The Swaines of Thorp and the Baitson assaults

The Swaine Family was one of the great families of the Manor of Idle - in so far as numbers can make a family great - and its most prolific period was the period between 1575 and 1660. During that period sixty-four Swaines made their debut on the Idle stage, while in the next sixty years only sixteen appeared. Of course, some of them played very brief parts. Their entrances and exits were in fact so near together that one might truly say of them "they bloomed, exhaled and went to Heaven." But that is what often happens in large families, even in the best of them. And the Swaines were apparently not quite of the best, at least in their earlier years in Idle; but of that later. The Swaines were really one of the oldest Thorpe families, but it was at Thackley End that they became most respectable.

From the record of the Survey of the Manor carried out in 1584 we learn that George Swaine of Thorp had leased certain closes in Thorp and a messuage, from Sir Ingram Clifford as early as 1553. It was a lease for forty-one years, and among the closes included were Milne Holme, Hanging Royd, Broad Ing, Carter Royd, the Haysteads, two "Saltases" and a part of the barren ground called the Idlawe. The Saltases was no doubt the Faltis Close, which had been divided into two.

Now this estate should have been held by George Swaine when the 1584 Survey was made, but at the end of the record we are told: "The sayd George Swaine had committed a haynous murder within the sayd Lordship of late, and had thereupon fled the country leaving hys wife and his sonnes wife his house, orchard, garden and Idlawe Close only, of all ye premises above sayd." The rents of his farmlands and other property he had were mortgaged to different people for different periods, in preparation for his sudden departure. Isabel Dawson of the Hall, John Viccars, Edward Swaine and Edward Waterhouse all had leases from George and thereby provided the wings for the culprit's flight.

This heinous crime no doubt sent a thrill of horror through the whole Idle-Thorpe community, and brought shame and confusion of face to the Swaine family in particular. This seems evident from a survey of the local parish registers, where after the record of the baptism of John the son of George Swaine on 22nd December 1577, not another "George" appears for at least a hundred and fifty years. This was certainly remarkable at a time when it was the general custom to name children after their elders, and particularly after their grandparents.

The 1591/92 feud

The shame attached to the crime did not however subdue the evil in the heart of another member of the Swaine family. This was Robert, son of Edward Swaine, the murderer's brother. For some reason or other, he had conceived a violent antipathy towards one Edward Cage, a grocer and citizen of London who had obtained a lease of part of the West Wood, which then covered the hill side from Thackley to beyond Windhill Crag. This man was the Cage already previously mentioned, from whose widow and sons Robert Clarkson afterwards purchased one part of the Manor of Idle.

At that time charcoal was mainly used where now we use coal for heating and cooking purposes, and a "collier" was a man engaged in making charcoal from the neighbouring woods. Edward Cage's lease gave him leave to "cut wood and burn it for charcoal" in the West Wood of Idle "near to Shiplay." For this work Cage had employed several workmen under the direction of one Randall Wright, and by this means a pile of charcoal worth £200 had been accumulated.

Robert Swaine also engaged in the burning of charcoal, which he used to hawk in loads and Cage or his manager had sometimes bought a load or two from him; but at times - presumably when they did not buy - his language and conduct became so objectionable that at last he was ordered to keep away from Cage's place altogether. This made him so angry that he came home to Thorp to tell his own garbled story of insult to a few friends and neighbours. As a result he got a number of backers, among whom were his neighbours Tristram Lillye and George Waterhouse of Idle - married men, like himself, with young families. Accompanied by these he set out to wreak his vengeance on Cage's charcoal company in the West Wood, near Windhill. There, we are told, "they proceeded in most violent and riotous manner" to pull down the fence enclosing Cage's land and stock of charcoal. This done, they drove out Cage's deputy, Randall Wright, and his band of colliers and took forcible possession of Cage's land and goods. Not content with this, Swaine fetched several horse loads of "coles" straight from the pits where they had been burned and not yet properly quenched. These he tipped in such close proximity to Cage's stack that it caught fire and it would have been entirely destroyed but for the help of passers by who succeeded in putting it out and saving riot only the greater part of the stack, but also the near-by buildings.

