"It was the best
of times and the worst of times," a quote from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, is a good description of William Swap's life. William Swap was my
third great-grandfather, and was born in
the Glasgow area of Scotland. The key to understanding these ups and downs in his
life is through his immigration information.
This research report is an analysis of these immigrations that will help
in understanding why William immigrated and the conditions surrounding his
immigrations.
Published
Histories of William Swap
A preliminary search was done for
previous research for William Swap and two online books were found. The first is The Hill Family History by Daniel B. Richards and it had a small chapter
on the Swapp family as William Swap Jr. married into the Hill family.[1]
The second book, Some
Progenitors and Descendants of William Swapp and Elizabeth Hill collected
and compiled by Adeline Swapp Johnson and Angus S. Swapp is a book of the
research the compilers have done on this family. It starts out with a history
on the Swapp family by one of the compilers, Angus S. Swapp. It is a research summary, but it is does not
contain many sources. He has some
interesting conclusions but there are no sources as to how he reached these
conclusions. It includes a transcription
of an obituary for William and copies of correspondence to various members of
the Massachusetts family. There is a
copy of the transcription for William's second marriage to Almira Leach from
the town of Thompson Connecticut's Registrar of Vital Statistics. There is a copy of William's death record
from the state of Massachusetts. This
book also includes a barely readable copy of William's naturalization records.[2]
Immigration
to Canada
According to Angus S. Swapp in Some Progenitors and Descendants
of William Swapp and Elizabeth Hill, William was born in 1795 in Busby, Renfrew,
Scotland to William and Janet Swap, weavers, and married Agnes Hill in 1817.[3] This was during the Napoleonic Wars and the
textile business was booming, but when the wars ended the textile business went
bust. Everyone become unemployed at the
same time including farmers and soldiers returning home from war. [4] The
Scotsman in Canada states that the class of people whose livelihood
depended upon production and manufacturing suffered the most. It was a desperate situation.[5] It
was in this climate that emigration societies emerged to relocate the poor
desperate textile workers to a new area and help relieve the conditions in
Glasgow.
 |
| Glasgow Bridge, Clyde River, Glasgow, Scotalnd |
A Google search located a book by Robert Lamond who
served as an agent and secretary for the committee who superintended the
Scottish Emigration Societies that immigrated from Scotland to Canada in 1820
and 1821. He had firsthand knowledge and
the most complete compilation of the records that were created with this
immigration. His papers were put together in the book, Narrative
of the Rise and Progress of Emigration from the Counties of Lanark &
Renfrew to the New Settlements in Upper Canada. The following examples show information found
in this book.
In 1820 the textile workers in the Glasgow area were
suffering economically and Scotland created a plan to send as many of the
textile workers as they could to homestead in Canada. Those who desired to go were gathered
together into emigration societies. There were so many who wanted to immigrate
that lots had to be drawn to determine who got to go. Ships were procured and inspected by
experienced seaman and carpenters. They had to be deemed safe and seaworthy and
that there were adequate provisions.
On June 3, 1820, a
circular was distributed with the intent to raise one pound for each person to
aid in their immigration with the understanding that those left behind would be
better off with less competition for jobs.
A letter to the editor of the Glasgow
Chronicle on June 14, 1820 asked that donations of Bibles and other books
be made for the emigrants to take with them.
Notices were given by circulars, ten days before they
were to embark, stating the day they needed to be in Greenock. They also stated
what they would have to pay the Clyde Shipping Company to carry them and their
luggage down the Clyde River to the Greenock port.
 |
| John Atkinson Grims Shipping on the Clyde River |
Rules to be followed while on the ship were included in
these documents. No cooking on ship
while at dock. The provisions had to
remain sealed until the day they sailed and the families had to sleep on board
the first night they arrived in Greenock.
For the 1821 group there were more rules listed. (It is not known if William had to follow
these same rules or if these rules were created to solve the problems that
William's group may have experienced since they were the first group to
emigrate.) These rules were that luggage
was restricted to body and bed clothing. No furniture unless emigrants were
able to pay transportation for these good from Quebec to their place of
settlement. Books and private libraries were allowed. Children had to be inoculated for small pox
or they couldn't go. Surgeons would be
there to inspect them and their hair had to be cut quite short, (possibly for
lice). No dogs. No smoking or lighted candles between decks.
In preparation for this immigration, girls were to be
taught how to knit woolen stockings and be able to cut out men and women's
clothes. The boys were to be taught how
to make small fishing nets and special tackle that would work in the small
rivers and lakes they would likely encounter.
They were given instructions on how to
live and survive in the Canadian wilderness with an emphasis on survival
skills in case they got lost. They
received plans on what the houses they were to build were to look like. A lot of preparation was done in order for
the society members to survive and flourish in their new land.[6] Great information about the preparations for
the trip to Canada.
Money was raised
from philanthropists, from even as far
away as England, to aid those who did
not have the means to immigrate. Land
was bought in Upper Canada and the land was divided up. One hundred acres per family with the
condition that they had to develop so much land in a certain amount of time. [7]
William's family traveled with the Bridgetown
Transatlantic Society. They sailed on
the Commerce leaving in June 1820 and
arrived in Canada in August of that same year.
