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 22: The Story of Family 5

Having used DNA tests to confirm the probability that the Swinfields of Family 3 & 4 and those of Family 5 have a common ancestry, the question now is where do they “join up”? Is the link between these two major lineages in the 17th century, the 15th century or as early as the 1300s, shortly after Swinfield was chosen by our distant ancestors to be used from then onwards as our hereditary surname?

Marriage of John Swinfield at Wolvey in 1755

In Part 7 of this Blog, which I have now been writing since the end of August 2011, you will find what is known about the origins of Family 3 & 4. Its story can currently be extended back as far as the marriage of John Swinfield and Frances Collins at Wolvey in Warwickshire on 25th August 1755. They had five children baptised in that parish church from 1756 to 1781. It was their last son, Thomas, who is the earliest known ancestor of not only all living Swinfields who were born in Australia but also many other English people with the surname whose male ancestors did not choose to travel to the other side of the World. You can read more about those parts of the Swinfield lineage in other episodes of this Blog.

Those of us whose descent is via Family 5 and its numerous branches in England can trace our ancestry back to the parish of Earl Shilton, Leicestershire, in the first decade of the 19th century. In Part 1, I outlined our descent from Thomas (1808-1893), who is “on paper” my great-great-grandfather. Thereby, as avid readers who have been paying close attention will know, hangs another story! He and his brother, William Swinfield (1813-1885), who married Elizabeth Kenny at Cosby in 1832, are the progenitors of everyone on this tree.

Kirkby Mallory church 

Ashby-de-la-Zouch church  

Their parents, Thomas Swinfield and Sarah Toon, had married at Kirkby Mallory in 1803 and were to be buried at Earl Shilton in 1833 and 1821 respectively. Thomas, who was christened on New Year's Day 1770 in the church of St Helen's in the town of Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, was the only son of John Swinfield and Jane Radford, who had married there two years previously. John's sister, Alice, also married in that church just five months earlier. John buried his wife in 1809 but he survived until the ripe old age of 81, before dying in April 1820.

Inside of Ashby church 

Smisby church 

John and Alice were both baptised in the neighbouring church of Smisby, where they had lived when they married, which lies across the county boundary into Derbyshire. He was christened on 13th August 1738 and Alice was named in 1744 by their parents, John and Mary Swinfield. John senior lived until 1788, then being laid to rest in Smisby churchyard. They had produced five known issue.

Marriage of John Swinfield at Norton in 1732

Norton-juxta-Twycross

It is probable that John Swinfield married Mary Meacham some eight miles to the south in the church of Norton-juxta-Twycross, back in Leicestershire, on 30th May 1732. To date, I cannot identify a convincing candidate for the baptism of this man in the very late 17th or, more likely, the first decade of the 18th century.

So how close did the earliest known ancestors of these two major Swinfield lineages, both called John, live about 1720? They were about 15 miles apart as the crow flies across the fields of north-west Leicestershire. Did they know each other and were they near kin?

Part 16: A question resolved!

Those of you who have followed this Blog from the beginning will remember the tragic story of Jane Swinfield. My great-great-aunt, who was baptised at Earl Shilton in 1829, was convicted at the Leicester Quarter Sessions of January 1841 for stealing her mistress’s purse containing money, a gold ring and a pair of scissors. An account of her sentence can now be read through the very recent release of the digitised images of many 19^th century newspapers from the British Newspaper Archive. Both the Leicester Mercury and Chronicle ran the story. We now know that Charlotte Bugg was the victim of the larceny.

Jane was sent away to Millbank Prison, Westminster, in late May where she was still awaiting transportation for seven years at the time of the 1841 census. Due to the intercession of a charitable prison visitor, who petitioned on her behalf, she was pardoned and released in very early August. What became of her?

No sign can be found of Jane in the 1851 census using any clever searches in the national indexes which are available from any of the major providers and there is no “good” marriage for her. The only possible record for her was a death registered in late 1854 in the Windsor district of Berkshire. Was that her? I have now obtained a copy and her fate is known.

Poor Jane died on 23^rd November in the Union Workhouse aged just 26. It would be interesting to know when she was admitted as she was certainly not there in April 1851 at census time. Of course, no records of that institution survive from that date. The cause of her demise was recorded as phthisis, otherwise TB. It seems that she finally succumbed to the physical weakness which had been the reason for her early release from prison. Her “unsound lungs” gave up in the early winter of 1854. Perhaps she would have been better served by being sent to the other side of the World to join her distant cousins in sunny New South Wales!

