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The Swinton family is so
ancient that nobody really knows how far back it goes. According to T.H.
Bridgewater’s monograph on A.A. Campbell Swinton (inventor of the
modern form of television), the Swintons go back to Edulf, Lord of
Bamburgh, who acknowledged Alfred the Great as his overlord in 886. More
recent ancestors include Earl Waltheof, living in 968, and several other
Anglo-Saxon noblemen, one of whom, Eadulf Rus, may have spent some time
at the Viking Court of Kiev. They are also connected with Gospatrick,
Earl of Dunbar, from whose steward the Homes are descended, and with
several other Berwickshire families whose coats of arms include one or
more wild boars (Swinton or "Swinetoune" means "the place
of the boars"). In any event there is continuous documentary
evidence mentioning various members of the family from the time of St.
David 1(1124-1153) and this documentary evidence itself refers to
forebears with Germanic rather than Anglo-Norman names living before the
Norman Conquest. At that time —before the emergence of surnames —
some of them held land in what is now England and others in Scotland,
and the "English" members of the family presumably moved
across the Tweed when the Conqueror devastated Yorkshire, Durham and
Northumberland in "The Harrying of the North".
Though long-established
and well-documented the Swintons never came to hold as much land or as
much power as some other Border families. Nevertheless they have
included many distinguished men. Among them was Sir John Swinton, one of
the few Scots recorded as having fought on the English side in the
Hundred Years’ War. He made an interesting agreement with John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, which included the following among other
terms:
a) Swinton was not to
be required to fight against his own country.
b) He was to be given double pay, and free transport for himself, his
horses and his men.
c) The Duke was to replace any of his horses that were lost or taken.
In return, he was to have one-third share in the ransom of Swinton’s
future prisoners and in his other "profits of war".
This unusual
"contract" shows that Sir John must already have acquired a
solid reputation as a fighter, perhaps in Prussia or Spain or even both,
some time before 1371, when it was made.
Sir John fully justified
the trust placed in him, through his conduct in a series of campaigns
and particularly at Noyon (between Amiens and Paris) when he fought his
way single-handed into the town. About this time, he married a young
wife, Joan, who died without children and whose jewels were stolen by
Alice Perrers, Edward III’s mistress (who also stole the King’s
rings from his fingers as he lay dying). He appealed to the King for
their return, but they could not be traced, and it is not altogether
surprising that he returned to Scotland soon after. He was one of the
Scottish leaders at Otterburn (1388) and married twice more, his second
wife being Margaret, Countess of Mar, while his third wife was Margaret
Stewart, granddaughter (or some say daughter) of Robert II. He was
killed at Homildon Hill (often confused with Halidon Hill, where the
first of the Turnbulls died), leading no more than a hundred Scots
against the massed ranks of the English archers. The Scots were drawn up
in schiltroms, a "hedgehog" formation also used by the Ancient
Greeks (who called it the phalanx) and by the Swiss, more or less
invulnerable to ordinary infantry but highly vulnerable to archers.
Swinton urged them not to "stand like deer to be shot, instead of
indulging your ancient courage, and meeting your enemies hand to hand.
Let those who will descend with me, that we may gain victory, or fall
like men". He was of course right; the only way to cope with the
archers was to meet them head-on and accept the necessary casualties in
order to break them — for they would have been helpless at close
quarters against the massive Scottish spears — but few of the Scots
were personally prepared to be among the "necessary
casualties". Among those few was a young man, Adam Gordon, who had
a long-standing feud with him. Gordon fell on his knees before Swinton,
begging for his forgiveness and for the honour of knighthood before they
went down to die together. Sir John knighted him on the spot and they
led their small body of men down to their inevitable but heroic end.
His son, also Sir John
Swinton, fought on the French side in the Hundred Years’ War. At the
battle of Baugé (1421) he disabled the Duke of Clarence, brother of
Henry V and commander of the English army:
Clarence was then killed,
some say by the Earl of Buchan, who led the Scots, though others give
the honour to Alexander MacCausland. Sir John was himself killed, along
with Buchan, at the battle of Verneuil a few years later; the English
commander on this occasion being another of Henry V’s brothers, the
Duke of Bedford, Verneuil was, however, the last major English victory;
the tide turned decisively in favour of France at Orleans a few years
later (again with many Scots involved) and the English who, together
with their Burgundian allies had at one time held two-thirds of the
country, then lost everything except Calais in the remaining 24 years of
the war.
In the seventeenth
century, one of the most remarkable members of the family was John
Swinton of Swinton, who was originally on the King’s side in the Civil
War, but went over to Cromwell in December 1650, possibly after having
been captured by English soldiers. He served as a member of the Council
of State for Scotland and as a Commissioner for Justice. After the
Restoration he was tried for treason; his life was spared but he was
imprisoned for some years, and his lands were forfeited to the King and
granted to the Earl (later Duke) of Lauderdale. They were restored to
his younger son in 1690. This son, Sir John Swinton, was a merchant in
London and Holland a founder of the Bank of Scotland as well as a laird
and a member of the Scottish Parliament before the Union and of the
first UK Parliament thereafter.
Many of the family have
been soldiers since the Union as in the Middle Ages. Among them should
be noted Captain Archibald Swinton of the East India Company’s
"private army", who served with great distinction under Clive;
Major-General Sir Ernest Swinton, who played an important part in the
early development of the tank, and the present head of the Swintons of
Kimmerghame, Major-General Sir John Swinton. GOC London and commander of
the Household Division in 1976-79, Others have been lawyers and
clergymen (Randall Davidson, Archbishop of Canterbury for many years,
was a Swinton on his mother’s side) and one, A.A.C. Swinton, was an
outstanding electrical engineer who conceived, though he did not
actually construct, the television set and transmitter as we know them
today. |
