This page last updated 11 December 2020.
This is a line of several generations from various parts of what is now Cumbria, with a stint in north Wales. They were mainly educated and in the 19th century included engineers in hi-tech areas like steam railways and coal mining, but also suffered hardships like poverty, alcoholism and sudden death.
Thanks to Sheila Lawson of the Cumbria Family History Society and to Alison France and Lynne Hall (website) for mapping out the generations of this ancestry. Thank you also to Carla Fisher for some very evocative material handed down through the family. I present it here all on one page with the information I've been able to add.
10. Bernard SWAINSON (lived 17th century) of Calder Bridge. More
9. Rev. Richard (abt 1675-1719) and Esther (1682-1771) SWAINSON of Urswick and then Hawkshead. Esther had been a DENNISON of Dalton.More
8. Samuel (abt 1710 - at least 1762) and Catherine SWAINSON of Whitehaven. Catherine had been a DONALD. More
7. John (1735-probably 1819) and Ann SWAINSON (born about 1735/40, living 1803) of Whitehaven. Ann had been a TAYLOR. More
6. Taylor (1761- at least 1818) and Eleanor (d. 1866) SWAINSON of Whitehaven. Eleanor had been a SMITH of Durham. More
5a. Taylor (1818-1897) and Margaret (abt 1816-17 - 1853) SWAINSON of Whitehaven. More
5b. Taylor (1818-1897) and Mary Anne (b. abt 1838) SWAINSON of Whitehaven and then Flintshire. More
4. William (1850-around 1880s) and Lydia (abt 1850-at least 1877) SWAINSON of Flintshire. More
3. Catherine Ann SWAINSON (1877-at least 1910s) who married (1905) Jackson RAWLING. More
For research notes, click here.
A Bernard SWENSON paid hearth tax at Drigg in 1664m though this may not have been the same individual. Drigg and Calder Bridge are both on the south-west coast of Cumberland, Drigg to the south of Seascale and Calder Bridge to the north.
Bernard had a son called Richard around 1675, and later sent him to Oxford University - see below.
Richard was awarded his B.A. from Oxford in 1695. He was appointed Vicar of Urswick, Lancashire (in the northern part of that historic county, now part of Cumbria), in 1696. There is another mention of his as vicar of this parish in 1701. There, in 1704 aged roughly 30, he married a widow named Esther PETTY, (nee DENNISON) of Wellhouse, Bardsea (in the same parish). Esther was 22 years old and already had two sons, William and Edmund (Richard legally adopted William in 1715).
Richard and Esther had five children of their own also, four of whom were born while in Urswick Parish, where the family stayed until 1713.
Bernard/Leonard baptised Urswick 20 February 1704
Samuel baptised Urswick 5 July 1707
Jane perhaps around 1709-10
Mary baptised Urswick 5, 21 or 25 May 1712
Esther baptised Hawkshead (see below) 13 or 15 September 1714
FamilySearch indexes baptisms for both Bernard and Leonard on the same date. I am not sure whether this is two different readings by transcribers of a single name or twins baptised together. Both occur in later documents transcribed presumably independently. I should look at the actual register. Jane's baptism doesn't show up in FamilySearch, but I have found reference to her as a child of Richard, mentioned after Samuel but before Mary and Esther, so I have inserted her in that position with a guesstimate of birth date.
In 1714, Richard took up the living of Hawkshead (to the west of Windermere, north of Urswick in the Lake District proper) and his youngest child Esther was born there in that year. The family lived at Walker Ground. In 1715, Richard legally adopted his stepson William PETTY, who would by this time have been about 14.
In 1719 (the burial record is incompletely transcribed on FamilySearch but with the figure 9 and the letters emb it would have been November or December) Richard died - he was about 45, Esther about 37, William and Edmund would have been in their late teens, and Esther and Richard's own children from about 15 down to 5.