William is listed as having a wife and one child with him.[8] This child is assumed to be John Swap but there
was no evidence found as to who this child was or what happened to him or her.[9]
Steve Swapp, a distant cousin, traveled to Canada to
research the Swaps and he sent me an email with the results of this research. He sent the following account (with no
source) of what it was like just for William and his family to reach their
final destination
The oceanic
sailing vessels came up the St. Lawrence River only as far as Québec City. From
there, everybody and everything had to be transferred to steamships to continue
upstream to Montréal. Emigrants arrived on the River Port on the east side of
the Old Port in Old Montréal across from the Bonsecours Market. Although
Montréal was the biggest city in Canada at the time, the Basilica of Notre Dame
was not yet built. The Lachine Canal that bypasses the Lachine Rapids was not
built until 1825, so these emigrants had to go overland the 15 miles from
Montréal to Lachine. There they boarded bateaux (flat boats that carried about
three families each) for the 5-day trip upriver (sometimes with no sleeping
quarters) 110 miles to Prescott. At certain points, everyone had to get out and
the men had to help pull the boats up the difficult parts of the river. They
debarked in Prescott, across the river from Ogdensburg, New York, where there
had been some cross-border raids during the War of 1812. The trail continued 12
miles along the riverbank to Brockville, where they turned inland for the final
50 miles overland to the new site of Lanark. Most of the road between Perth and
Lanark was only wide enough for a wagon, and sometimes it was necessary to
maneuver around trees. To get to the back of the settlement ... they had to
blaze their way through the forest. The travelers had to cross the Mississippi
River between Perth and Lanark using ferries. At Lanark, they found Col.
Marshall and his assistant living in some temporary shelter and handing out lot
assignments.[10]
The Scottish settlers, as they arrived in Lanark,
Ontario, Canada, were to draw lots as to
which 100 acres they would receive. The
first lot that William drew for was so hilly and rocky that he was allowed to draw again. William's
final lot was in township Lanark, Concession 4,
Lot 11 Rear East, and he received it September 6, 1820.[11]
According to
Steve Swapp's research in Canada, he
found the records kept by Presbyterian Rev.
William Bell. They indicated that during the trip from Montreal to Lanark,
William Jr., was born in Lachine (eleven miles from Montreal), September 11,1820,
on their journey across the land to get to the settlement of Lanark.[14]
William's responsibility was to clear his land and build
a home for his family before winter set in. Mr. C.M. Forbes in his article,
"History of Lanark Village," commented about the new
settlers and their settlement:
The fall of 1820
saw a number of houses erected to form a nucleus of the village but as much
haste had to be exercised constructing these, in order to make them endurably
comfortable for the winter, their exteriors did not present a pleasing type of
architecture. Moreover, a Glasgow weaver
is not the person one would engage to build a house. The niceties of carpentry are not part of his
education and it must not be wondered at if a door or window were set out of
plumb.[15]
The Scottish government gave these settlers a bonus for
three years. After these bonuses quit it
was hard times for these settlers. In
the above article, Mr. Forbes mentions that many left the settlement during
this time. Some returned to Scotland,
others (including William) left for the United States, and some went to Western
Ontario.[16]
 |
| Clearing land, Lanark, Ontario, Canada |
Immigration
to the United States
Not much is known about William's immigration to the
United States. Angus S. Swapp does
mention in his research paper that according to his naturalization papers
William immigrated to the U.S. through Stonington, Connecticut in 1825.
When William left for the United States he forfeited his
land because payments were required to pay for the land after five years. A man
by the name of John Taylor took over his land.
The next we hear about this land is in a petition in 1839 that William Jr. is requesting land because he
is of age and wants to take over his father's claim that had been
abandoned. His petition was denied. In this petition William Jr. mentions that his
father left to find work and never came
back for him. His mother died in March
1825 right after his father left.
William Jr. was then raised by neighbors.[17]
A search for records of William's immigration to
Connecticut was conducted on the website
stevemorse.org.[18] This website has a large collection of
immigration records. There were no
listings for any ports in Stonington, Connecticut.
FamilySerach's wiki was also searched in the Connecticut
Emigration and Immigration section.
Mysticseaport.org was a website that was suggested that may have records
concerning immigration into Connecticut.
The name of the ship is needed to get any kind of a list and since a
ship is not known it did not yield any results.[19]
In the book Some
Progenitors and Descendants of William Swapp and Elizabeth Hill there is a
pedigree chart for William and his second wife, Almira. From this pedigree chart a timeline for
William's life in the United States was created.[20]
|
1834
|
Marriage
to Almira Leach
|
Thompson,
Windham, Connecticut
|
|
1835
|
Birth
of son William Henry
|
Thompson,
Windham, Connecticut
|
|
1836
|
Birth
of son George
|
Thompson,
Windham, Connecticut
|
|
1842
|
Birth
of son Bradford
|
Providence, Rhode Island
|
|
1843
|
Birth
of son John Francis
|
Newburyport,
Essex, Massachusetts
|
|
1844
|
Birth
of daughter Sarah
|
Newburyport,
Essex, Massachusetts
|
A search for records was conducted in Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and Massachusetts. A plat map of Newburyport, Essex, Massachusetts was
located that indicated that William resided on Center Street.
