Edward Swidenbank: From countryside to coalfields
My ancestor, Edward Swidenbank (1824-82), started his working life aged 15 when around the year 1839, he left the family home in Grayrigg Westmorland, the second oldest son of Anthony and Mary Swidenbank.
Edward’s father Anthony was born in 1797 at Grayrigg, He was the son of John Swidenbank born 1771. Anthony married Mary Philipson in 1822 and they had 11 children. Anthony followed the family trade as a tailor and in common with such trades in rural communities, Anthony would travel from local farm to farm carrying out tailoring and general maintenance perhaps once or twice a year at each farm. Meanwhile, Mary ran a small grocery business from their home as well as bringing up the couple’s children.
Edward’s brothers and sisters largely carried on the family’s other long tradition in local farming, although some did go further afield. Most notable of Anthony’s brothers includes George, a much-acclaimed minister and organist in the Methodist Church whose ministry took him all over the UK and finally ended in Muswell Hill, London. His older brother John, whose surname was interestingly abbreviated to Swinbank when he took his family to America, crossed the great plains to become a well-known Nebraska cattleman.
Perhaps all of this influenced Anthony’s children as between 1839 to 1845 four of his sons – Edward, John, Thomas and Robert – moved to South Wales.
WELSH CONNECTIONS
In Edward’s case this may have been possible with the help of other Westmorland families already established in Wales, such as in Edward’s case with the Fothegill family of Tredegar where Edward became an apprentice grocer, and the Kirkhouse family of Merthyr Tydfil, where John worked
