Biography of George SWINNERTON
[Ref. P.80]
| Ancestors |  |
Profile | |
Index for SWINNERTON |
Biography of George SWINNERTON
[Ref. P.80]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Index for SWINNERTON |
George Swinnerton was born in 1817 and baptised there on 14 May that year. He was the fifth of the seven children of George and Margaret Swinnerton of High Offley in Staffordshire.
Electoral registers for the perion between 1832 and 1837 show George as a farmer in Shebdon. He appears in the census of 1841 as a publican living with his younger sister Sarah in Shebdon. The following year, he was a Victualler and living in Stoke-upon-Trent when he married Sarah Rowley at St.Peter's parish church on 18 April. There is a story in the family that Sarah's family name was Riley, but it turned out that it was just the Liverpuddlian accent that made it sound like that.
Son Frederick was born in Shebdon on 24 June 1843, daughter Mary in Stoke upon Trent in 1845, sons Thomas George in Liverpool on 25 March 1849 and William on 30 March 1851. By the time of the census of 1851, George was a Blacksmith and he and Sarah were living at 32 Walnut Street in Liverpool with their four children, however, William did not survive beyond infancy.
The family increased with the birth of Sarah Ann in 1854, James around 1857 and Francis on 5 November 1859. In the census of 1861, the description of George's occupation is not clear except that he was an engineer. The family were living in Sumner Street in the Scotland ward of Liverpool. Son John was born around 1963.
The 1871 census shows the family still in Scotland ward of Liverpool but now living at 40 Wilbraham Street. Sons Thomas and James and daughter Sarah were still living with their parents at this time. George's occupation is given as Engine Fitter at Sugar House, of which there were a dozen or so in Liverpool at that time.
Two months after the census was taken, George tragically died on 6 June 1871 having accidentally fallen down a well.The death certificate stated the cause of death as being due to an accidental fall in a well consequent on a chain giving way. An inquest held on 7 June 1871 and was reported the following day in the Liverpool Mercury that George, an engine driver, had died at Mr.Leitch's sugar refinery in Ellenborough Road. The coroner put the blame for the accident on George himself. The report in the Liverpool Daily Post described George's death quite differently as having been struck accidentally by a pipe in the execution of his duty. It would seem that the reporter had got his notes muddled.
According to the burial register, George was interred in Grave number 755 in section 2 of Liverpool cemetery.
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