Esther later married a third time and lived to an old age. The whole story of her, her husbands and children is rather involved so I have told it, centred on her, on the DENNISON page.
Richard and Esther's elder son, Bernard, served an apprenticeship at law in Penrith (on the north-eastern side of the Lake District) and became an attorney in Whitehaven (on the west Cumberland coast). He died in 1746, probably aged about 40, without issue. We think he had married a Frances, and she died later the same year.
Leonard (if a different person to Bernard) also died by 1758.
For their other son, Samuel, see below.
Jane and Mary are mentioned in a document in 1722 but I have no information on them later than that.
Esther junior obtained in 1735 a license to marry George FELL, a butcher. She is thought to have died in 1738 in Ulverston, possibly in childbirth as a son, Richard, was also buried few days later.
Samuel Swainson married Catherine DONALD in 1734 in St Bees. They had three sons: one of them, John, baptised in 1735 at Holy Trinity, Whitehaven. Another may have been William, baptised 1738 in St Bees parish, whose father Samuel was of Ginns (a hamlet then near and now part of the town of Whitehaven). There is a Samuel son of Samuel SWAINSON, labourer, buried at St Nicholas Whitehaven in 1743.
The 1762 census for Whitehaven shows Samuel as a smith living in the front of a house at Newtown with one other person. In the same building was one of his three sons. I'm not sure whether this is John or one of the others.
I have to note the risk that there's more than one Samuel SWAINSON in the area at this time. I guess with the ups and downs of life, especially losing a parent at a young age, it would be possible for someone to be the son of a vicar up until age 9, the brother of a trainee lawyer at 11, a labourer at 33, and a smith at 52. But it would also be possible that these are two or three different men. I think this merits some more research and careful use of primary sources if possible.
John was a joiner and married Ann TAYLOR on 6 September 1759 at St Nicholas, Whitehaven. The couple lived in Whitehaven all their married lives and had (if I follow other researchers) eight children, who would seem to me from the parish registers to be:
Catherine bapt St Nicholas Whitehaven 1759
Taylor bapt St Nicholas 1761
John bapt St Nicholas 1764 (and possibly buried St Nicholas 1787)
Ann bapt St Nicholas 1767
Mary bapt St Nicholas 1770
Jane bapt St Niholas 1774 and bur St Nicholas 1776
Jane bapt St Nicholas 1777
Samuel, buried St Nicholas 1783
There are addresses given for John and/or Ann in some of these records: Charles Street 1770-4; Peter Street 1776-7 Mount Pleasant for the Samuel burial in 1783
John junior MIGHT have been the John SWAINSON of Harrithwaite buried St Nicholas 1787, which would make him about 23. BUT my fellow reserchers are confident that he survived to marry Sarah SCOTT in 1789, and it then seems likely that they are the parents of Mary baptised 1790 and John baptised 1792. This John is thought to have died by 1803 and been survived by Sarah, who is mentioned as a widow in that year. It therefore also seems UNLIKELY that he would have been the mariner father, with Mary, of William born 1799 and baptised 1804 (William probably then died in Scotch Street workhouse in 1849).
A Mary SWAINSON married Mick DAVIS in Holy Trinity Whitehaven in 1789, which could be this Mary - she'd have been about 19.
Jane may have been the Jane SWAINSON buried in St Nicholas in 1807, which would make her about 30.
Catherine looks a good candidate by dates for the Catherine SWAINSON buried aged 77 St Nicholas in 1834. In which case it probably wan't her marrying Richard PINDER in St James Whitehaven in 1791, but I guess she might have reverted to her maiden name if she was widowed or separated?
For Taylor see below.
Ann married (in 1789 in St Bees parish) Thomas SMITH. Taylor SWAINSON was a witness at the marriage and later went on to marry the groom's sister. Thomas and Ann seem to have had children and I've heard from a researcher who may be descended from this marriage.
