SWAIN/SWAN/SWAIM GENEALOGY
Compiled by Glenn Gohr
There are many Swain researchers today, and it has now been reported that the Swains of North and South Carolina were Quakers and are descended from the Swains of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts. This is quite fascinating as the new information takes this line back as many as 10 generations back further than I had it. Some of the early family members in Massachusetts and England even spell the name as SWAN. I don't have any other New England ancestors unless New Jersey counts as a New England state. Some of the interconnected families even lived in Salem, Massachusetts, which was famous for the witch trials. Who knows, maybe I will find a Mayflower ancestor now?
This line has links back to English Royalty and some of the Magna Charta barons through intermarriage with the PADDOCK and SEARS families back in the early 1600s. The SEARS family intermarried with the KNYVETT family who in turn intermarried with the GREY, HOLLAND, and finally the PLANTAGENET families. That link goes back to Edward III, one of the Plantagenet Kings of England. Several of the other noble families that married into this line descend from Magna Charta barons. These Royal and noble lines, if traced to the full extent, according to Burke's Peerage and the LDS Church in Salt Lake City, can take the line back to such notables as William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great, and others. One line through the Kings of Scotland and Ireland even purports to link back to the Jewish line of kings before the time of Christ, and from there the line goes back to King Solomon and King David and on back to Abraham the Patriarch and Noah and back to Adam and Eve. This purported lineage back to the Jewish line of kings forms the basis of British Israelism. It all makes for an interesting study of history, but I have great doubts of anything before about 800 A.D. The link to the kings of Israel forms almost a mythological story about the last king of Israel, Zedekiah, having two daughters, one of which is supposed to have come to Ireland and married a king of Ireland. Reportedly she brought with her the stone that had been in the Ark of the Covenant which was Jacob's pillow, and later became known as the Stone of Scone by the Irish and Scots. Currently that stone sits underneath the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, and all the kings and queens of England are crowned there.
Many thanks to Sonya Tilley and David L. Ray who both descend from the Swains of McNairy County, Tennessee, just as I do, for their assistance in finding out about the early Swains prior to William Swain and Rebecca Williamson, which I did not have. Both Sonya and David have Swain information on the Rootsweb Worldconnect Pages at http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com. I suspect they got a lot of their information from Jeffrey D. Kemp who also descends from the Swains of McNairy County, Tennessee, and has worked on tracing the Swains back to the Carolinas and back to New England and even to a baronet in England.
Here is my SWAIN lineage as far as I can determine:
- Robert Swain, b. ca. 1497 England, d. March 1556/57 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England; buried 16 March 1556/57 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England; md. UNKNOWN
- William Swain, b. ca. 1527 England, d. January 1609/10 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England; buried 20 January 1609/10 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England; md. 20 April 1567 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England to Joan DEE, b. ca. 1530 England, d. 4 June 1601 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England
- William SWAIN, Baronet, b. ca. 1575 England; md. Ann TRUMBULL, b. ca. 1578 Yorkshire, England, d. 4 April 1648 Rowley, Essex Co., MA
- Richard SWAIN, b. 21 September 1595 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England, d. 14 April 1682 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA; md. 1st, at Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England to Basselle (maiden name unknown), b. abt. 1600 Berkshire Co., England, d. 15 July 1657 Hampton Falls, NH
- John SWAIN, b. 5 October 1633 Binfield Parish, Berkshire Co., England, d. 1717 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA; md. 15 November 1660 Hampton Falls, NH to Mary WEARE, b. Abt. 1636 England, d. 1714 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA
- Joseph SWAIN, b. 17 July 1673 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. 1 June 1766 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA; md. Abt. 1695 Salem, Essex Co., MA to Mary SIBLEY, b. 25 January 1670/71 Salem, Essex Co., MA
