Flower Swift London 1675-1750
One more mystery surrounding the Flower Swift line fell by the wayside this week with the publication at ancestry of some new English marriage and burial records.
Flower Swift of Maryland was given by his son (by Elizabeth Wilson) (David) Flower Swift as being the son of Flower Swift of England.The only father and son pair the records have ever provided that match this identification are for Flower Swift chr. Feb 23 1701 at St Katherine's by the Tower London England son of Flower Swift (II) and Margarett.
Little else was known about Flower Swift II except that he was alive in 1713 when his father left him a nominal inheritance and thatit was rumoured that Flower Swift III (of Maryland) may have died on a sea voyage back to England to settle his own inheritance (whatever that was - such journeys were not unknown in the q8th century).
The records however now show the following -
Flower Swift II died in London in the first week of October 1750 and was buried at St Katherine's by the Tower.All events of his life seem centered around this area (St Catherines, Holy Trinity Minories, St Dunstans in Stepney) so he probably lived between there and Aldgate.
He married Margaret Knowler at Holy Trinity Minories in 1730.Holy Trinity Minories was a popular place for people to marry when they did not intend to obtain a license from the Bishop.Dissenters often did this (and there may have been tax advantages) but while there is no evidence that Flower Swift was a dissenter (and certainly his surviving son Flower of Maryland was not) Margarett may have been and the marriage may have been the reason for the short shrift Flower II got in his father's will (or then again it may merely mean that Flower I had already given him an inter vivos gift equivalent to his inheritance - Flower I apparently always married in the church - probabky 4 times if records are accurate.Only his first and 4th wives survived very long, tragically)
Margaret Knowler is hard to trace.There are few Knowlers in London though ther is a John Knowler who married at Holy Trinity Minories in 1692 to a Margaret Dutton.
The only Knowler I can find who might be a father to her is Francis Knowler who married at St Katherine by the Tower to Vashti Westwood (whose family is equally hard to trace in London).No other trace of them than their marriage.
Margaret died and was interred in St Katherine's in August 1736.Here again unlikely to have been a testimentary motivation for Flower III to go home to London.
The Knowlers appear to originate in the part of Kent that is nearest London and from there around the coast and down as far as Canterbury.The name etymologically means bell ringer and suggests something to do with Canterbury originally I suspect.
So the last remaining mysteries of the Flower Swift line in England are really - how did they tie in with the Flowers in norton St Philip - and- Where did they come from originally - were they from that area or from the bigh center of Swifts in the North?
All for now.
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Re: Flower Swift London 1675-1750
Grady Loy 2/13/12