was in prison in London. A 13 year-old servant was languishing in the General Penitentiary. That was MillbankPrison. It had been opened in 1816 and was where all prisoners awaiting transportation were sent pending their passage to Australia. It stood on the site where Tate Britain is today. Why was she there?

No records survive for that penal establishment until a couple of years after that date. However the Leicestershire quarter sessions records show that she had been convicted there in January that year for “felony”. She was of “bad” character and was sentenced to seven years transportation. Her arrival in prison was dated 3^rd February but there is a later annotation that she was given a free pardon on 31^st July less than two months after the census was compiled.

The records of pardons are held at the National Archives. A series of letters relate to Jane Swinfield and her time at Millbank. The first, dated 21^st January, details her imprisonment. Written from Belvoir Castle, Charles William Packe, Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, recommended that Jane, who he stated then just 11 years of age, would be best served by “reformation in a penitentiary”. Her offence was that she had stolen a purse containing three shillings, a gold ring and a pair of scissors from her mistress.      

Jane was received into Millbank on 27^th May and was to spend what must have been a frightening seven weeks, for what was such a very young child, far away from her family.  


Eventually the attention of the prison visitor focussed on her plight. A letter of 20^th July highlighted that she had “symptoms of unsound lungs” and they feared that, if she stayed there for the winter, she would be in great danger. She was freed less than two weeks later.

I still don't know what became of her as she did not return home to Leicestershire. She may be the person whose death was registered at Windsor in 1854 but I haven’t yet obtained a copy and I cannot find her in the 1851 census. The mystery remains as to her fate after her spell at Her Majesty’s pleasure.   

Swinfield Family Tree

Click on the link to the right of this post to see the Swinfield family tree as it is after Part 2! 

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?

Part 1: The Story begins .........

Kirkby Mallory church

Thomas Swinfield, my great-great-grandfather, was baptised at Earl Shilton on 21^st August 1808 as the third child of what would eventually be eight issue of Thomas Swinfield senior by his wife, Sarah Toon. They had married in the church of the adjacent parish of Kirkby Mallory in 1803. By then, his father was 33 but his mother was about seven years younger. The penultimate child, George, had, according to the parish records, been “burnt to death” aged just over 2 in 1820! What effect must that have had on his mother? Sarah lasted less than two more years, being buried on 1^st October 1821 when her last child was just 18 months old. Her husband was left with seven surviving offspring to care for. By the time that he passed away 12 years later in 1833, two more of the brood had died before their 21^st birthdays. However, Thomas senior had lived long enough to see three of his children married and to celebrate the births of three grandchildren.

Trowell Church 

Thomas Swinfield junior had produced two of those children from his marriage to Sarah Hewitt. That wedding took place on 25^th January 1829 nearly thirty miles to the north in the church of Trowell in Nottinghamshire (a place probably only notable today to most people for its motorway service station). Thomas was “of Earl Shilton”. He could sign his own name, unlike his bride who was two years his senior and heavily pregnant. No wonder that they married by licence, there being no time for the banns to be called.

Marriage in 1829

Thomas and Sarah settled in Earl Shilton and the parish registers record the baptisms of three of their children. They were Jane on 8^th March 1829(!)  followed by Mary in 1836 and William in 1838.

1841 census of Keet Lane, Earl Shilton

By 1841, the census shows Sarah and what would appear to be her four children living at Keet Lane in the parish. Working as a seamstress, her two older issue were Ann and Richard, who were 9 and 7. They had not been baptised in Earl Shilton church. Where, I hear you ask, was Jane, who was then aged 12? More of her in another episode of the saga! William, the youngest child, was just 5 months old. He was to become my great-grandfather. His older brother, also named William, had died, aged just 10 months. Another tragedy for the Swinfield family.

Where was Thomas, the father, in 1841? Find out in the next instalment!

My First Step in Genealogy

It was 1972 when I decided to learn about the history of my family. A “genealogical novice”, being then a zoology student at Nottingham University, I set off one morning to drive down to Leicestershire Record Office to find out all about the Swinfields. At that time, I knew only three other people who shared my surname. Those were Mum, Dad and Gran. Reg, my father, and Edith Elizabeth Swinfield nee Worsfold (1884-1976) are shown with me when I was just a lad of about 3 in the photo above. The elderly gentleman on the left was my grandfather, Arthur Swinfield (1883-1956), who was to pass away soon after that image was taken.

Earl Shilton

Armed with what Gran could tell me, that the Swinfields came from Earl Shilton in Leicestershire, the confidence of youth lead me to believe that record offices were open on Saturdays. Imagine my good luck when I had picked the one weekend that month when its doors were open to researchers, at least until 1pm. 

I vividly remember being asked by the person who greeted me what I wanted to look at. I told her the baptisms at Earl Shilton and she requested my name for their records. I replied “Swinfield”, The man sitting at the desk behind me enquired what I had said and I repeated it to him.  Imagine my amazement when he told me that Swinfield was his surname too! He suggested that I do what I had come to do and that, when the record office closed, we should return to his nearby home for lunch. 

Geoff, Derrick, Pat (Derrick's sister), Simon (Derrick's son)

Having not found the baptism of my great-grandfather, William, born about 1840, I had recorded a number of other people who shared what I had believed to be a very rare surname. It became much more common, when on arriving at the house of my newly-found fellow family historian, Derrick introduced me to his wife and four more little Swinfields who were aged 7 to 17. My known living population of those who shared my surname had tripled in one morning! 

Derrick then produced a roll of wallpaper on which he had recorded the ramifications of the Swinfields that he had found to date. My relatives were there too. Imagine my surprise when we proved to be 4^th cousins. My interest in genealogy was born. 

 

Greetings!

Welcome to the new Swinfield Blog. 

1954: Me with my Dad and Grandparents

I hope that this will provide a forum for all of us who have the surname or are interested in its history to share material, stories and photographs. I would love to include anything that other Swinfields would like to contribute. Delve in those cupboards and visit your attics looking for documents or images from the past. Ask your elderly relatives for their own stories. Write down the memories of the previous generations and the history of our ancestors and share them with us all. Your input would be most welcome and valued. 

Please contact me with anything that you can contribute.