John and Ann, the parents of this family, do not seem to have had a happy retirement. Ann is mentioned as living with her son Taylor in 1803 (when she'd probably have been around her 60s), and (like him) suffering severely from alcoholism and consequent poverty. (See Taylor's individual page for more details.) I at one point thought this meant that John her husband had died by then, but the dates would match for him to be the John SWAINSON of the Poor House buried aged 84 in St Nicholas Whitehaven in 1819 so perhaps as paupers they lived separately, or perhaps he was just sufficiently inoffensive not to be mentioned in the discussion of Taylor's troubles.
The younger years of the first Taylor SWAINSON are unknown (except that he witnessed his sister's marriage), but we pick him up as an engineman on the payroll of Howgill Colliery in Whitehaven in 1802, aged about 40. He was living with his mother in 1803. Soon after this, in 1805, he married Eleanor SMITH (sister of his brother-in-law Thomas) in 1805 at St Nicholas Church, Whitehaven; he was described at marriage as an enginewright.
Taylor and Eleanor had seven children:
Eleanor 1805 (batised 1806)
John Bateman 1808
Ann 1811
Thomas 1813
Margaret 1816
Taylor 1818
William 1821 and probably buried 1823
Taylor senior is described at each baptism as an engineer. Some addresses are given for the family in these event records: Peter Street in 1806; Newtown 1816-21. But William is described as 'Poor House' when buried aged 2 in 1823; I'm not sure whether the omission of his parents suggests that they were not inmates, or whether it is just a matter of the recording convention or the secondary compilation of events I've got it from.
Eleanor married Isaac MOORE in 1824; they had four children I know of, with further descendants, and lived at Sellafield until they died in the 1860s. People who have mentioned this connection to me have described the MOOREs as farmers.
John *may* have been the wright baptising a child with mother Elizabeth at Holy Trinity in 1831. He seems likely to have been an engineer later, lodging with his sister Ann (see below) in 1841, and soon after to have married (possibly in Newcastle, in which case a likely marriage took place in December 1841, to the daughter of Thomas Smith) a Margaret with whom he lived at Mount Pleasant and had at least two children, born perhaps in Newcastle but one baptised at St Nicholas Whitehaven in 1844.
Ann married in 1828 John DOBBINS, an engineer and later engine driver and so presumably a colleague or at least work contact of her father; they also had children (nine I have seen listed) and further descendants.
Thomas appears to have been the man who married Jane KENNEDY in 1835 and, described as an iron founder or moulder, lived at Tangier Street and baptised four children in the 1830s and 40s.
Margaret married John FLOOD in 1833.
For Taylor junior see below.
Meanwhile, Taylor senior rose to be the chief engineer of the colliery. Local sources pretty much credit him with inventing the steam engine, but the truth seems to have been that he was an early (1812) imitator of Richard Trevithick's (1804) invention, constructing an 'Iron Horse' which ran on tracks at the colliery, but was too heavy for the rails and was taken out of use before long. To be fair to him and to the local sources, this was a couple of years before the first (1814) engine built by George Stephenson, who is far more widely but also wrongly credited with inventing the steam locomotive because of his pioneering work on early public railways.
However, from at least 1803 it seems that Taylor was an alcoholic, suffering from debilitating lapses that kept him from his work for periods of time. We can only speculate whether he might have been more successful as an engineer if he had been sober. For further discussion of Taylor's story and the evidence about him, go to this individual page I have created for him.
Taylor died at the age of 83 at Scotch Street (which is the address of the Whitehaven men's workhouse) in 1839. I haven't yet ordered his death certificate but it is Deaths Dec 1839 SWENSON Taylor, Whitehaven 25 108.
Eleanor survived to 1866, dying in Egremont.
This Taylor SWAINSON married (in St James's Whitehaven, on 14 December 1836, aged about 18) Margaret CRAIG (just a year or two older).
