St Bartholomew's, Longnor, Staffordshire

No tidy, joined up stories for this post, I'm afraid. Much more typical of the realities of one-name studies. However I am noting my thought processes.

Back in early March Georgina Hutber sent me some more transcripts of Swindell (etc) entries from the registers of St Bartholomew's, Longnor, Staffordshire. I am especially grateful for these since these registers appear nowhere on line except on FreeReg from 1795 onwards. In due course they should appear on FindMyPast as part of the digitisation of the Staffordshire registers but I have no idea as to when. This is a good example of where the Bishop's Transcripts supplement the Parish Registers and vice-versa. I have entered these additions, as well as her original information, on my page for Longnor registers.

The Church of St Bartholomew, Longnor

St Bartholomew, Longnor, was a chapelry in Alstonefield parish - in Staffordshire but on the Derbyshire border. There was a church at Longnor apparently by the 12th century and certainly by the earlier 15th century  Between 1774 and 1781 the church was demolished and a new one built on a site to the north. The current church has a Norman font, carved with crude heads and chevrons, the only survivor from the original medieval building.

St Bartholmew's, Longnor

Quite a substantial church. In 1812 the walls were raised to allow a south gallery (which was later removed) and a west gallery; an upper arcade of windows, of similar shape to those below, was added.

Over the years Longnor overtook Alstonefield in importance but St Peter's, Alstonefield, remained the parish church and marriages were normally celebrated there until 1837. From 1753 to 1837 marriages at Longnor would have had no legal validity.

New Entries

The new entries introduce
i)    Sarah Swindall, baptised in 1691
ii)    Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Swindell, baptised on the 7th of January 1709/10.
iii)   Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Swindle, buried on the 15th of January 1713/14
iv)  Thomas, illegitimate son of Elizabeth Swindell of Fawfieldhead, baptised on the 8th of May 1718

Note that there are still a number of unconnected entries in the Longton registers.

These new entries introduce new questions but resolve no old ones.

i)    There is a Sarah Swindal, daughter of Thomas Swindal buried in December 1728 but it is unlikely that a 37 year old spinster would be described as daughter of ... . The death is more likely to be that of an infant child of Jane, Thomas's wife who died in July of 1729. A later note by Georgina 'extinguishes' most of this record saying Sarah belongs to an earlier entry - so a birth but no name.

ii), iii)   Elizabeth, with a daughter Elizabeth, is possibly the first wife of the Thomas Swindale who died in 1745

iv)   This Thomas is probably the elder brother of Matthew (b1723) also an illegitimate son of Elizabeth Swindell. Possibly the Thomas Swindil who died in 1764.

However I will add the new individuals to my database and hope that they may resolve questions I have not yet asked!

Thomas Swindal born about 1680, died 1745

I have formed a 'mind-image' of a Thomas Swindal who appears seven times in the records of Longnor and Alstonefield but with no evidence to link any one reference to any other (eg ii) and iii) above). What follows is 'speculative fiction' joining up known facts with sheer imagination. Facts in italics.

Thomas was the younger son of Richard Swindle, who was born in 1634 in Bakewell, Derbyshire. Richard Swindle married Sarah Swindle in 1664 in Alstonefield and settled at The Ridge. Ridge Farm is 2 km south of Longnor. Richard was excommunicated in 1678. This sounds terrible but probably means he hadn't / couldn't / wouldn't pay his tithes.

Thomas settled a little further west at Fleet Farm, Fawfieldhead, almost mid-way between Longnor and Leek. He married, first, Elizabeth and had a daughter named after her mother in 1709. In 1708 Thomas was chosen as constable for Alstonefield. This office was circulated around the more well-to-do landowners/tenants  and was the parish 'policeman' and had many duties. It was not a popular job and the parishioner chosen often opted to pay someone else to act in his place. Later in his life Thomas acted in place of Richard Hadfield in 1731 and in place of Richard Bowman in 1732.

Thomas's first wife Elizabeth died in 1713. He remarried to Jane and had a daughter Sarah. Unfortunately Jane died in 1728 after the birth and her daughtet Sarah died five months later.

Thomas moved to Nabbs in Wildboarclough in Cheshire but died in 1745 and chose to be buried in Longnor beside his two wives.

His daughter Elizabeth, born in 1709, married Geoffrey Brunt in Leek, just five miles to the west, in 1731.

I have added no pictures to this part of the post because I am not certain they would be relevant.

More about the Swindell Surname