Charles Swainson of Preston

Charles Swainson was a second-generation Tory cotton lord in Preston, son of a calico manufacturer.{{cite book |last1=Dutton |first1=H. I. |last2=King |first2=J. E. |title=Ten Per Cent and No Surrender: The Preston Strike, 1853-1854 |date=1981 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-23620-1 |page=79 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uxg9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA79 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Society |first1=Chetham |title=Remains historical and literary connected with the Palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester published by the Chetham Society |date=1861 |pages=170–171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mrUFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA170 |language=en}} Based on monumental inscriptions in the church of St Michael's on Wyre, he was one of at least 10 children of John Swainson (1765/6–1800) and his wife Susannah Inman, (1749/50–1722), daughter of Charles Inman (1725–1767) of Lancaster and Jamaica, a slave-trader and his first wife Susannah Casson.{{cite book |title=Remains, Historical and Literary, Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester |date=1891 |publisher=Chetham Society |pages=69–71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y07kAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA69 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Charles Inman, 1725–1767, Legacies of British Slavery |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644185 |website=www.ucl.ac.uk}} His paternal grandparents were the Rev. Christopher Swainson (died 1775) who had Lancashire livings at Goosnargh, Staveley and Copp, and his wife Elizabeth Lister (died 1788).{{alox2|title=Swainson, Christopher (1)}} His elder brother Christopher Swainson (died 1854) was an Oxford graduate and cleric.{{alox2|title=Swainson, Christopher (2)}}

His brother John Swainson (died 1867) owned mills in Leeming Street that passed to Edward Swainson, with businesses in Ireland. He moved away from Preston around 1840, and resided at Halton Hall. He married into the Tatham family of Hipping Hall.{{cite news |title=Death of Mr. John Swainson |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001667/18671116/097/0005 |work=Preston Herald |date=16 November 1867|page=5}}

His sister Mary Swainson (1778/9–1819) married William Birley of Kirkham. He went into partnership with Charles Swainson at the Preston mill.{{cite book |last1=Atticus |title=Preston Town Council: Or, Portraits of Local Legislators. Together with a List of All the Mayors, Aldermen, and Councillors, Elected for the Borough of Preston, Between 1835 and 1870 |date=1870 |publisher=Printed at the Chronicle Office |page=43 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ft4yAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA43 |language=en}}

Charles Swainson became head of Swainson, Birley & Co.{{cite book |last1=Hewitson |first1=Anthony |title=Our Country Churches & Chapels: antiquarian, historical, ecclesiastical, and critical sketches |date=1872 |publisher=A. Hewitson |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NA4HAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA22 |language=en}} It ran a large mill in the Fishwick area of Preston, known locally as the "Big Factory".{{cite book |last1=Hardwick |first1=Charles |title=History of the Borough of Preston and Its Environs: In the County of Lancaster |date=1857 |publisher=Worthington & Company |page=425 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4EfAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA425 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Preston 1820-1832, History of Parliament Online |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/constituencies/preston |website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org}}

Swainson had a residence at Cooper Hill in Walton-le-Dale, on the outskirts of Preston. Between 1809 and 1825 Swainson and his various partners owned the Bannister Hall textile printing works, in Walton-le-Dale;{{cite web |title=Piece ca. 1818 Bannister Hall |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/221914 |website=www.metmuseum.org}} one of the original partners was Joseph Baxendale, a cousin who left and made a fortune with Pickfords.{{cite ODNB|id=37164|first=T. D.|last=Baxendale|title=Baxendale, Joseph (1785–1872)}} From 1825 to 1856 the printing works was known as Charles Swainson & Co.{{cite web |last1=Museum |first1=Victoria and Albert |title=Furnishing Fabric, V&A Explore The Collections |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78878/furnishing-fabric-bannister-hall/ |website=Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections |language=en}}

In 1845 Swainson was chairman of the Preston and Longridge Railway.{{cite news |title=Preston and Longridge Railway Company |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000099/18451101/004/0002 |work=Preston Chronicle |date=1 November 1845|page=2}}

File:Bannister Hall - Woodblock Printed Chintz Fragment - 1928.209 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif

Swainson & Dennys of 97 New Bond Street was the London outlet of the calico business. In the catalogue of the Great Exhibition 1851 they offered "Chintzes for dining rooms, libraries, &c."{{cite book |title=Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue |date=1851 |publisher=Spicer Brothers |page=554 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nRJL_uSt0MC&pg=PA554 |language=en}}

Swainson declined to stand for parliament in the Preston constituency in 1820. He spoke in 1830 at a borough meeting against the East India Company’s monopoly, and declined to stand for parliament, once more, for the 1831 general election. In that election, the sitting radical MP Henry Hunt held his Preston seat. Some months later, in November 1831, the mill of Swainson, Birley & Co. was attacked by some of Hunt's supporters. Part of the counting house was destroyed, and the crowd went on to threaten the gaol, where they faced cannon. Swainson argued subsequently that cavalry should be stationed in Preston to protect property.{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Brian |title=The Middlemost and the Milltowns: Bourgeois Culture and Politics in Early Industrial England |date=1 November 2002 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-8026-1 |page=416 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vqbJLHsbIMC&pg=PA416 |language=en}}

