Help Please - Margaret Swinnerton and John Thatcher, Bishopstowe

[Capetown]

Swinnerton Family History

The Journal of the Swinnerton Society

http://www.swinnerton.org/Saga/Volume4/No_2_Mar1980.pdf


Mentions, Jasper SWYNERTON alias BEANE 1616  Tetbury

[swinno]

Yes  Capetown but there was no proof of connection.
I am attempting to tie in one tree to another but so many registers where missing.

[Capetown]

Checked with Men in Armour for Gloucestershire 1608


http://www.coaley.net

There is a Jesper BEANE, Weaver, A40 Middle Stature


There is a Will for a Jasper WEARE also a Weaver in Tetbury

[swinno]

Very interesting worth trying to find the Will.

[jrcarleton]

Hi, I’m descended from this Swinnerton/Beane family of Tetbury, specifically Job Swinnerton (b. ~1601) who emigrated to Salem, MA, and his GG grandson Josiah who moved to Mont Vernon, NH and raised a family there (where the name became Swinnington!)

There was a Swinnington burial ground on their property in Mont Vernon. Unfortunately the property has been sold several times, the stones were not legible within living memory, and worst of all there is a paved driveway over where it once was. I believe Josiah was buried there, but I don’t know who else, as there is no list of who was buried there. There is only process of elimination based on who in the family was buried in a town cemetery and who wasn’t.

I do know that my great grandfather buried some Carleton family members there, a husband and wife, around 1915-1920, and to my knowledge those were the last of the burials in the Swinnington burial ground in Mont Vernon.

I’ve been researching this side of my family recently and was very pleased to find the Journal of the Swinnerton Society where the connection was made with the Gloucestershire family. It helps when distinctive family names such as Antipas, Job and Jasper carry over and are used in the US!

The connection with the Beane name (ie. “Swynnerton alias Beane”) is interesting as well but it’s too bad there don’t seem to be enough existing records from before 1600 to clarify. One might assume there was an illegitimate child whose mother was named Beane, who later took his father’s Swinnerton name. Whether this child was Thomas Swinnerton alias Beane who died around 1616, or his father or grandfather, seems impossible to tell. Sometimes these aliases hang around for generations.

The oocities page has a wealth of information from the 1700s, and I was glad to find that via this thread! But it’s frustrating that so many records from the early 1600s and before have been lost. It makes it very difficult to make the connection between the generation of Job and Antipas and the generation of John and George.

I have found a few things that I haven’t seen pointed out anywhere else, and I have a few thoughts to share, and would love to get this conversation going again. When I get a chance I will post again, but I wanted you all to know I appreciate your work.

[jrcarleton]

So the fact that the 1608 men-and-arms census had only Jesper Beane and nobody with the Swinnerton name in Tetbury tells me that, most likely, most or all of the Swinnertons in Tetbury descended from him. It’s possible he had brothers or sisters, but I see no evidence at this point.

I have seen records for three marriages and two children of Jesper Beane/Swinnington, with circumstantial evidence for a third child. But there certainly may have been more children. He married Elizabeth Hornes in Eastington in 1600, and in that record (in Latin) his name is spelled Gasparis Swinnerton. But the Tetbury records between 1578 and 1616 are lost, so we don’t see records for their children’s baptisms.

Almost certainly Job Swinerton, born about 1601, was their first child. Job named his first son Jasper after his father. Whether Jesper and Elizabeth had more children is difficult to say. Elizabeth must have died around 1611, as Jesper married Katherine Birt in Shipton Moyne in 1612.

Katherine died in Tetbury in 1616. There is an assumption in most Ancestry trees I’ve seen that Jesper and Katherine did not have children during their short marriage, but I have seen records for the birth of two children- an unbaptized male infant who was born and died in Shipton Moyne in 1613, and Antipas, who was born in Shipton Moyne in 1615. The father for both of these births is given as Jesp Beane, rather than Swinnerton. But this is surely the same person. And so Katherine was the mother of Antipas, contrary to most family trees I’ve seen.

Jesper then married Ann Smith in 1616. The Tetbury records after 1615 are extant, and I have not seen further baptismal records for the family, so I assume they did not have children. For what it’s worth, in the 1608 census, Jesper was listed as being closer to 40 than 20, so it’s possible that he was born a fair bit earlier than the 1580 that many assume based on his marriage in 1600.

But one open question is: did Jesper and Elizabeth his first wife have children other than Job?

Also buried in Tetbury in 1616, other than Katherine, were the widow Ideth Swinnerton, and an Elizabeth Swinnerton. Perhaps Elizabeth was a sister of Jesper? Perhaps Ideth was the widow of his father Thomas? It is impossible to say for sure, but these are possibilities.

I have also found a couple of early Beane records in nearby Cherington. Thomas Beane was baptized February 24, 1572. And Elyzabeth “the daughter of Margaret Beane” was buried March 25, 1574. Possibly connected to this family somehow?

[jrcarleton]

Antipas Swinnerton, son of Jesper, has an entry at the British Museum:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG99252

Where if you click on “Related Objects”, you see photos of three of his merchant tokens. He was a wool merchant.

[jrcarleton]

There was a Benjamin Swynworth/Swinerton who married Hester Webb in Hawkesbury in 1633, and baptized a daughter Abigail in Tetbury in 1640. I find it likely that he was another son of Jesper via his first wife Elizabeth, born during the gap in Tetbury records, perhaps around 1610. He may be the same Benjamin Swinington listed in 1672 as not being liable for the Hearth Tax on account of being poor. The name Benjamin was used more than once in subsequent generations of the family (a son of Job Jr., and a son of George- who I am sure connects to this family, as the name Antipas appears in his line).

[jrcarleton]

In Horsley, quite near Tetbury, there are records of a William Swinington with two children- Richard who was buried in 1591, and Eleonor who was baptized 1593. There was also a Gyles who was married in 1636 in Horsley. It’s interesting that this family spelled the name Swinington. Could they be connected to the Swinnertons of Tetbury? Possibly William of Horsley was a brother of Thomas or Jesper? But we have no way of knowing.

Then there was a Christopher Swinerton with 4 hearths in the 1664 Hearth tax list. I assume with that many hearths, he must have been older and had a family, and/or multiple homes. So he was likely born in the early 1600s. Another son of Jesper and Elizabeth?

There was a Mary Swinerton who married Thomas Sharpe Sr. in Tetbury, and an Elizabeth Swinton who married John Webb (that name again) in Alderney, both in 1655. Both born perhaps in the 1620s or 1630s?

Then of course we have John (born about 1687) and George (born about 1692) Swinerton. Likely brothers or perhaps cousins. Both raised large families in Tetbury. But who was their father? I have not found any records. Both had sons named John. John had a son named Antipas, and George had a grandson named John Antipas. If I had to guess, I would suggest that they were sons of John, the son of Antipas. It has been suggested that he is the John who baptized a daughter Mary in 1686 in Axbridge. No marriage record has been found Perhaps he was also the father of John and George. The name Antipas was carried down in both their lines. But this is pure speculation, unfortunately.