Thus foiled, Swaine next hired a bravado, John Patrimo, a man with several aliases and lately released from Stafford goal, who was to make it his sole object to do harm to Cage and his men and in particular to assault Randall Wright. Fortunately, however, Wright got wind of the plot and complained to a magistrate, with the result that Patrimo fled, for fear of another term of imprisonment. Thus Swaine's second plan was frustrated. But he still persisted in his malicious intentions, and he sought the advice and help of a certain Robert Baildon of Baildon and others, including John Patrimos' brother David, all as wicked and malicious as Robert Swaine himself. These agreed to "dampnefy" Cage or his men. We can only guess the meaning of the word "dampnefy" from what followed. Cage sent a man named William Watts, from London, to reinforce his deputy, Randall Wright. One day, after a spell of cutting and felling underwoods and bushes which his employer had bought from Christopher Baitson of Windhill, Watts was making his way along the common footpath towards his lodgings when he was met by Swaine, armed, quite contrary to the law, with a large "pyked staffe," with which he started to belabour the defenceless Watts and prevented him from passing either one way or the other.

Suspecting that David Patrimo and others were lying in ambush near by, Watts realised his perilous position; but just then he recalled the story he had heard, which was common report, that an uncle of Swaine had once killed a man in the same wood. At this he called out "Wouldst thou murder me as thine uncle murdered Stillingfleet?" Swaine was taken aback at hearing this, and turned pale; seeing which, Watts took to his heels, and thus escaped further danger.

Seven or eight days later Swaine, Patrimo and several other disorderly fellows, armed with stones, axes and other weapons, drove Cage's workmen our of the wood, cut down some of his trees and marked them as their own. Nor was that the end of Swaine's villainies; for not long afterwards, he and Robert Baildon together with other gangsters blocked the common highway through the wood, so that Cage's carts could not pass; and they forcibly resisted all attempts to get the carts through, so that they were obliged to pass over other men's grounds.

On another occasion, on 13 January 1592, at Baildon's instigation, Swaine and twenty-nine others of his species from Idle and Baildon armed themselves with staves, swords, daggers, and other weapons, offensive and defensive and, under the pretence of making a search for seminary priests (RC priests who had been educated in foreign seminaries or colleges), set out for the homes of Christopher and William Baitson of Windhill (or Wrose). They took along with them George Walker, the Idle constable, and William Hudson the constable of Baildon, and when they got to the Baitsons' houses, somewhere near midnight, they threatened to break down the doors unless these were immediately opened from within.

Hearing that Swaine was the leader of the rabble outside, and knowing of his utterly evil reputation, the Baitsons opened their doors, whereupon they were immediately seized by Swaine and his followers and carried off to Idle. Here they were kept in custody along with another victim of Swaine's evil designs, a Baildon collier named Murrowes, until the next day. Then they were all taken before Sir John Savile, the district Justice, who was at that time living at Howley Hall, the palatial house he had built near Batley [at the end of the 1580s]. There, strange to relate, the wind seems to have gone out of the sails of Swaine's craft; and to the great astonishment of his victims, instead of charging them with treason or some other equally terrible crime, he only accused them of having "cut down, coled, and carried awaie certen of his woade and timber." To this charge the three prisoners replied that they were only servants acting under the direction of Cage and his officers, and that Swaine had lodged a Bill of Complaint against them before the Counsel of the North meeting at York.

Sir John thereupon severely reproved Swaine and dismissed the three prisoners, "to the great griefe of Swaine to be thus disappointed of his wicked practizes, and a stomakinge and cause of harte burninge to the said Robert Baildon to see all their fraudulent and myschevous devises so overthrowne." Yet even this did not put an end to the evil practices of these partners in crime, and at last, stung into action by further attacks on himself, his men and his business, Cage lodged a Bill of Complaint against Swaine in the Court of Star Chamber. This Court, consisting of a committee of the Privy Council, was originally an extraordinary Court, which sat to try cases in which the Crown was especially interested. It was established as a regular criminal court by Henry VII. It exercised jurisdiction in cases of offences against the public welfare, which could not be settled in other courts, and its meetings were held in the Star Chamber of the old House of Lords, so called because the ceiling was covered with gilded stars.

In this place Robert Swaine of Idle Thorpe was proclaimed as "a man well knowne, contencious, troblesome and whollie geven to movinge of strief and debate, who for his lewd behaviour was comonlie repeuted and called by the name of Robyn Hoode." This is surely an insult to the memory of Yorkshire's boyhood hero, for Robin Hood was neither vicious nor malicious, nor was he given to "lewd behaviour," and when he robbed the rich, he befriended the poor with the fruits of his labours.

Now I have no means of knowing what was the result of the Star Chamber proceedings in the case of Cage v. Swaine, for the records are missing. But we know that Cage's charges, supported by the evidence of Randall Wright, Watts, Murrowes and the Baitson brothers, were met by counter-charges from Swaine, Robert Baildon and a few primed supporters, and that the case was not settled for over two years. We also know that we have here a case from Shakespeare's own day which proves the truth of his saying that "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." And a pity it is, though none the less true, that generally speaking the evil that men do makes more interesting reading than the good. But that is no doubt because genuine goodness is much more common than flagrant evil, so that it seldom calls for remark and almost never for headlines.