- Caleb SWAIN, b. Abt. 1700 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. 28 July 1785 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA; md. 7 December 1726 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA to Margaret PADDACK, b. abt 1701 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. 26 May 1789 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA
- Nathaniel SWAIN, b. 16 January 1727/28 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. 4 April 1781 Guilford Co., NC; md. 4 December 1755 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA to Bethia MACY, b. 3 April 1733 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA
- Joseph SWAIN, b. 5 September 1756 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. May 1829 Guilford Co., NC; md. 29 November 1780 at New Garden Monthly Meeting, Guilford Co., NC to Jedidah MACY, b. 23 November 1759 Nantucket Island, Nantucket Co., MA, d. ca. 1791 Guilford Co., NC
- William W. SWAIN, Sr., b. 8 Oct. 1781 Guilford Co., SC, d. ca. 1871 McNairy Co., TN; md. ca. 1799 in Guilford Co., NC to Rebecca WILLIAMSON, b. Aug. 1782 Guilford Co., NC, d. ca. 1861 McNairy Co., TN
- William W. SWAIN, b. 17 May 1800 Guilford Co., NC, d. 21 Oct. 1857 McNairy Co., TN; md. ca. 1821 to Rachel ANDERSON, b. 6 Feb. 1802 TN, d. 30 June 1876 in McNairy Co., TN
- Allen Perry SWAIN, b. 22 Feb. 1822 TN, d. aft. 1860 McNairy Co., TN; md. ca. 1845 McNairy Co., TN to Harriett Ann SEWELL, b. 22 Jan. 1829 McNairy Co., TN, d. ca. 1860 McNairy Co., TN
- Sarah Elizabeth SWAIN, b. 12 Oct. 1846 McNairy Co., TN, d. 12 May 1934 McNairy Co., TN; md. 17 Sept. 1867 McNairy Co., TN to William Henry PYRON, b. 8 Jan. 1846 McNairy Co., TN, d. 20 Sept. 1909 McNairy Co., TN (both buried at Mars Hill Cemetery, McNairy Co., TN)
- Docia Bell PYRON, b. 5 Oct. 1872 McNairy Co., TN, d. 1 Sept. 1944 Lyford, Willacy Co., TX (buried at Combes, TX); md. 28 Oct. 1894 McNairy Co., TN to James David HARRIS, b. 9 Jan. 1871 McNairy Co., TN, d. 22 Sept. 1938 Marlow, Stephens Co., OK (buried at Marlow Cemetery, Marlow, OK)
- William Earl HARRIS, b. 8 Aug. 1895 McNairy Co., TN, d. 5 Jan. 1967 Cortez, Montezuma Co., CO; md. 12 Dec. 1915 Parker Co., TX to Orpha Antonia Hazel GARVIN, b. 11 Nov. 1895 Jack Co., TX, d. 21 Dec. 1979 Cortez, Montezuma Co., CO (They are both buried in the Dove Creek Cemetery, Dove Creek, CO) *These are my grandparents.
SWAIN E-MAIL LIST
If you have queries concerning the SWAIN surname, you may post these at the Swain Family Genealogy List which I started in 1997 and now am the list manager again for it.
Swain Genealogy List is a part of the Rootsweb e-mail discussion lists. It offers free queries and discussion on the Swain surname and variant spellings.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected]
Leave subject line blank (This will be ignored).
In the body of the message type: subscribe
Then a welcome message will be sent telling how to post messages. Once you are subscribed, you may send a query to everyone on the list by sending e-mail to: [email protected]
Archived postings to the Swain e-mail list can be found on the WEB at:
https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/
When prompted, type in SWAIN for the name of the list. A second screen will appear where you can choose a year and type in a search word(s). If you type in SWAIN you would probably get all the previous postings to the list. You can also type in a person's name instead or a locality to narrow your search. If you wish to do a search by date, try entering it in quotation marks with the day and then the month as "01 Mar" using single digit dates preceded by a zero and only the first three letters of the month.
SWAIM E-MAIL LIST
Some of the Swains in McNairy County, Tennessee now use the alternate spelling of SWAIM. There is also a SWAIM Family Genealogy List on Rootsweb that I started.
If you have queries concerning the SWAIM surname, you may post these at the Swaim Family Genealogy List which I manage.
Swaim Genealogy List is a part of the Rootsweb e-mail discussion lists. It offers free queries and discussion on the Swaim surname and variant spellings.
To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected]
Leave subject line blank (This will be ignored).
In the body of the message type: subscribe
Then a welcome message will be sent telling how to post messages. Once you are subscribed, you may send a query to everyone on the list by sending e-mail to: [email protected]
Archived postings to the Swaim e-mail list can be found on the WEB at:
https://mailinglists.rootsweb.com/listindexes/
When prompted, type in SWAIM for the name of the list. A second screen will appear where you can choose a year and type in a search word(s). If you type in SWAIM you would probably get all the previous postings to the list. You can also type in a person's name instead or a locality to narrow your search. If you wish to do a search by date, try entering it in quotation marks with the day and then the month as "01 Mar" using single digit dates preceded by a zero and only the first three letters of the month.