{{short description| Scottish Border clan}} {{About|the Scottish clan||Swinton (disambiguation)}} {{lead too short|date=November 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Use British English|date=July 2015}} {{Infobox clan | clan name = Clan Swinton | image badge = Clan member crest badge - Clan Swinton.svg | image badge size = 180px | image arms = File:Clan Swinton Arms.svg | image arms size = 180px | chiefs crest = A boar chained to a tree<ref name=nisbet>{{cite book |last=Nisbet |first=Alexander |title=A System of Heraldry |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Blackwood |date=1816 |volume=1 |page=315 |url=https://archive.org/details/systemofheraldry01nisbuoft/page/315}}</ref> | chiefs motto = ''J'espere'' ("I hope")<ref name=nisbet/> | region = Border | district = Berwickshire | chiefs name = Rolfe William Swinton of that Ilk<ref name="ScotClans">[http://www.scotclans.com/scottish-clans/clan-swinton/ Clan Swinton Profile]. scotclans.com. Retrieved 15 December 2013.</ref> | chiefs title = Chief of the Name and Arms of Swinton<ref>[http://www.burkes-peerage.net/familyhomepage.aspx?FID=0&FN=SWINTONOFTHATILK Burke’s Peerage]</ref> | seat = New York, United States<ref name="Coventry">Coventry, Martin (2008). ''Castles of the Clans: The Strongholds and Seats of 750 Scottish Families and Clans''. pp. 565–566. {{ISBN|978-1-899874-36-1}}.</ref> | historic seat = Swinton House, Berwickshire<ref name="Coventry"/> }}
'''Clan Swinton''' is a Scottish Border clan of Anglo-Saxon origin whose ancestral lands straddle the historic boundary between England and Scotland. It is among the oldest landed families in Britain, with its name said to derive from the Barony of Swinton in Berwickshire, granted to ''Eadulf Ros'' by King Malcolm III of Scotland around 1060.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton">Way, George and Squire, Romily. (1994). ''Collins Scottish Clan & Family Encyclopedia''. (Foreword by The Rt Hon. The Earl of Elgin KT, Convenor, The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs). pp. 334–335.</ref> It claims to be one of few families in Britain that can trace its patrilineal descent back to a pre-Norman era Anglo-Saxon ancestor (the other four being the Arden family, the Berkeley family, the Wentworth family, and the Grindlay family),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PsccAAAAMAAJ Sir Bernard Burke: ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry'': Vol.I: ''Wentworth of Vaucluse'': pp.95-97]</ref><ref name=":1222">{{cite book |last=Greenlee |first=Ralph Stebbins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=puDIDwAAQBAJ&q=genealogy+of+greenlee&pg=PA1 |title=Genealogy of the Greenlee Families in America, Scotland, Ireland and England. |publisher=Privately Printed |year=1908}}</ref> but the claim is disputed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wagner |first=Anthony Richard |url=http://archive.org/details/englishgenealogy0000wagn |title=English genealogy |date=1972 |publisher=Oxford, Clarendon Press |others= |isbn=978-0-19-822334-4 |pages=51-53}}</ref>
==History==
===Origins of the clan=== The Swinton chiefs are likely to have been of Anglo-Saxon origin, possibly descended from the prominent nobles of the kingdom of Northumbria.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> The kingdom of Northumberland straddled the modern day border between Scotland and England.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> According to tradition the name was acquired for their bravery in clearing the country of wild boar, with the family arms alluding to this legend.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> However, the name is more likely to have been of territorial origin: the village of Swinewood in the county of Berwickshire was granted by Edgar, King of Scotland, son of Malcolm III of Scotland to Coldingham Priory in 1098 following the Norman Conquest of England to the south .<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
In around 1136/7, Ernulf de Swinton received one of the first private charters recorded in Scotland which confirmed his property from David I of Scotland.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> This is one of two original charters of David kept in the cartulary of Durham, both to Ernulf, wherein he is told to "''hold his lands as freely as any of the king’s barons''", and importantly is termed ''Miles'' in both, making him the first recorded instance of a Scottish Knight.<ref>Anderson, James. (1705). ''An historical essay showing that the Crown of Scotland is imperial and independent''.</ref>
Of note, the charters reference Ernulf's father (Udard), grandfather (Liulf) and great-grandfather (Eadulf) as holding the land before him.<ref>Misc.Ch. 564. & 565, Cartulary of Durham, http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/dcd/dcdmisch.xml</ref> Eadulf is believed to have been granted the land by his cousin Malcolm III of Scotland in return for military support against Macbeth. This, according to 20th-century historian James Lees-Milne, would make Eadulf the first subject of Scotland whose land ownership could be proved, and means the Swinton Family would by this hypothesis be one of only five (see Arden family, Berkeley family, Grindlay family, Wentworth family) that could trace its unbroken land ownership and lineage to before the Norman Conquest, making it one of the oldest landed families in Britain.<ref>Burke, Sir Bernard. A Genealogical & Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, 18th Edition, Volume 1</ref><ref name=":122">{{cite book |last=Greenlee |first=Ralph Stebbins |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=puDIDwAAQBAJ&q=genealogy+of+greenlee&pg=PA1 |title=Genealogy of the Greenlee Families in America, Scotland, Ireland and England. |publisher=Privately Printed |year=1908}}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=PsccAAAAMAAJ Sir Bernard Burke: ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry'': Vol.I: ''Wentworth of Vaucluse'': pp.95-97]</ref>
The clan has held the Baronies of Swinton and Cranshaws. The latter is now separated from the clan. The family holds Feudal Barony status with numerous charters confirming this.<ref name="Electricscotland">[http://www.electricscotland.com/HISTORY/nation/swinton.htm The Scottish Nation – Swinton] electricscotland.com. Retrieved 17 March 2014.</ref>
