William
Swain
Born in Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts
Ancestors 
Son of John Swain Jr.
and Experience (Folger) Swain
Brother of
John Swain III, Catherine (Swain) Wyer, Ruth (Swain) Upham, Eliakim Swain, Priscilla (Swain) Bunker, Hannah (Swain) Gardner, George Swain and Stephen Swain
Husband of
Jemima (Coffin) Swain
— married
29 Mar 1727 in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Descendants 
Father of
John Swain and William Swain
Died
at age 81
in Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts
Profile last modified
| Created 14 Apr 2010
This page has been accessed 1,602 times.
Biography
William Swain descends from John Swain, a Nantucket founder.
William Swain was born on October 2, 1688, in Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts[1].
William was mentioned on a memorial in Founders Burial Ground, Nantucket, Nantucket County, Massachusetts, United States with a death date of 1 Mar 1770.[2]
Slaves
Since 1739, William Swain owned as slaves the married couple Boston (no last name) and Maria (no last name) and the numerous children they produced. In 1751 William Swain declared his slave Boston “a free man and not a slave,” but children born to Boston and his wife Maria after 1751 were put on a schedule of manumission stretching into the 1770s (Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Vol. 5, p. 225; Book 6, p. 264).
Boston's youngest son, Prince Boston (b. 1750), was hired out by Swain in 1772 for a whaling voyage in the "Friendship" as a harpooner. These skills were good enough that the ship's captain, William Folger, paid Prince Boston directly. William Swain died while the ship was still out at sea, and his heirs sued Captain Folger for Prince Boston's wages, but lost the decision in the Nantucket Court of Common Pleas. Prince Boston subsequently petitioned for his freedom and became a free man.[3]
Sources
- Coffin, Louis, ed. The Coffin Family. (Published by Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Mass., 1962). Page 121
- ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 Volume II - Births (G-Z) (Boston, Mass. 1926)(Free e-book) (Records are also available at ma-vitalrecords.org) p. 574
- ↑
Memorial:
Find a Grave (has image)
Find A Grave: Memorial #124511525 (accessed 3 October 2022)
Memorial page for William Swain Sr. (2 Oct 1688-1 Mar 1770), citing Founders Burial Ground, Nantucket, Nantucket County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Tena Kennedy Painter (contributor 47059355). - ↑ Sea History, Autumn 2020, page 172 https://issuu.com/seahistory/docs/sh_172_autumn-2020/20
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with William by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA test-takers in his direct paternal line. Mitochondrial DNA test-takers in the direct maternal line:
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with William by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA test-takers in his direct paternal line. Mitochondrial DNA test-takers in the direct maternal line:
- Charlene Sue Chambers
:
Family Tree DNA mtDNA Test HVR1 and HVR2, haplogroup V, FTDNA kit #5675
-
~0.78%
Lovell (Stuber) Jarvis :
AncestryDNA, yourDNAportal LOV5c71c9c6, Ancestry member lsjarvis
-
~0.39%
Thelma (Widdicombe) Beech :
AncestryDNA, GEDmatch QQ7745491 [compare]
+
Family Tree DNA Family Finder, FTDNA kit #B789144
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
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Bob Tonsmeire
Swain-21 and Swain-22 do not represent the same person because: 40 year difference in birth years
posted
by Bob Tonsmeire
Rejected matches › William Swain (1730-abt.1772)
Featured National Park champion connections: William is 10 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 19 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 11 degrees from George Catlin, 10 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 21 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 11 degrees from George Grinnell, 23 degrees from Anton Kröller, 12 degrees from Stephen Mather, 19 degrees from Kara McKean, 14 degrees from John Muir, 15 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 24 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.