Part 15: The end of an eventful life

William and Elizabeth Swinfield, my great-grandparents, married in Aldershot church, Hampshire, just before the end of his lengthy service of nearly 20 years in the 60^th Rifles. He had now to settled down to life as a civilian which must have been a very different experience to that as an active soldier.

          1881 census of the Staff Hotel

By 1881, we find them at the Staff Hotel, Camberley, Surrey. They lived in a cottage adjacent to his place of work. He described himself as a gentleman’s servant and pensioner of 40. His wife was recorded as “Edith”. By then, she had produced two sons. The elder, William Thomas, was then 2. The second, Joseph, was born and died in 1880. Was this occasioned by the diseases contracted by the father during his army career?

From "The Story of Camberley 1798-1992" by Gordon Wellard  

1891 census of Camberley

On 27^th March 1883, their last child, my grandfather Arthur was born at Barossa Common, Frimley, not far from the Staff Hotel. William was still earning his living as a servant. They were still in that area on the night of the 1891 census living on the London Road, what is now the A30, that very old coaching road which runs through Camberley from the West Country. William was 50 and a domestic servant and Elizabeth worked as a dressmaker. There two surviving sons were with them.

By the time of the 1901 enumeration, a double tragedy had befallen William! Firstly, his oldest son, William Thomas, then aged about 20, was severely wounded at the Battle of Glencoe, Natal, on 20^th October 1899 during the Boer War, whilst serving with the 1st Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He died two days later. He was one of the many casualties suffered during that engagement.

Secondly, just over a year later, on 21^st November 1900, his wife died in the Farnham Union Workhouse in Surrey . She was just 55 and died of “morbus cordis”. William was then a gardener of Frimley. It appears that this double loss had a profound effect on William.

By the time of the 1901 census, William and his sole surviving son had moved back to Earl Shilton in Leicestershire where they were lodging with his married sister, Sarah Raven. However, shortly afterwards he was on his own as Arthur left home.

In 1905, William had returned to Camberley where he had spent most of his married life. In very early January, he was found homeless by an acquaintance, Albert Smith, who took him back to spend the night at his home at 55 Park Street.  Albert's mother was awakened in the night by a noise and found William lying dead at the foot of the stairs. The report of the inquest in the Camberley News describes how William had fallen and broken his neck.

So ended the very dramatic and sad life of my favourite ancestor.      

Part 14: A life in the Queen's service

We left my great-grandfather, William Swinfield, in Part 5. His father had left home at least two years before his birth in 1841 at Earl Shilton. As we know, Thomas, was to settle for a while in Calverton, Nottinghamshire, where he became a Chartist, fathered a child, and emigrated to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with his new “wife” and daughter in 1854. Our recent visit to America has resolved the story of his life there and his final resting place.

Sarah Swinfield nee Hewitt, his estranged wife, now lived with Thomas Brown, the life-long bachelor, who would be her partner for many years until she died in 1862. Young William had left home too by 1851 when he was a 9 year-old coal miner at Bagworth. What did he do the rest of his life?

We find him in 1861 serving with the army as a private soldier of just 20. He was stationed at Winchester Barracks. His “soldier’s documents” record that he enlisted at Leicester into the 60^th of Royal Rifles on 24^th or 25^th August 1859 aged just 18. He was just over 5 foot 5 inches tall with straight light brown hair and blue eyes. He was immediately sent to Winchester where he was treated in the middle of 1860 for that most common of soldier’s ailments, gonorrhoea, before his 20^th birthday. After his first 4 years, all spent in England, he was posted to the East Indies where he spent time, more than 8 years in all, at Meerut, Calcutta, Madras, Ramandroog, and finally Bellary. He suffered from a range of diseases inflicted by the climate, a blow from a cricket ball causing “contusis pedis” and completed the set of STDs in 1868 when he was treated for syphilis! The MOs gave him a wide range of treatments which included tonics, iodine bandages, purgatives and leeches.

He returned via Aden to Shornecliffe and spent a further 8 years at Chatham, Winchester, Aldershot before being discharged, after a total of 19 years and 4 days in the Queen’s service, on 25^th November 1878 at Colchester. His name appeared 20 times in the regimental defaulters' book and he was once tried by court martial. He avoided any wounds and was generally a good soldier.