===Wars of Scottish Independence=== thumb|upright|The Bookplate of Sir John Swinton, titled 'Baron of Swinton'<ref name="Heraldry">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSeEWjQCTIAC&q=bookplate+swinton&pg=PA506| title=A Complete Guide to Heraldry | isbn=978-1-60239-001-0 | author1=Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles | date=2007-05-01| publisher=Skyhorse Publishing }}</ref> In 1296 Henry de Swinton and his brother, William, priest of the church of Swinton, appear on the Ragman Rolls swearing fealty to Edward I of England.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> Henry's great-grandson was Sir John Swinton who was a distinguished soldier and statesman during the reigns of Robert II of Scotland and Robert III of Scotland.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> In 1388 he was a commander at the Battle of Otterburn where the Scots were victorious.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> His second wife was Isabel Douglas, Countess of Mar but they had no children.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> His third wife was Princess Margaret who bore him a son, Sir John Swinton, 15th of that Ilk.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
===France, Hundred Years War=== Sir John Swinton, 15th of that Ilk was a warrior who fought at the Battle of Baugé in France and is credited with killing the Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V of England.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> The incident appears in a poem by Sir Walter Scott, ''The Lay of the Last Minstrel''.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> However Swinton was later killed in 1424 at the Battle of Verneuil in France.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
===Modern history=== In 1567 Sir John Swinton was one of the Scottish barons who signed the bond of protection of the infant James VI of Scotland against the Earl of Bothwell on his marriage to the child's mother, Mary, Queen of Scots.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
In 1640 Sir Alexander Swinton, the 22nd chief, became sheriff of Berwickshire.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> He died in 1652 but left six sons and five daughters.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> His second son was another Alexander Swinton who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Scotland in 1688 and took the title Lord Mersington.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
The eldest son, John, was colonel for the regiment of Berwickshire, and in 1651 he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Worcester.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> His brother, Robert, died attempting to carry off Oliver Cromwell's standard.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> In 1655 John was appointed by the Lord Protector to the Council of State he established to assist in ruling Scotland.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> He was said to have been Cromwell's most trusted man in Scotland and his involvement with Cromwell led to his being tried for treason in 1661.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> He escaped execution but his estates were forfeited and he was imprisoned for six years.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> He was succeeded by his son, Alexander in 1679 but he died without issue.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
Alexander's brother, Sir John, succeeded as the twenty-fifth Laird of Swinton.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> After a successful career as a merchant in Holland he returned to Scotland in the wake of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 which brought William of Orange to the throne with his wife, Queen Mary.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
Swinton sat in both the Scottish Parliament and, later, in the British, at Westminster.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> He was appointed as the President of the Committee for Trade in Scotland.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> John Swinton, the twenty-seventh Laird, became a member of the Supreme Court in 1782, taking the title Lord Swinton.<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/>
The modern Swintons have produced some notable public figures. Captain George Swinton, descended from the Swintons of Kimmerghame, a cadet of the chiefly house, was Lord Lyon King of Arms, and Secretary to the Order of the Thistle from 1926 to 1929,<ref name="Clan.Encyclopedia.Swinton"/> Major-General Sir Ernest Dunlop Swinton was the author of ''The Defence of Duffer's Drift'' and was one of the driving forces behind early tank development and training in WWI. Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton is regarded by many as the father of modern television.<ref name=Electricscotland /> A prominent member of the family is the actress Tilda Swinton, who is a great-granddaughter of Captain George Swinton.
==Clan Chief== The chief of Clan Swinton is Rolfe William Swinton, 36th of that Ilk.<ref name="ScotClans"/> His son, Maxim Jasper Swinton, is in line to be the 37th of that Ilk.
==Clan Castles== *Swinton House in Swinton, Berwickshire is a classical mansion dating from 1800.<ref name="Coventry"/> However it stands on the site of a castle that was destroyed by fire in 1797.<ref name="Coventry"/> The lands had been held by the Swintons since the time of Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III of Scotland) in the eleventh century.<ref name="Coventry"/> The property had passed to the Clan Macnab by the nineteenth century.<ref name="Coventry"/> The chiefly Swintons now live in New York, USA.<ref name="Coventry"/> *Cranshaws Castle was held by the Swintons from 1400 to 1702.<ref name="Coventry"/> *Kimmerghame House and estate was bought by Archibald Swinton on his return from India serving under Clive, along with Manderston House (though this was later sold in favour of Kimmerghame) in the second half of the eighteenth century. A new house was commissioned by the family and built by David Bryce in 1851, although it was badly damaged by fire in 1938 and only partially rebuilt.<ref name="Coventry"/> Until 2018, the laird was Major-General Sir John Swinton, a former Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire and the father of the actress Tilda Swinton. *Little Swinton near Coldstream, site of a castle once held by the Swintons but destroyed by the English in 1482.<ref name="Coventry"/> *Mersington Tower near Greenlaw, site of a castle originally held by the Clan Kerr and then by the Swintons.<ref name="Coventry"/> It was burned by the English in 1545.<ref name="Coventry"/> Alexander Swinton, Lord Mersington was amongst those who led an attack on the Chapel Royal at Holyrood during a Protestant riot in 1688.<ref name="Coventry"/> *Stevenson near Peebles, site of a tower house originally held by the Swintons but passed by marriage to the Clan Sinclair in the seventeenth century.<ref name="Coventry"/>
==Notes and references== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070319211927/http://www.myclan.com/clans/Swinton_133/default.php My Clan – Swinton] * [http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/stoz/swinton2.htm Electric Scotland – Swinton]
{{Scottish clans}}
Category:Clan Swinton Swinton Category:Boars in heraldry Category:Scottish Lowlands