They had children:
Mary E about 1838
Catherine about 1840 or 41
Ann about 1843
Taylor 8 November 1845 (but baptised 1853)
Eliza about 1848
William 26 October 1850
Plus at least one more, in 1853, and I think another at some point - I'm told Taylor had eight in total. Later evidence is that they included a Margaret.
An obituary (see below) said of his career that he "entered the Whitehaven Colliery office in 1832, and was trained under the late Mr. William Gaythorpe, in surveying and planning, and when he became proficient he was appointed underground surveyor for the whole of Lord Lonsdale's collieries at Whitehaven. He was noted for being an excellent surveyor and a good draughtsman; and owing to the interest of Lord Lonsdale took in the projection of the local railways, he was engaged, along with the late Mr. John Moore, another of the colliery office staff, under Mr. George Stephenson, in surveying the local railways. In 1847 he succeeded Mr. Henry Jackson as viewer [manager] of the Howgill Collieries at Whitehaven..."
Taylor appears as 'miner' in the version I'v seen of the 1853 baptismal record of his son Taylor though - might be worth checking the original for that. I was also told that he assisted in the survey of one of the local railway lines along with Robert Stephenson, son of George (mentioned above).
Margaret died in her thirties in 1853, with her youngest child aged under 1 and the oldest still in her teens.
After about 5 years Taylor remarried, to Mary Anne FARRER. He was about 40 and she half his age. The year after they married, 1859, Taylor, Mary and the children moved to Flintshire in Wales, where Taylor snr again worked as a colliery overseer or manager.
The elder son, Taylor, was educated in at the Bluecoat School in London (I wonder if this is why he was baptised aged about 8) and became an accountant; in 1881 his occupation is listed as clerk at the iron ore mines in Cleator in Cumberland. He also served in the navy. He married Annie LIDDLE.
His sister Catherine lived in Croydon, Surrey, as a housekeeper in the 1880s, and spent some time in an asylum at Camberwell in south London before returning to Cumberland. For William (and for the later parts of Taylor's and Catherine's lives), see below.
Eliza and Maggie lived until at least 1915, when they are noted as sending wreaths to the funeral of their brother Taylor.
Around 1882, aged over 60, Taylor the father returned to Cumberland to live with his son Taylor in the village of Lamplugh on the edge of the Lake District. I'm told he was at one stage a spirit dealer, so I infer this may have been during his retirement back in Cumberland. He died there in 1897.
There is an obituary here, though it spends as much time on Taylor's more celebrated father as on this man himself.
William was still in his teens and working as a coal miner when he married Lydia JONES. Lydia was about his own age and the daughter of an engine driver. They married at the Free Church in Mold, Flintshire, on 13 September 1870. Both are incorrectly recorded as being of 'full age', and no SWAINSON or JONES witnessed the marriage certificate so this may have been without the families' consent or presence. They had six children:
Mary Ellen about 1873
Catherine Ann 1877
Louisa about 1879
Thomas Taylor and Alice, twins about 1882 (check this - I have a date in 1886 on a family tree)
William about 1884
William the father died in November 1885, while the children were still young. (get the certificate SWINSON William, age 35, registered Holywell 11b 177; he was buried at Pontblyddyn) He apparently died in a railway accident while working - I guess this may have been on a pit railway rather than a public passenger one. After his death, Catherine and Thomas Taylor went to live with their (otherwise childless) uncle Taylor and aunt Annie in Lamplugh, Cumberland; they are there on the 1901 census, along with their aunt Catherine. Thomas Taylor (who I think went by his middle name) married an Edith HOSKIN and had descendants. Louise, Alice and William remained with their mother in Flintshire; William is there at the 1901 census.
Catherine the aunt died in 1904; her brother Taylor died in 1915 but by this time the children were grown up - for Catherine Ann see below.
Catherine married Jackson RAWLING, on 21 February 1905 in the parish church at Lamplugh. Jackson was then aged about 27 and was the son of a farmer from the same neighbourhood.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.