Just before he was discharged, William finally married at the age of 36. The ceremony took place on 14th Novembe 1877 in Aldershot parish church, Hampshire. His bride, who was to become my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Postlethwaite, was 30 and the daughter of a postman. William did acknowledge Thomas Swinfield as his father. Surprisingly, after all his array of illnesses, the couple were to have three boys including Arthur, my grandfather.

More of his later life is still to come.

Part 9: Seeking a better life?

Great-great-grandfather, Thomas Swinfield, baptised in 1808 at Earl Shilton, was last heard of living at Town Street, Calverton, Notts, living with Maria, his “wife”, and their 11 year-old daughter, Elizabeth. There is no record of a death of either Thomas or Maria in England and Wales and no reference to a marriage for their child. None of these three can be identified living here at the time of the 1861 and subsequent censuses. Had they disappeared or changed their names?

Thomas's naturalisation card of 1864

1860 census of Portsmouth, New Hampshire 

After having looked for the fate of this man for nearly 40 years, since beginning my study of the Swinfield family, Ancestry’s index to American census records revealed the solution to this mystery. Thomas G. Swinfield, aged 52 and a stocking weaver, was living in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in June 1860. With him were Maria Swinfield, who was 53, and John and Elizabeth Warburton, all born in England. They had emigrated, presumably to find a better life on the other side of the Atlantic. The same website includes an image of this naturalisation record issued at Exeter, New Hampshire, on 5^th March 1867. He had arrived in the US on 11^th June 1854. The card even records his, previously unknown, date of birth as 2^nd April 1808! There is no online record which tells us on what ship he, and presumably his family, sailed and from where.

1880 census of Portsmoth, New Hampshire

1876 Marriage

In 1870, the census shows that he was still in Portsmouth, but was now apparently married to Amy, also an English woman. By 1880, his wife had changed once more, she now being Charlotte from Nova Scotia. Records for that state reveal that at least he waited for the death of Sarah at home in England in 1862, before he married Ammy Welch in 1866 and Charlotte Ann Fraser in 1876. Was he made aware that his estranged wife had passed away, leaving him free to marry again? Thomas does not seem to have been too successful in relationships. By 1888, the Portsmouth city directories indicate that Mrs Charlotte Swinfield had left the house on Islington Street to board at 48 Pleasant. Strangely, no deaths or remarriages are recorded for any of the women who he lived with in America. They are not listed in censuses after they separated either! What became of them, I wonder?

Thomas's death in 1893

With the help of David Dearborn of the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, I learned that Thomas G. Swinfield did well there. He was recorded as a party to 11 land transfer deeds from 1869 to 1892. These can all be viewed online. In 1894, his grandson, William J. Warburton was signatory to another document which stated that Thomas’s will was proved on 9^th January 1894. 

David abstracted the will, a copy of which is in the NEHGS Library. Thomas bequeathed the westerly half of his house to his daughter, Elizabeth, and the eastern half to his grandson. The property still stands to this day on the corner of Islington Street and Barberry Lane.

Thomas died on 1^st June 1893, aged 85 years and 2 months of “old age” and was buried in Proprietor’s Cemetery, Portsmouth. At last, I know what happened to great-great-granddad!

Part 7: Family 3 & 4 - The cousins

The DNA evidence strongly suggests that the Swinfield family from Earl Shilton (which I originally called Family 5), from which myself, Derrick and all our relatives descend, was connected with that of Family 3& 4. This relationship must have been at some point from the 14^th to the 17^th century, after our distant common ancestor had chosen to use our distinctive and pretty rare surname. What do we know about the history of that branch of our family?

Wolvey Church

Records have enabled that line to be traced back as far as John Swinfield and Frances Collins who married in the church of Wolvey inWarwickshire on 25^th August 1755. They were buried in the churchyard there in 1796 and 1805 after having five children, only two of whom survived their childhood. The only adult son, Thomas, who had been christened on 8^th July 1781, married in the nearby church of Monks Kirby on 21^st August 1803. His bride was Elizabeth Hackett from Copson. The couple settled in his parish and they named 10 children there from 1804 to 1822. Eventually, they moved six miles to the north-west to Mancetter where their last two issue were baptised. Thomas was buried at Nuneaton in 1847, aged 66.   