Now, apart from George the Murderer and Robert the Outlaw, the Swaines were no doubt as respectable a family as any other of comparable size in Idle Manor. They married and were given in marriage, reared families and buried some, laboured in business and employed labourers in their business. Nor were they an entirely irreligious crowd. In one of the periodic appropriations of pews in Calverley Church, which took place in 1606, William Swaine of Thorp and William Pollard of Idle shared a: pew or seat, on the right facing the chancel, between the pillars and the wall. And even Robert himself had a seat, which he shared with Richard Welfitt of Idle, on the opposite side of the Church. Maybe the outlaw had repented of his sins and decided to be respectable. Maybe he had also begun to realise the responsibility involved in bringing up his family of six sons and one daughter. It seems evident, however, that not all his sons could forget their father's past, for only one of them, William, named a son after his own father.

From Robert's six sons - Edward, William, Rauphe, Samuel, Robert and John - are descended nearly all the later Swaines of Idle, Thorpe and Thackley End. William and Samuel were among those who had seats in Calverley Church allotted to them in 1628 and their names were still in the list in 1662, as was also Benjamin Swaine, William's son. Rauphe (or Ralph), Robert and William were in the list of seat holders in Idle Chapel for 1634. In the year 1676-7 Samuel Swaine and James Booth of Windhill were the two Church Wardens chosen by Vicar Sandall to represent Idle, and five years later Benjamin Swaine and George Birch of Windhill were chosen for the like positions.

In business the Swaines were pioneers in the tanning industry, which they first established in Thorpe where the family was firmly rooted early in the sixteenth century. Edward, Thomas, George and Richard Swaine all appear on a Lay Subsidy Roll for Idle in 1545. At that time tanning was one of the chief industries of this village community, though the earliest record of those engaged in it is dated 1586, when William and John Swaine and James Stable are recorded as tanners. A few years later, John Atkinson, George Nelson and Edward Goodall were engaged in the industry, all before 1620.

For a hundred years or more the Swaines seem to have concentrated in the Thorp, where William and John were joined, or succeeded, by Robert, Joseph, Edward, Benjamin and Ralph, with other Williams and Johns. Most if not all of them were engaged in the tanning business; if not they were farmers. About the middle of the seventeenth century, however, and perhaps even earlier, they branched out and some of them started a tannery at Thackley. End. This was the West End of Idle, and was said to be in Idle Park. Ralph, William, Benjamin and John Swaine were engaged in the Thackley End business. In the field behind the old cottages were the tan pits, and there is little doubt that the great barn and other old buildings now belonging to Smithfield Farm were built by the Swaines for the tannery, at least half a century before the Smiths from Gargrave settled in Idle Park.

Over the doors of two houses, of which only dismal fragments now remain, are date stones, one with the initials B.S. and 1687, the other with J.S. and 1695. These houses were built by Benjamin and John Swaine respectively, both of whom were Quakers.

Benjamin did not enjoy his new house for long, but exchanged it for one of the "many mansions" on 23rd January 1693. His was apparently the second burial in the Westfield Burial Ground. John Swaine survived him for nearly forty years and then he too was buried in the Westfield ground, on 28th February 1731. Benjamin and John Swaine were evidently men of wealth, for when a levy was made for war purposes in 1692, the two of them jointly paid 26/-, which was considerably more than was paid by the other Swaines.

About the middle of the eighteenth century a William Swayne settled at Greengates. His wife was Sarah, daughter of John Powell. They were married on 20th April, 1652. Other Swaines followed William to Greengates, and one of these, another William, built Haigh Hall. This William married Hannah Rhodes of Eccleshill on 5th March, 1710, at Bradford Old Church. The initials of William and Hannah Swaine, with the year, are still to be seen on the date stone over the door of the ^-Hall. Three children were born to them there, but the stay of all three was only brief. Sarah, born in January 1711, died in May 1714; William, born in November 1713, died in December 1717; and Samuel, born in June 1716, died in August 1720. In face of such sorrows can one wonder that the Swaines did not stay more than one generation at Haigh Hall?

From 1680 onwards there seems to have been a general slump in Swaine stock. In the forty years from 1680 to 1720, there were almost twice as many deaths as births in the family, while in the next eighty years there were almost three times as many, that is, thirty deaths to eleven births. Such a process continued leads only to extinction; and so it was that the Swaines disappeared from Thackley End where even their name has now long been forgotten.

Quoted in ‘Idlethorp’ by Wright Watson, Bank House Media, 2009