Biography of John SWINNERTON
[Ref. Q.83]
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Biography of John SWINNERTON
[Ref. Q.83]
| Ancestors | |
Profile | |
Photos | |
Index for SWINNERTON |
John Swinnerton was born on 21 November 1862 at 10 court, Covert Place in Sumner Street, Liverpool, the youngest of the ten children of George and Sarah Swinnerton. He was baptised at St Peter's Church of England church on Christmas day in 1862.
By the time the census was taken in 1871, the family were living at 40 Wilbraham Street in the Scotland ward of Liverpool. John's father died that year. In 1881 they were at 39 Brasenose Road in Kirkdale, Liverpool, and John was employed as a marine engineer. He was on board the Inman Line ship SS City of Paris when it took the Blue Riband at a speed of 19.95 knots for the crossing to USA in 1889.
John's mother passed away in 1890 but he was still living at at Brasenose Road in Kirkdale when he passed his examination for his Certificate of Competency as a First Class Engineer on 16 November 1891. He was issued with the certificate on 17 November by order of the Board of Trade. He does not appear in the census of 1891 so he was probably at sea.
John had met Rose Helen Thexton and they had a child, William Leslie, born at 28 Whittier Street in the Toxteth Prk area of Liverpool on 14 September 1899. The birth was registered by Rosie as if she and John were already married. They are recorded in the census of 1901 as husband and wife with son William living at 30 Whittier Street.
John married Rose on 14 April 1901 in Liverpool parish church. She was 12 years his junior. Her father and sister Elizabeth were the witnesses. The certificate gave her name as Rose Thexton Blair for reasons which are explained in her biography. Although the couple were living at 30 Whittier Street, the marriage certificate shows John as living in Bloom Street and Rose in Grove Street, declared for the sake of proprietry no doubt.
John also worked on the Canadian Pacific Railroad Shipping Line, and the picture at the top of this page show him in the uniform of that company. It is believed that he was on the Empress of Britain from the time of it's maiden voyage to Montréal in 1906.
Daughter Sarah was born at 30 Whittier Street on 16 June that year. When daughter Eva was born on 30 November 1903, they were living at 51 Lowther Street in Liverpool. When daughter Emmie was born on 6 February 1905, they were back in Whittier Street, but at number 58 and at number 54 when daughter Edith Lilian was born on 31 October 1906.
The family had moved to 101 Ponsonby Street in Toxteth Park by the time daughter Doris was born on 30 July 1908, and this became the home in which the family grew up. Son John was born there on 13 November 1911, Frank Rodney on 31 December 1914, Harold Norman on 6 May 1916 and finally Eric Gordon on 18 May 1920. The house was a terraced 'two up and two down' so it ws cramped for a family of this size. Some of the children slept 'top and tail' in a double bed. and John being away at sea much of the time probably enabled the younger ones to sleep with their mother.
John was at home with his family when the census was taken in 1921. As a marine engineer, he spent most of his life at sea and at the time of this census he was employed working on passenger liners, by Alfred Holt & Co., ship owners in Birkenhead. That meant that he was from away home a good deal but by all accounts, Rosie was very capable of managing the household herself. Their eldest son Bill took his father's place whilst he was away and kept the discipline in the house. It is said that he was pretty ruthless with his younger siblings and would administer a tanning every week, boys and girls alike, on the basis that they each must have done something wrong during the week.
Son Eric only survived until the following year, being just two years of age when he passed away.
When the 1939 register was compiled, John and Rose were living in Neston with their daughter Sarah and her family. John was listed as being incapacitated. In their latter years, they were living with their son John and his family at 44 Greyhound Farm Road in the Speke area of Liverpool.
Although 44 Greyhound Farm Road was still John's address, he was at 126 Smithdown Road, Liverpool when he died at on 20 September 1943 having suffered prostate cancer. His son Norman was present at the death. John was buried at Smithdown Road cemetery. Rosie survived her husband for another eight years.