After the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act 1835, Charles Swainson was elected an alderman of Preston, and John Swainson a councillor.{{cite book |last1=Abram |first1=William Alexander |title=Memorials of the Preston Guilds :illustrating the manner in which the Guild Merchant has been held in the Borough from the earliest on record until the Last Guild in 1862 |date=1882 |publisher=George Toulmin |location=Preston |page=135 |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialsofprest00pres/page/135/mode/1up}} In 1841, Swainson accepted a nomination to stand for Preston in the general election, with the sitting Tory MP Robert Townley Parker. Both were defeated, Swainson coming bottom of the poll.{{cite book |last1=Dobson |first1=William |title=History of the Parliamentary Representation of Preston: During the Last Hundred Years |date=1856 |publisher=Dobson |pages=70–71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kk5TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA70 |language=en}}

Swainson was a patron of the penal reformer John Clay.{{cite book |last1=Aspland |first1=Robert |title=The Christian reformer; or, Unitarian magazine and review [ed. by R. Aspland]. |date=1862 |pages=542–543 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aCoEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA542 |language=en}} There was a family link: Clay's sister Jane married in 1817 Charles Inman (1797–1858), who was Swainson's cousin.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000488/18170927/006/0003 |work=Lancaster Gazette |date=27 September 1817|page=3}}{{cite web |title=Charles Inman of Spital Old Hall, 15th Nov 1791 - 11th Nov 1858, Legacies of British Slavery |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146662669 |website=www.ucl.ac.uk}} At age 21 and out of work, Clay came on a visit to Cooper Hill, around 1817. He became a long-term guest. Swainson persuaded Clay to study for the priesthood, and he was tutored by Robert Harris of Preston Grammar School. After his father's death in 1821, Clay was offered a position as assistant chaplain at the Preston House of Correction. His ordination as deacon at Kendal a few weeks later by George Henry Law, an advocate of graduate clerics, was facilitated by influential support. Clay was ordained priest in 1822.

The pioneer temperance advocate Joseph Livesey was brought up in Walton-le-Dale, moving to Preston to set up a business in 1817 when he had reached the age of majority.{{cite ODNB|id=16796|first=Brian|last=Harrison|title=Livesey, Joseph (1794–1884)}} Swainson supported some of Livesey's initial temperance meetings of the early 1830s, taking the chair.{{cite book |last1=Livesey |first1=Joseph |title=The Life and Teachings of Joseph Livesey, Comprising His Autobiography |date=1885 |publisher=National Temperance League's Depot |pages=103 and 105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAEAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA103 |language=en}} Clay too supported temperance. He stopped short of advocating teetotalism and pledges to it: he saw a need for a more integrated reforming strategy.{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Brian |title=The Middlemost and the Milltowns: Bourgeois Culture and Politics in Early Industrial England |date=1 November 2002 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-8026-1 |pages=268–269 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3vqbJLHsbIMC&pg=PA268 |language=en}}

Charles Swainson married Catherine Warbreck née Bradshaw.{{cite book |last1=Denny |first1=Henry Lyttelton Lyster |title=Memorials of an ancient house : a history of the family of Lister or Lyster |date=1913 |publisher=printed for the author by Ballantyne, Hanson |location=Edinburgh |page=246 |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialsofancie00denn/page/246/mode/1up}}{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Bernard |title=A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1863 |publisher=Harrison |page=1462 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni4BAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1462 |language=en}} Their children included:

• Charles Swainson the younger, of Frenchwood House, father of Charles William Swainson.{{cite news |title=Death of O. L. Swainson Esq. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001667/18660616/078/0011 |work=Preston Herald |date=16 June 1866|page=11}}
• John Swainson, second son (died 1853) was a cleric, and married Mary Stables, daughter of Walter William Stables of Crosland Hall, Meltham, a Huddersfield merchant.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000336/18390504/039/0005 |work=Leeds Times |date=4 May 1839|page=5}}
• Catherine, eldest daughter, married in 1831 J. Clayton of Ulster Place, London.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000488/18311224/011/0002 |work=Lancaster Gazette |date=24 December 1831|page=2}}
• Susanna, married in 1829 Ralph Ward Jackson.{{cite ODNB|id=37591|first=Philip|last=Waller|title=Jackson, Ralph Ward 1806–1880)}}
• Frances Jane, youngest daughter, married in 1837 the Rev. Henry Walter M'Grath.{{cite news |title=Marriages |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000151/18370614/023/0003 |work=Blackburn Standard |date=14 June 1837|page=3}}

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Category:1780 births

Category:1866 deaths

Category:British businesspeople