How Many Swallows?

 This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Conflicting Clues” (it is a prompt from earlier in the year but I am only just getting around to writing the story).  It is my attempt to untangle the Swallow branch on my family tree by telling the story of my ancestor Hannah Woodcock.

Hannah Woodcock was, I think, born around 1697 in Birstall, Yorkshire, and baptised in the Birstall Parish church on 10 October 1697.  She was the daughter of William Woodcock and Elizabeth.  I am still searching for more details about William and Elizabeth, including their marriage.  The only marriage of a likely date that I can find took place in Finningley, Nottinghamshire, quite a distance away and it seems to be a different family. I do know William and Elizabeth had at least eight children all baptised at Birstall: John (born about 1692), William (born about 1693), Joseph (born about 1695), Hannah, Mary (born about 1700), Benjamin (born about 1702), Joshua (born about 1704) and Sarah (born about 1708).  The Birstall records for the period are difficult to read and are not well indexed, so I might have missed some.  I do not know any more about their lives as I haven’t found any other records.

Two Swallows and a Woodcock
(image by Copilot)

On 27 February 1728 (or 1729 on the modern calendar*), Hannah Woodcock married Richard Swallow of Liversedge Park near Birstall, in Birstall Parish Church.  Not long after they married, they moved a short distance to Roberttown, still in Birstall parish.

At around the same time that Hannah married Richard, another Richard Swallow also got married and likely to another Hannah.  The other Richard lived in the nearby parish of Thornhill.  I do not know where “my” Richard Sallow was born.  Untangling the two Richard and coming to the conclusion that they are definitely not the same person has been a challenge, partly drive by gut feeling.  There is no one piece of evidence that they are two different people, but the records don’t quite make sense if there was just one Richard Swallow.

1732* was a notable year for Hannah.  Her first known child, Mary, was baptised in January, likely born a few days or weeks earlier, and her father William Woodcock died around the same time, also in January.  Her mother Elizabeth died some months later in October 1732. 

Hannah and Richard had 3 more children, Susannah (born about 1724), Hannah (born about 1737) and Sarah (my ancestor, born about 1740).  Daughter Mary died in 1734.  Sarah’s baptism is a key piece of evidence separating the two Richards because the wife of Richard Swallow of Thornhill died two years earlier in 1738.

The other Richard Swallow had two sons, Richard and Thomas, who were baptised in different years to the four Swallow sisters, but not In Birstall. This made it just about plausible that they could all be one family.

The two Richard Swallows’ lives continued to parallel each other, apparently ending around the same time and far from home.  According to a published genealogy, the Richard Swallow died at the battle of Dettingen in Germany on 27 June 1743.  I have only found one likely burial for “my” Richard Swallow, on 10 August 1742, in Penrith, Cumberland; he was described as “a stranger”.  I do not know why he would have been in Penrith.

Sometime after Richard Swallow died, Hannah and her three surviving daughters moved to the neighbouring parish of Batley. I am not sure why they moved as there is no obvious family connection already living there.  I assume that they were not living in poverty and were not dependant on parish relief, otherwise the Batley parish overseers would have dispatched them back to Birstall.

Daughter Hannah Swallow died in 1754, age only 17, and was buried in Batley.  This is the first evidence of the family living there.  A few years later in 1758, daughter Sarah Swallow married Samuel Newsome (a brother of my ancestor Hannah Newsome) in Batley.  Sarah Swallow married John Blakeley in 1760, also in Batley.  John Blakeley was a witness at his future sisters-in-law’s wedding.

Hannah Swallow, nee Woodcock, died in May 1765, aged about 68.  In the Batley burial record, she is described as “Widow Swallow of Batley”.  There were no other Swallows living in Batley at the time, so I am confident I have the right person.  By the time she died, Hannah had 6 grandchildren.

I have quite a few DNA matches who are descendants of Sarah Swallow or Susannah Swallow, or both. I hope that these might help me to find more Swallow ancestors beyond my Richard Swallow.

*Prior to 1752, 25 March (Lady Day) was the start of the year in England, not 1 January.  So, some care is required to confirm the year in which dates in January, February and March occurred.

 

Notes on lineage: Me > Dad > Helen Akeroyd > Percy T Akeroyd > Frederick William Akeroyd > Sarah Talbot > Hannah Newsome > Hannah Blakeley > Sarah Swallow > Hannah Woodcock