A search on Google Earth was done to see if William's home was still standing. Comparing the plat map with Google Earth, it was determined that the below house was his.
 |
| William Swap's home on Center St., Newburyport, MA[22] |
Since William's last known place of residence was
Newburyport, Massachusetts a search was done in Genealogy Bank for an obituary
for William. Several obituaries were
found and this is a transcription of the most informative one and it was
printed in the Newburyport Herald on
February 19,1847. "DEATHS. In this town, on Sunday evening, Mr. William
Swap aged 52. Mr. S. was much respected by a large circle of
acquaintances. He came to this town from
Rhode Island about 8 years since, and has, during this period, held the office
of an overseer on the Bartlet Steam Mills Corporation."[23]
 |
| Bartlet Steam Mills next to church on Pleasant Street, Newburyport, MA |
Conclusion
By studying immigration records, I have learned that
William was born during a boom in the textile business because of the
Napoleonic Wars and by the time he was married it had gone bust. The textile workers were in such a desperate
situation that immigrating from the mild climate of Glasgow to the frigid land
of Canada was the best chance of getting out of poverty. William arrived in Canada with his wife and
one child. There is no more mention of
this child after his arrival and it is assumed he died. Many of the Scottish settlers thrived in
Canada but William did not. He had lost
a child, had a child born in the wilderness on his way across land to Lanark,
Canada and his wife died a few months
after he left to find work in the United States.[24]
Life in the United States seemed to suit William
more. He immigrated to the textile
regions of Connecticut, remarried, had another family, and died while he was
the overseer of a textile factory. A
prestigious position in the community. [25] All this was brought to light by studying
William's immigrations.
[1] Richards, Daniel
Brigham. "The History of Elizabeth Hill Swapp and Her Family." In Hill
Family History, Illustrated, 181-195. Salt Lake City, Utah: Magazine
Printing Company, 1927.
https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE3152124&from=fhd
[2] Johnson,
Adeline Swapp and Angus S. Swapp, Some Progenitors and Descendants of
William Swapp and Elizabeth Hill; online,
(https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE1904094&from=fhd):
n.p.
[3] Johnson
and Swapp, Some Progenitors and Descendants of William Swapp and Elizabeth
Hill.
[4] TheGlasgowStory.com
(http://www.theglasgowstory.com/story.php?id=TGSCC: accessed March 24, 2015)
[5]
Campbell, Wilfred. "The Lanark
Settlement." In The
Scotsman in Canada, p. 181. Vol. I. Toronto: Musson Book, 1911.
[6]
Lamond, Robert. A Narrative of the Rise &
Progress of Emigration, from the Counties of Lanark & Renfrew: To the New
Settlements in Upper Canada ..., Ottawa:
Canadian Heritage Publications, 1978. p. 1-112; digital, Internet Archive,
(https://archive.org/details/narrativeofrisep00lamo: accessed March 12, 2015).
[7] Campbell, Wilfred. "The Lanark Settlement." In The Scotsman in Canada, 186.
Vol. 1. Toronto: Musson Book, 1911.
[8] Swapp
to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28 October 2010
[9] "Settlers 1820-1822 Lanark
County ,Ontario Canada , " online
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~granniesgarden/Granny1/settler3.html:
accessed February 20, 2015) William Swap referenced.
[10] Swapp
to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28 October 2010
[11]
Swapp to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28 October 2010
[12]
Swap property, Lanark, Canada, photo privately held by Steve Swapp ( used by permission)
[13]
Lanark Canada, photo privately held by Steve Swapp ( used by permission)
[14] Swapp
to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28 October 2010
[15]
Forbes, C.M., "History of Lanark Village," Lanark County Genealogy Society,
(http://globalgenealogy.com/LCGS/: accessed February 20, 2015).
[16]
Forbes, C.M, "History of Lanark Village."
[17] Swapp to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28 October
2010.
[18]
stevemorse.org (http://www.stevemorse.org: accessed March 2, 2015)
[19]
Mystic Seaport, database, (http://library.mysticseaport.org/: accessed
March 4, 2015)
[20] Johnson
and Swapp, Some Progenitors and Descendants of William Swapp and Elizabeth
Hill.
[21] McIntyre, H. "1851 plat map of Newburyport,
Massachusetts." Digital image. (http://maps.bpl.org/id/12847: Accessed February
20, 2015)
[22] Center
Street, Newburyport, Massachusetts, William Swap's Home."
42°48'40.31"N and 70°52'04.85"W. Google Earth. Accessed February 20,
2015.
[23] "Deaths."
Newburyport Herald, February 19,
1847. Digital Image. GenealogyBank.com. (http://www.genealogybank.com.)
[24] Swapp to Brinkerhoff, e-mail, 28
October 2010.
[25] Johnson
and Swapp, Some Progenitors and Descendants of William Swapp and Elizabeth
Hill.
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