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Joana (Hibbard) Swarton (1652 - abt. 1708)

Joana (Hannah) "Hanah, Anne, Johanna, Johana, Joanna" Swarton formerly Hibbard aka Hibbert, Heberd, Hebert, Ebal, Souart, Souard
Born in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married about 8 Jan 1671 in Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Descendants descendants
Died about at about age 56 in Beverly, Essex County, Province of Massachusetts Baymap
Profile last modified | Created 9 May 2011
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Contents

Biography

Joanna Hibbard or Joana Hibbard and various spellings Hibbert, Heberd, Hebert

Origin

Joana Hibbert was baptized on "9: 1m: 1651" (March 9, 1651/2) at Salem, Massachusetts, a daughter of Robert Hibbard and Joan (Unknown).[1][2][3][4]

Hannah Hibbard (or Hibbert) married John Swarton in Beverly Massachusetts on 8 January 1670 or 1671.[5]

Children of John and Hannah Swarton recorded in Beverly, Massachusetts, vital records or church records were:

  1. Mary, daughter of John, died in Beverly, Massachusetts, on 14 September 1674.[6]
  2. Samuell, son of John and Hanah, baptized 8 : 9 m : 1674 (i.e., 8 November 1674)[7]
  3. Mary, daughter of John and Hannah, baptized 17 : 8 m : 1675 (i.e., 17 October 1675)[7]
  4. John, son of John and Hannah, baptized 22 : 5 m  : 1677 (i.e., 22 July 1677)[7]
  5. Jasper, son of John and Hanah, baptized 14 June 1685 in the First Parish Church in Beverly.[7][8]

In 1687 John Swarton of Beverly received a grant of land at North Yarmouth on the coast of what is now the state of Maine. The family removed there.[9]

In May 1690 their fortified settlement on Casco Bay was attacked by a war party of as many as 400 to 500 French and Indians, consisting of some 50 Frenchmen from Canada, a similar number of Abenaki from the St. Francis Mission in Canada, and additional natives from Maine. The attack occurred on 16 May and the roughly 70 men in the settlement fought for several days before surrendering on 20 May. Many of the men, apparently including John Swarton, were killed, and the surviving settlers were taken captive and taken to Canada. These captives included Mrs. Hannah Swarton and her children Samuel, Mary, John, and Jasper Swarton.[10]

Johana Swarton was repatriated to New England in 1695. In that year, Matthew Cary undertook a voyage to Canada under the auspices of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with "Permission and Passport" from Count Frontenac, Governor of Canada, to fetch "English" persons held there as prisoners and return them to New England and New York. In exchange, some prisoners held by English authorities were being returned to Canada. The list of English captives redeemed from "Qubek" by Matthew Cary in October 1695 includes Johana Swarton of York and her son Jesp'r Swarton, boy of "Cascow." Her daughter, Mary Swarton, "gerl" of "Cascow," is on the list of "thos remaining Still in the hands of the french at Canada."[11][12] (Her son Samuel had died and her son John's fate is not recorded.) Apparently her daughter Mary Swarton had chosen to remain in Canada, where she had already accepted the Roman Catholic faith and had been re-baptized on 20 February 1695, named Marie Souart, daughter of the late Jean Souart and Anne Souart.[13]

After she and her son Jasper returned to New England in November 1695, Hannah Swarton gave an account of her captivity in the form of a narrative that was published in 1697 as an appendix to a book by Rev. Cotton Mather and was republished in expanded form in a 1702 book by Mather. (See Narrative of Hannah Swarton.) It is apparent that the text was extensively embellished by Mather, but many of the details of her experience appear to be authentic. In the narrative, she reported that she was a captive of Indians, whom she accompanied on "many weary journeys" in the wilds of Maine for nine months, until February 1690/1, when she was taken in by French residents of Quebec. Regarding her family, she said that she was told that her eldest son Samuel had been killed about two months after being taken captive, that she had not seen nor heard of her son John since the morning after they were taken captive, and that she had not seen her daughter Mary in the last two years of her captivity.[14]

In the registration of her daughter's marriage in Québec in 1697, she was identified as "Anne Ebal de Selam" ("Selam" being a phonetic spelling of Salem) and her deceased husband was identified as Jean Souard.[15][16]

Death

Date: 12 OCT 1708
Place: Beverly, Essex, Mass, New England
Age: 57

Research Notes

From The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature, by Kevin J. Hayes:.

