Person:John Swallow (9)

John Swallow was baptised on 20th March 1699 at Kimpton in Hertfordshire, son of a tailor called John Swallow and his wife Sarah.

On 15th November 1722, aged 23, he married a girl called Elizabeth Green. She was from the neighbouring parish of Wheathampstead, but for some reason they married at North Mymms, which is over eight miles from either Wheathampstead or Kimpton.

After their marriage, John and Elizabeth returned to Wheathampstead, where their daughter Sarah was baptised less than three months after their marriage. Sarah was followed by a son William in 1724, then two daughters, Elizabeth and Martha, who both died as babies. In 1728, young William aged 4, thus John and Elizabeth were left with only one surviving child from four births. They went on to have a further two children, John and Mary, who survived infancy, giving them three children who lived.

John followed his father's trade, becoming a tailor. His son John followed him into this trade as well. Back in Kimpton, John's father died in 1742, and his mother died in 1752.

John lived to see at least ten grandchildren born in his lifetime, with his first known grandchild born in 1752.

John died at the age of 68, and was buried at Wheathampstead on 23rd August 1767. He and Elizabeth had been married for nearly 45 years. She outlived him by less than a year.

1. ↑ Church of England. Kimpton Parish Registers.

   1698: John son of John and Sarah Swallow Bapt[ised] March the 20th [i.e. 20 Mar 1698/9]

   This baptism has been linked to the John Swallow who married Elizabeth Green on the basis that the adult John was a tailor, which was also the trade of the father of the John baptised in 1699. It is also in a plausible time and place (the family appears to have alternated between the neighbouring parishes of Kimpton and Wheathampstead) and there is no sign of the John baptised in 1699 having died young or married anyone else.

2. ↑ Church of England. Wheathampstead Parish Registers. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   Burials in 1767
   John Swallow a Taylor August 23