The Swenys/Sweeneys/Swinneys

The Search for Elizabeth Sweny

Introduction

Frances (Robinson) Sweny, the first wife of Edmund Sweny [III], died on May 7, 1718 in Charles Parish, York Co., Va. York County records in the 1720s indicated that the first name of Edmund Sweny's second wife was Elizabeth. Determining her last name at birth has been challenging. The purpose of this section is to lay out the process undertaken to determine who her parents were and whether she was the biological mother of Merritt Sweny. We're fortunate that so many of the York County records necessary to help us make these determinations still exist.

Elizabeth Sweny's and Anthony Robinson's Last Wills

There were clues in Elizabeth Sweny's 1729 last will suggesting her maiden name was Robinson and, like Edmund's first wife Frances, was the daughter of Anthony and Mary (Starkey) Robinson. However, a close reading of Anthony Robinson's 1727 last will suggests she was not his daughter. And, there is the matter of a record in Charles Parish which indicated that Elizabeth, daughter of Anthony Robinson, died on Sept. 15, 1712. We were inclined to believe this tipped the balance in favor of Elizabeth Sweny not being the daughter of Anthony Robinson. This led us to look for evidence of her parentage in other documents including other wills recorded in York County after the death of Frances Sweny. First, here is the evidence presented in the Anthony Robinson and Elizabeth Sweny wills; they are important because they provide a few other clues about the Sweny and Robinson families during this period.

• According to her Charles Parish death record Elizabeth Sweny died on May 29, 1729. In her 1729 last will, signed on May 17, 1729 and recorded on June 16, 1729, she named John Robinson as her brother and executor of her will. She also named Mary Calthorpe, Anthony Robinson and John Robinson as her niece and nephews and Merrit Sweeny as her son. This suggested that Elizabeth Sweny was the sister of John Robinson and therefore the daughter of Anthony and Mary (Starkey) Robinson. John Robinson had sons named Anthony and John and a daughter named Mary who appears to have married Elimelech Calthorpe.
  
  
• Anthony Robinson's 1727 last will named sons, John, Peter, William and Anthony, granddaughters Martha Sweny, Mary Robinson (daughter of John), Mary Robinson (daughter of Anthony) and Diana Robinson, and grandsons Merritt Sweny, William Parsons, Starkey Robinson, Anthony Robinson and John Robinson. He also named his married daughter Anne Parsons and her husband William Parsons, but he did not name Elizabeth or Edmund Sweny in the provisions of his will. This suggested Elizabeth was not his daughter. Edmund Sweny was named in a corollary document as one of several individuals who secured a bond for William Robinson's guardianship of John Doswell.

While Anthony Robinson was selective in naming grandchildren in his will, he seems to have mentioned all of his children except the ones who had died. This is pretty strong evidence that Elizabeth had died as well.

As a footnote to the comparison of Anthony Robinson's and Elizabeth Sweeny's last wills, they seem to contain a clue as to the date of Mary Robinson's marriage to Elimelech Calthorpe. Mary appears as Mary Robinson when Anthony wrote his will on Nov. 9, 1727. She appears as Mary Calthorpe in the will Elizabeth wrote on May 17, 1729. It should be noted that neither Anthony Robinson nor Elizabeth Sweny named Daniel Sweny in their last wills. We'll discuss that in more detail after taking a look at other wills below. It's also curious that Elizabeth did not name Martha Sweny in her will, yet Anthony Robinson named her in his. The fact that Elizabeth Sweny named Merritt Sweny in her will, but not Martha or Daniel, could suggest that Merritt was her natural child.

Following the Trail of Evidence

If Elizabeth Sweny was not the daughter of Anthony Robinson, then the fact that she called John Robinson her brother and three of his children her nieces and nephews suggests that she had a close relationship with the Robinson family before her marriage to Edmund Sweny. This led us to explore other possibilities in the close-knit community of plantation owners in York County. Anthony Robinson's 1727 last will had a provision that read, "I give unto my son John Robinson in compliance to a Will made by Mr. Armiger Wade of a gift of fourty acres joining to that part where I now live...." Taking a look at the 1708 last will of Armiger Wade, he effectively gave forty acres "to my sonn-in-law John Robinson provided his father Mr. Anthony Robinson gives him the same compliment of land adjacent." A few provisions below this one, Armiger Wade wrote, "I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth Hayward one young horse...." The next provision said, "I give and bequeath unto my sonn-in-law Henry Hayward the eight pound which he at this time is indebted to me...." Looking at Charles Parish records for Henry Hayward, we see that he died on Nov. 18, 1720, around the time Edmund Sweny married Elizabeth. Was there a connection? We found Henry Hayward's 1721 last will and, in addition to his wife Elizabeth, we saw many familiar names from the planter class of York County. While the date the will was written was cut off, it was recorded in York County on Jan. 16, 1721 (1720 in the pre-Gregorian calendar). Since Armiger Wade's last will called Elizabeth Hayward his daughter and Henry Hayward his son-in-law, we found this to be convincing evidence that her name at birth was Elizabeth Wade. Searching Charles Parish records, we found that Elizabeth Wade, daughter of Armager by Elizabeth was born on June 3, 1679. Thinking this might be our Elizabeth Sweny, the second wife of Edmund Sweny [III], we searched other legal records after this one for confirmation. We found a September 1723 court case in York County that read in part, "In the action of dower between Edmund Sweny and Elizabeth his wife who was the wife of Henry Hayward, deceased, demand of Francis Hayward and John Hayward defendants, for her part of a certain water grist mill situated in the Parish of Charles, County of York...."

The Matter of Merritt Sweny's Parentage

We do not know exactly when Edmund Sweny married Elizabeth (Wade) Hayward except that the marriage occurred prior to September 1723. Given that a period of mourning was likely observed, the marriage may have taken place anywhere from late-1721 to early 1723. One lingering question is whether Merritt Sweny was her son. In her 1729 last will she said he was her son, but only gave him a half share of one slave and his father's sword and belt. She did not name Martha or Daniel Sweny in her will. We suspect Daniel Sweny died before 1720, but we have found no evidence of his date of death. William Tabb's last will, written on August 24, 1721, described Martha Sweney as "my brother Edmund Sweney's child." He did not mention any other children of Edmund Sweny. This would seem to, again, suggest that Daniel Sweny had died and that Merritt Sweny had not yet been born. However, given what we know at this time, we lean towards the commonly accepted birth year of 1714 for Merritt Sweny. The evidence for a later birth year is mixed; however, two factors push us to accept that he was born to Frances (Robinson) Sweny. The first is that Elizabeth (Wade) (Hayward) Sweny would have been 42 or 43 years old at the time of his birth if Merritt was her child by Edmund. The second factor is that there is no indication of a guardianship being set up for Merritt Sweny after the death of his parents in 1728 and 1729. The only court record relating to a child/stepchild of Edmund and Elizabeth Sweny around the time of their deaths is the dismissal of a suit between Martha Sweny, plaintiff, and Elizabeth Sweny, Administrator and defendant, on June 17, 1728. This was a month after Elizabeth Sweny appeared in court to make a sworn statement that Edmund Sweny died without a will. Martha Sweny would have been 16 years old at that time. The filing of the original suit, so far not found, may be an indication as to why Martha Sweny was not mentioned in Elizabeth Sweny's last will in May 1729.

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