Francis Wickham Swanton

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Francis Wickham Swanton (1746 – 1823) was absentee rector of All Saints Stratton (also called Stratton St Michael) from 1779 until his death.

All Saints Stratton is one of the constituent parishes of the modern village of Long Stratton, Norfolk, and was in the gift of New College, Oxford, of which Swanton was a fellow for 13 years. Here he was a near contemporary of Parson James Woodforde (1740-1803), who mentions him 16 times in his celebrated Diary. He graduated BCL in 1773 and, in the manner of the time, served as Dean of Civil Law, Bursar (one of three) and Junior Poser (examiner for scholars to Winchester College and New College) before being elected to his living.

Like so many 18th century clerics, he did not live in his parish; instead he chose to reside in and near Winchester, Hampshire, where he had family connections. At various times, he served two local parishes (Headbourne Worthy and Kings Worthy) as a longterm curate, licensed and non-licensed, and for a short period was even curate of a third (Easton). He owned small estates at Over Wallop, Hampshire, and Denham, Buckinghamshire. In 1794 he was appointed a justice of the peace and served in that capacity until his death.

His father Francis Swanton (1712-1782), who had been a JP before him was brought up in The Close, Salisbury, Wiltshire, where he was part of the Salisbury Set, that included James Harris (1709-1780) and Henry Fielding (1707-1754), but he settled in Winchester and married again after the death of his first wife Susannah nee Wickham (ob 1760).

Swanton's son, Francis Swanton (1791-1871), was also a cleric; he was a minor canon of Winchester and at various times had livings at Piddletrenthide, Dorset, Barton Stacey, Hampshire, and St John's Winchester. He was one of the chaplains of Winchester College, of which, like his father and grandfather before him, he had been a scholar.

Source: Barry Shurlock, Francis Wickham Swanton - A magistrate curate of Worthy. Worthy History No. 10, 2005, 2-10