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[edit] GovernanceSwyre was originally a parish in the Uggscombe Hundred, one of the hundreds or early subdivisions of the county of Dorset. From 1894 until 1974 it was part of the Bridport Rural District. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, all urban and rural districts across England were abolished and counties were reorganized into metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts. Swyre joined the non-metropolitan West Dorset District. Under another set of local government reforms adopted on 1 April 2019, West Dorset District was abolished, and the County of Dorset (excluding Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole) became a single unitary authority. The area is now administered by Dorset Council. [edit] Historic Descriptions[edit] 1831 - A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel LewisSWYRE, a parish in the hundred of UGGSCOMBE, Dorchester division of the county of DORSET, 5½ miles (S.E.) from Bridport, containing 210 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry of Dorset, and diocese of Bristol, rated in the king's books at £7. 0. 5., and in the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. The church was dedicated to the Holy Trinity in 1503: it has a lofty tower, and north and south porches. The parish is bounded on the south by the English channel, and the village is situated about one mile from the coast. A wake is annually kept on Trinity Monday. [edit] 1905 - The Dorset Coast, Charles George HarperSwyre is a remote and tiny place of a church, one inn, and half-a-dozen cottages. The men inhabitants are fishermen by night and dreamers by day, sitting and gazing vacantly upon the vacant sea all day long, with perhaps rare intervals of planting or digging potatoes in their gardens, or with much deliberation caulking their boats. The women meanwhile are industriously occupied in making nets, as may be seen through the open cottage doors by the passing stranger. Swyre stands high above the sea, but ensconced snugly under the yet higher point of Puncknowle Knob, rising so bold and black behind it, crowned with a ruined building that serves as a landmark to sailors going up and down channel. "Punnol" the natives style it and the village of Puncknowle, scarce more than a quarter of a mile away. In the little church of Swyre may yet be seen a few plain slips of monumental brasses to the memory of the Russell family, who resided here and at Kingston Russell, four miles inland, many centuries before, and -some little while after, their romantic rise to fame and fortune in 1502, through the courtly bearing of the then obscure young country squire, John Russell, who was kinsman to Sir Thomas Trenchard, of Wolveton, near Dorchester. The landing in that year of the Archduke of Austria, "Philip the Handsome," with his wife, at Weymouth, into whose bay their ships had been driven by stress of weather, has already been mentioned in these pages. Those distinguished visitors could speak Spanish, but not English, and Sir Thomas Trenchard, the nearest great man to Weymouth, who received them, had no Spanish; and so the party at Wolveton seemed like to become an absurd piece of pantomime, when old Sir Thomas bethought him of his relative, John Russell, who had traveled in Spain and had acquired the language. John Russell therefore repaired to Wolveton, and made himself not only an efficient interpreter, but so agreeable and courtly a gentleman, that when those distinguished foreigners left, to pay their respects in London to Henry the Seventh, he accompanied them, and was received at court as a "right goodlei gentleman, of greate parts, one fit to stand before princes, and not before meaner men." John Russell had such a " way with him " that he rose to high offices of State, was the negotiator of treaties and royal marriages, and under Henry the Eighth became one of the most fortunate among the grantees of church lands. Elevated to the peerage by successive steps, he was at last created Earl of Bedford, and thus, as the founder of his family, he died in 1545, the progenitor of the present Dukes of Bedford, who inherit their vast wealth in landed property directly from him. The land here and in Kingston Russell, whence his race sprang, is still in the possession of the family, as may be seen from the ducally coroneted "B" prominent on the cottages and farmsteads. Swyre, too, we should by no means forget, was the incumbency of Hutchins, author of the monumental "History of Dorsetshire." [edit] Dorset Research TipsOne of the many maps available on the website A Vision of Britain through Time is one from the Ordnance Survey Series of 1900 illustrating the parish boundaries of Dorset at the turn of the 20th century. This map blows up to show all parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. The internal boundaries on this map are the rural districts which are indicated in WeRelate's "See Also" box for the place concerned (unless it is an urban parish). The following websites have pages explaining their provisions in WeRelate's Repository Section. Some provide free online databases. Some are linked to Ancestry.
[edit] CensusesUK censuses are taken every ten years in the years ending in "1". There was no census in 1941. Details are not made available for 100 years after a census. A number of online databases (both paid and free) provide transcriptions of censuses up to 1911. Most of these provide information for an individual or a family. Many also provide images of the originals and thus allow browsing of a page or perhaps a whole enumeration district. The 1921 census was published in January 2022. It is available at FindMyPast with a charge additional to the usual subscrition to view the manuscript entries (there is no extra charge to view the index). The Dorset Online Parish Clerks provides a good number of 19th century census transcriptions as well as lists of baptisms, marriages and burials as recorded in the parish. The formal Home Office Numbers (those starting with HO used in 1841 and 1851), the Registrar General Numbers (starting with RG in later decades, and the Enumeration District Numbers are included. There is an illustrated article to introduce each parish. The 1841 census differed from the later ones in two different ways.
From 1851 onwards people were asked for the county and civil parish in which they were born whether in or out of the county, and ages were expressed exactly (in months for infants). [edit] On-line Transcriptions
[edit] Family History Library
[edit] Dorset History Centre Holdings
[edit] Other Resources[edit] Picture Gallery
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