The History of the Swinnerton Family History Society

The original history of the family was written by the Hon and Revd Canon G. T. O. Bridgman, a noted Staffordshire historian, and was published as Part Two of Volume VII (1886) of the William Salt Archaeological Society’s Collections for a History of Staffordshire, entitled An account of the Family of Swynnerton of Swynnerton and elsewhere in the County of Stafford.

The Revd Charles Swynnerton contributed the last 43 pages culled from the many letters and documents he had acquired during his researches into his own branch of the family, either by correspondence or on his few furloughs from his duties as an army Chaplain in India.

There is one quotation from the book which has always amused the family. It says, “During the troublous times which succeeded the accession of King Edward II, and for nearly the whole of that reign, the law was practically in a state of abeyance, and the whole county of Stafford was at that time a scene of unbridled license … The Inquisitions which were held in Staffordshire between 1323 and 1326 brought to light deeds of rapine and violence in which nearly all the leading families of the county were involved. Among these the Swynnertons were conspicuous.”

Interest in the family history lapsed after the Revd Charles’ death in 1928, but was revived by Iain Swinnerton in 1952, who founded the Swinnerton Society in 1974. The Society became a registered charity in 1986 – the first One-Name Society to be so recognized. However, the burden of administering this eventually became too onerous, owing to the reduction in membership caused by the deaths of many of the early members, and it was replaced by the present Swinnerton Family Society in April 2010.

Incredibly, our Society has now been going for 51 years in one form or another. As the then Chairman Joe Swinnerton said in the June 1995 edition (Vol. 10 No. 2), “Time has certainly marched on, and it is difficult to realise that 22 years have passed since Iain Swinnerton circularised a few names taken from the telephone directory asking if they would be ‘interested in joining a small group who were engaged in researching into the family history’. Iain had been looking into the family origins for 20 years, but now he was joined by the Rev. Brian Swinnerton, John Swinnerton and Ken Armitstead (who Iain had met many times previously), who had all been delving into their own branches of the family. The response to that letter resulted in the formation of our society in 1974 and the first journal, a single sheet of A4 paper, was published in May of that year.”

Joe Swinnerton was in fact the fourth Chairman since the Society’s inception, following on from the aforementioned John Swinnerton (1980-1983) and Ken Armitstead (1983-1985), and then Colonel Jeremy Swynnerton (1985-1992). Joe stepped down from the role after that edition, having done his allotted six years, and Iain took over until August 2001, when Roger Swynnerton became the new Chairman. In April 2004 he handed over to Barrie, who oversaw the change of name for the journal to The Swinnerton Saga at the AGM in 2006.

Barrie served until the AGM of June 2008, at which point there was a bit of a crisis, as no-one came forward to be the new Chairman. In the December 2008 edition, Iain announced that without a Chairman, after 35 years the Society had no choice but to close down. And so it did – but the Saga continued, subtly changing from ‘The Journal of the Swinnerton Society’ to ‘The Journal of Swinnerton Family History’, with Iain as ever as its editor.

Then in June 2010, there was a mini-gathering in Liverpool. After what Iain described as “a splendid lunch”, it was proposed that the Society be reformed, and so the Swinnerton Family Society was born, with Elizabeth Livesey as the new ‘Chairman’. Elizabeth bade her farewell in the April 2014 edition, and at the June 2014 AGM, one Julian Douglas Swinnerton Hawley was elected as Chairman, and, owing to the rather more relaxed rules of the SFS, 11 years later we are very glad to say he is still here!

Then in 2015, Iain decided that at 83 he no longer had the energy to edit the Saga, and that if no-one stepped forward to take over at that year’s AGM, the August 2015 Saga would be the last. His son Alastair knew he couldn’t let that happen – it had been such a huge part of Iain’s life, and he was obviously very sad that he couldn’t do it any more. So Alastair volunteered to edit it if no-one else would, expecting it to be a fairly short-term position, not one that would last nine years!