Two of our Researchers, Brian Swinnerton and Roger Hulme, have been researching John the Shoemaker from Wellington, Shropshire, and his descendants, and in doing so have successfully placed some more Swinnertons and their spouses into their correct family tree.
Over the years Swinnertons have moved back and forth over the border between Staffordshire and Shropshire, and although numbered and recorded, it has often been difficult to place certain individuals into their correct tree.
As a result we have issued a new Swinnerton tree, known as The Wellington Tree, based on John and his descendants.
John (JS197) 1808-1884, married Mary Ingham in Wellington, and is an illegitimate child of Mary Swinnerton.
At this time we do not know precisely who Mary Swinnerton was – it’s possible she sits in the Adbaston tree (Staffordshire), but equally possible that she is from the Uffington tree (Shropshire).
Although a relatively small tree, the Wellington Tree does contain some notable Swinnertons, and not always for the right reasons – for instance, Henry Swinnerton (HS90), 1850-?, who on September 28th 1881 attempted to murder his father. The following is a newspaper cutting regarding the unfortunate event, which made the news all across the country.
Henry was eventually sentenced to twenty years penal servitude.
Henry’s elder brother was George Frederick Swinnerton (GS41) 1839-1917, but George was a devout and much-travelled Missionary.
The following is an extract about George from our Saga magazine dated Spring 2018.
‘George Frederick Swinnerton was born on October 8th 1839 in Buryards, Wellington, Shropshire, the son of John Swinnerton and Mary Ingham. According to his obituary in the Minutes of the Methodist Conference 1918, “his first distinctly religious impressions were received in the Sunday School, and his conversion took place when he was sixteen years of age, on July 8th 1852 under the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Nightingale. He was a Wesleyan Methodist, and as a local preacher he had the joy of seeing many convinced of sin and savingly converted in the village churches of his home circuit.”
‘After three years at Richmond (Yorks), he was appointed to British Guiana in 1865, and for the next five years he served valiantly, despite constantly fighting against attacks of malarial fever, barely escaping at last with his life. It was there that he married Mary Jane Smith on September 8th 1866. She had been born in Bilston, Staffordshire, but how she came to be in British Guiana we don’t know.
‘Returning to England in 1871, he was appointed to Bodmin in Cornwall and from then, as was the custom in the Methodist Church, he moved regularly, in 1872 to Downham (Norfolk), then to numerous other places, including Bungay (Suffolk) in 1874, Reeth (Yorks) in 1880 and Kilburn (London) in 1897, before finally retiring to Harlsden, London in 1899.’
George Frederick Swinnerton and his wife Mary Jane Smith had seven children, the youngest of whom was Henry Hurd Swinnerton (HS47) 1875-1966, who was a famous Geologist, Zoologist, Palaeontologist and Author. Professor Henry Hurd is one of the notable Swinnertons listed on the Swinnerton website, where more information can be found about him.
Our search for proof about whether our new Wellington Tree should link to Adbaston or Uffington continues.