"Cotton Mather's sermon, preached on May 6, 1697, and soon after published as Humiliations Follow'd With Deliverances, served as one source for Decennium. The printed sermon includes the stories of two captives, Hannah Swarton and Hannah Duston. Mather adds an appendix to the sermon proper concerning the events of Hannah Swarton's captivity, A Narrative of Hannah Swarton, Containing a Great Many Wonderful Passages, Relating to her Captivity and Deliverance. Swarton's narrative is a first-person account of her capture at Casco,(now Portland), Maine, in 1690. Unlike Mary Rowlandson's captivity, Swarton's lasted several years, and she spent most of it not with her Algonquian captors, but with French settlers in Canada who bought her from the natives..
Several features of the Swarton text make it a significant entry within the captivity canon. First, it is clearly a work of Mather's hand; as such, it shows him imitating his father's practice of shaping a woman's voice for his ministerial ends....

:The majority of the narrative is spent telling the story of how Swarton survives, and experiences conversion, while she serves in a French household. Notably, Swarton, a poorly educated frontier woman, engages in a debate with the French priests who attempt to convert her to Catholicism. In this matter, the Swarton narrative displays the hostilities between European powers, and their religious agents, because the story provides a stage for Mather's theological debate with French priests through his instrument, Swarton. Thus the Swarton text offers readers a fuller understanding of the specifically European contexts that drew various native peoples into conflicts and so dramatically shaped life on the New England frontiers. ".

From http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape9/PQDD_0023/NQ50177.pdf

She was taken with her four children, her husband (perhaps a French speaking Jersey Mander) was killed in the attack. The captives were divided at qorridgewock; she was placed with fellow captive John York. Her native mistress was a Catholic who had been raised in an English community at Blackpoint (Casco Bay). Sent by her mistress to beg for food, she boarded wiefly with a French family before returning to Quebec to request ransom.
She was counseled in this action by a French man and an English man, as well as by her hostess. She was cared for by the intendant's wife and then by the hospital. Although her native master and mistress tried to get her back, she was paid for by the intendant's wife and employed as a servant. She had regular conversations with Colonel Edwatd Tyng and merchant John Alden (see these names) and with fellow captive Margaret Stilson who was employed in the same house. She wrote (or more likely, dictated) a famous account of her captivity.

See also: Notre-Dame-de-Québec, Québec, QC map 9 Sep 1697

Sources

  1. Hebard, Harvey and Ralph D. Smyth, 1897 "Descendants of Robert Hebert of Salem and Beverley, Mass." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: AmericanAncestors.org (Vol 51: Pages 316-17).
  2. Perley, Sidney, 1924-28 The History of Salem, Massachusetts 3 Vols. Salem, MA: S. Perley, HathiTrust.org accessed 22 May 2016, Vol 1, Page 391; Vol 2, Page 15.
  3. Anderson, Robert Charles, 2005 Great Migration 1634-1635, I-L. AmericanAncestors.org. accessed 22 May 2016 (Vol IV, I-L, Pages 359-61 360).
  4. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). Salem, vol. 1, pae 427.
  5. New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 2, page 1477: SWARTON/?SWANTON, John & Hannah?/Joanna HIBBARD/ HIBBERT? (1651-); 8 Jan 1671, 1670; Beverly {Gen. Mag. 1:109; Cross Anc. 43; Hibbard 12; Paul Anc. 76; Tingley-Meyers 136; Dommerich Chart 35; Reg. 51:317; GDMNH 670; Farr Anc. 166; Beverly Ch. Rec.}
  6. Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). Beverly, Vol. 2, page 569
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). Beverly, Vol. 1, page 318
  8. Upham, Records of the First Church in Beverly, page 100: 14. June 1685. Jasper son of John Swarton by Hanah [Hibbert] his wife baptized.
  9. Coleman, page 204.
  10. Coleman, pages 196-199.
  11. Trask, William B. "Instructions to Matthew Cary about Bringing Prisoners from Canada; Information Obtained by Him in Quebec, and Lists of Prisoners Redeemed and Left in Canada -- 1695." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) Vol. 24 (1870), pages 286-291.
  12. An earlier (and apparently less accurate) publication of the names of captives ransomed by Matthew Cary and those "still in the hands of the French," at The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 6 (1852), page 87, named them as Josh Swarton, boy of Cascow; Johana Swarton of York; and Mary Swarten of Dover.
  13. Second baptism IGD
  14. Puritans Among the Indians: Accounts of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724, edited by Alden T. Vaughan, Edward W Clark. Harvard University Press, 2009. Accessed at Google Books. Pages 147-158.
  15. Paroisse Notre-Dame-de-Québec Image 630 pg.142. Accessed on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-27972-3262-2?cc=1321742&wc=MMY5-HSF:n233847121. Un autre filmage, 1 juil. 1679-1790. [Montréal, Québec : Université de Montréal, 196-?]. 13 bobines de microfilm ; 35 mm. (continued)
  16. In a footnote (on page 206 of her book), Coleman questioned whether this woman might have been Joanna, the daughter of Robert Abel and his wife Joanna of Weymouth, Massachusetts. Robert and Joanna Abell are not, however, recorded with any daughter named Joanna. Robert and Joanna did have granddaughters with this first name, but the male children of Robert and Joanna were not born in time for any of them to have had a daughter who could have married by 1671. Also, while Joanna Hibbard was born in Salem, which is the place of origin identified for Anne Ebal in the marriage record, the Abell family lived in Weymouth and Rehoboth, which are not even particularly near Salem.
  • Coleman, Emma Lewis. New England captives carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760, during the French and Indian wars. Portland, Maine: The Southworth Press, 1925. Excerpts accessed on Google Books at https://books.google.com/books?id=UoBIBs9HiW8C and on the rootsweb website of Bill Martin, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, at Bill Martin New England Captives rootsweb site archived at Wayback Machine Jul 6 2022
  • Upham, William Phineas, ed. Records of the First Church in Beverly, Massachusetts, 1667-1772. Essex Institute, 1905.