The Blue Pig on the road to Wolvey Hall

1841 census of Nuneaton  

Of their 12 children, half were boys, of whom one died when he was only 4. Two of them, Daniel, who was a rick cloth worker in Foleshill, and Samuel, a medical doctor in Nuneaton, had no surviving male offspring.

Three have living present-day descendants. George Swinfield, born in 1825, became a boiler maker, probably connected to the railways. Moving south to the East End of London by 1865, his two sons, Daniel and Herbert Victor, and all the modern representatives of “Family 13” still live there today. These include Paul Frederick, whose DNA matches with that of Derrick Joseph George of Family 5.

Passenger list of "Walmer Castle" in 1848

What was the fate of the two oldest sons, William and John, born in 1804 and 1806? They both emigrated to Australia in the middle of the 19^th century. William had already been married and had buried his first wife in Nuneaton by the time that he left with his very new second wife sailing from Plymouth on 12^th September 1848 aboard the “Walmer Castle”. They arrived with his four children on 30^th December 1848. The oldest son, Thomas (1824-1881) remained in England and has produced a plethora of living Swinfields! William started another family with his new bride, Sarah (Williamson), in New South Wales. There are many branches which descend from both of his spouses there today. 

Passenger list of the "Beejapore" 1853  

John Swinfield left with his wife and five children on the “Beejapore” which docked on 9^th February 1853. She and their youngest child died on arrival. Of course, he married again soon after and had more offspring. He too had left his oldest son of 21 behind in Mancetter, Warwickshire. That son, Edward, is also the head of a very large pedigree with many English descendants.

There are just so many cousins who are part of Families 3, 4 & 13. The stories of some of them remain to be told.      

Part 6: It's all in the science!

So who was the real father of William Swinfield, my great-grandfather, who was born in 1841? Although, on paper, he was born legitimately to Thomas and Sarah Swinfield, who had married at Trowell in 1829, there was overwhelming evidence that Thomas had left his family behind by as early as 1839 and was living at Calverton. In that year, his new partner, Maria Cooper, had his child, whom they named Elizabeth Swinfield Cooper.

Sarah Swinfield remained in Earl Shilton and produced two illegitimate issue in 1843 and 1845, whom she named Joseph and Sarah. The evidence leads us to believe that the father was her long-term partner, Thomas Brown. Could genetic tests be used to determine if Thomas was also the father of my William?

My 37 marker haplotype certificate

By testing the Y-chromosome, which is passed from father to son and which makes children male, it is possible to produce a profile for any man. There are many marker sites along its length which can be “scored” for the number of meaningless repeats of very short sections of DNA known as short tandem repeats (STRs). By comparing the STR profile (called the haplotype) of two or more men, an assessment can be made of how closely they are related. Usually, this is done for men who share the same surname, adopted as a family name about 1300.

Graham's 37 marker haplotype 

Joseph Swinfield had three sons and from them there were many lines of male descent. His great-grandson, Graham Albert Swinfield, my 3^rd cousin, was traced. He kindly agreed to provide a sample of his DNA and that was compared with mine using Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). The results can be viewed on the Swinfield DNA & Genealogy Group page.Amazingly, we were identical at 35 of the 37 marker sites tested.  Not only that but we also had an extremely rare haplotype for English men. We certainly shared the same male ancestor. Whoever was the father of Sarah’s illegitimate child in 1843 was also the genetic father of my great-grandfather. The evidence put the ball very much in Thomas Brown’s court! 

Paul's 37 marker haplotype

We have also tested two other Swinfields, one of whom was “on paper” my 4^th cousin, Derrick George Joseph, the man I had met on my first day in a record office (see “My First Step in Genealogy” below).  He has a completely different haplotype which is almost identical to that of Paul Frederick Swinfield (of Family 3 & 4). They only differ at one marker out of the 32 for which they have both been tested.  This is a type of Y-chromosome which would be found frequently amongst over 70% of English men. They must have a common male ancestor and it proves that Families 3 & 4 and 5 must be related if only we can find the document that proves it!   

After nearly 40 years of collecting any information, that I could lay my hands on, relating to the surname of Swinfield, I had proved conclusively that I am not one. I should have been researching Brown instead!   

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 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?