Thursday, July 01, 2010

Capt John SWAN


Capt John SWAN
Originally uploaded by midgefrazel
John SWAN (Robert2, Richard1) was born in Haverhill, Essex, MA on 1 August 1668 and married Susannah EASTMAN, widow of Thomas WOOD on his birthday 1 August 1699. He was 31 years old.


His birth and marriage are listed in the Vital Record of Massachusetts to 1850 for the town of Haverhill. There are two histories of Havehill, MA both written in the 1800s and available for download in PDF format at Google Books.
[The History of Haverhill, Massachusettts by Benjamin L. Mirick, and John Greenleaf Whittier 1839]

According to Judge RA Wheeler's book on the History of Stonington, (Swan family p. 609-617) John and Susannah came to Stonington in 1707 before the area in which he lived was called North Stonington. Prior to that, they lived in Haverhill. When they came to Stonington, they lived in a section that came to be known as Swan Town Hill. [I searched for that and discovered a Swantown Hill Rd. in North Stonington which is only a short distance to where Capt. John and Susanna are buried]

Capt. John SWAN died 1 May 1743 in Stonington and lies buried next to his wife in the Great Plain Cemetery in North Stonington. Their son, Timothy lineage leads into mine through Noyes Wheeler who married Priscilla STEWART, a daughter of Nathan and Barbary (Palmer) STEWART, my direct line 3rd great grandparents.

I have still not determined why he is called Capt. but his death record in the Barbour Index of Vital Records list him with this title and gravestone says so too. His gravestone is marked with a flag but not in a flag holder

Wheeler's book states that his father and grandfather fought in King Phillip's War.

"In Memory of Capt. John Swan died May ye 1st 1743 in ye  75th year of his age"

Stay tuned for more on Capt. John and his wife Susanna's adventures with the Indians....

5 comments:

Kathy said...

Midge,
I am related to John Swan through his sister Eliabeth. She is my 7th great-grandmother! You seem to have quite a few lines in common with my husband but I think that this might be the first I have noticed where we are connected.
Kathy

Midge Frazel said...

This line of Swan doesn't connect to me directly but ends up into my Stewart family some of who are buried in this same cemetery.

Midge

Sunny said...

Captain:
According to an application with The Sons of the American Revolution, he was an ensign with Capt. Thomas Wheeler's 4th Company, 8th Regiment of the Connecticut Militia.
On Ancestry.com his is listed on U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, Roll box 115, as "John Swan, Captain, Continental Troops"
I attempted to find the page....but there are 671 of them.
He is my 7th great grandfather on my fathers paternal side.
Sunny

Julie said...

He and Suzanne Swan are my nine times direct grandparents. John died before the revolution. Suzanne was famous for fighting off Indians rushing into their cabin. I believe he was an English colony of American soldier. God rest their souls.

Andrew Swan said...

A direct descendant of John on the Swan side. I smiled when I came across this.