Acknowledgments

  • This person was created through the import of breesefam.ged on 09 May 2011.




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Comments: 8

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Hebert-1308 and Hibbard-100 do not represent the same person because: Not the same person
posted by Pat Songe
Ebal-2 and Hibbard-100 appear to represent the same person because: It is clear from the biography of Joanna Hibbard/Hibbert that she is the same woman who was identified in absentia as Anne Ebal in a record created in Quebec when her daughter married there. Ebal is credibly a Francophone's phonetic spelling of the name Hibbert. This woman was baptized as HIbbert or Hibbard, so that is her Last Name at Birth.
posted by Ellen Smith
Private message I received from Denis Givogue:

In reading old church documents, errors might be made i.e. the origin of a place “Salem” . The priest that wrote this document would have mention Salem Massachusetts. I’m the author of the translation Marie Magdeleine Soüard and it appears that the place was not Salem but rather parish near the city of Quebec . So please remove any of your document concerning the "Ebel".

posted by Ellen Smith
I do not agree. There is good documentation (not all added here yet) that this was a family of New Englanders who were captured and taken to Quebec. The mother (Joana/Hannah) and surviving son were ransomed and returned to New England, but the daughter Mary/Marie remained in Quebec. Note that the daughter who married was not a native of Quebec but was rebaptized as a Catholic and naturalized. Her mother was back in New England by then.

Contemporary documents (other than legal instruments) in New England typically name only the town and not also the current name of the specific colony.

I recognize that you disagree, but I ask you to allow these two profiles to remain as unmerged matches while research and documentation continue. Please do not mark them as rejected matches, which means they are clearly different people who should not be confused.

posted by Ellen Smith
edited by Ellen Smith
Ebal-2 and Hibbard-100 do not represent the same person because: There is no document that proves that Ebal is linked to Hibbard
posted by Denis Givogue
Ebal-2 and Hibbard-100 appear to represent the same person because: These are the same person. She was married in Massachusetts, and her maiden name was Hibbard. Although they look different at first, Ebal and Hibbard are phonetically similar, containing just two consonant sounds of B and R/L.

Her given name is variously recorded as Johanna, Joanna, Hannah, and Anna, which can be seen as variations of the same name. (It is common to see a person called both Hanna and Anna in different records; Johanna and Joanna are similarly interchangeable; and Hanna and Johanna also have a clear relationship.)

posted by Ellen Smith
Hibbard-100 and Hibbard-319 appear to represent the same person because: These profiles, along with Ebal-1 are the same person. Her name was changed when she was captured and sent to Quebec. Born Joanna Hibbard, married John Swarton. Name "Ebal" sounds like a rench pronunciation of Hibbard
posted by Marilyn Vanderville
Hibbard-100 and Ebal-1 appear to represent the same person because: These profiles are all the same person, along with Hibbard-319
posted by Marilyn Vanderville