Swinton

Two articles describing the history of Simprim parish (not Swinton) may be found in past transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club. Both are written by R.C. Wood. The first article, "Simprim in the Merse" appears in Volume 43 (part 1 - 1984) pages 17-24. The second (follow-up) article, "Simprim in the Merse: Part II - The Session Records 1699 to 1761" was printed in Volume 44 (part 3 - 1989) pages 142-146.

The Coldstream & District Local History Society website includes inscriptions from Swinton Kirkyard and Simprim Kirkyard.

Graham and Emma Maxwell have transcribed and indexed the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census returns for this parish.

The parish church (Church of Scotland) has registers dating from 1700. Old Parish Registers (before 1855) are held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in local libraries and in LDS Family History Centres around the world. Later parish registers (after 1855) are often held in the National Records of Scotland as are any records of non-conformist churches in the area (often unfilmed and unindexed, and only available there).

The Church of Scotland records for this parish held at the National Records of Scotland (NRS reference CH2/346) include 1 leaf of baptisms in the years 1668-1674.

The parish registers available worldwide on microfilm include kirk session minutes and accounts for Swinton for the years 1706-1719 (in part 755/1) and accounts for Swinton and Simprim for the years 1776-1800. More information on kirk sessions and their records can be found in the Church Records section of the Berwickshire page.

The presence of non-conformist churches in the parish is revealed by Rutherfurd's Southern Counties Register and Directory which lists the following in the year 1866:

• Free Church

There may have been other non-conformist churches at different times.

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For further details of this see the National Records of Scotland website.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Swinton to another place.

Ordnance Survey maps covering Swinton and Simprim include:

• Landranger 74: Kelso & surrounding area - scale 1:50000, or 1.25inch:1mile, or 2cm:1km
• Pathfinder 436: Duns & Longformacus - scale 1:25000, or 2.5inch:1mile, or 4cm:1km

The National Records of Scotland holds the following as part of its collection of maps and plans:

• circa 1780: Plan of part of road between Swinton and River Tweed. Scale 1:5800. Size 21x15cm. Grid (map) reference NT8545. NRS reference RHP.645
• 1884: Plan of estate of Swinton, including names of adjacent lands and owners. Scale 1:4800. Size 85x57cm. Grid (map) reference NT8147. NRS reference RHP.3352

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NT839465 (Lat/Lon: 55.711309, -2.257649), Swinton which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Here are some figures showing the population through time (for Swinton+Simprim):

• 1755 - 494
• 1791 - 898
• 1801 - 875
• 1811 - 866
• 1821 - 919
• 1831 - 971
• 1861 - 964

There was a noticable increase in population between Dr Webster's survey of 1755 and the survey undertaken by the parish minister in 1791 as part of Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland. Rev. George Cupples explained the increase in population as follows:

"The increase is to be ascribed entirely to Lord Swinton's judicious attention to improve and enlarge his village of Swinton, partly by perpetual feus, and partly by leases of 999 years ... it is inconceivable how many of the necessaries of house-keeping, and how many conveniencies can be now found here, which 25 years ago the inhabitants had to send many miles for."

From the Statistical Account of Scotland compiled by Sir John Sinclair