REMINISCENCES OF OLD SHEFFIELD

CHAPTER XII. MR. WILLIAM SWIFT.

Scene.-A room in Leonard's house. The chair usually occupied by Mr.
Twiss stands its customary corner-empty. The at other friends are in
their accustomed places.

Period.-The 16th of December, 1874.

LEONARD:

The sequel of to-day unsolders all 
The goodliest fellowship of old-world lore 
Whereof this town holds record."

LEIGHTON (pointing to the empty chair) 
There sat the shadow, fear'd of man, 
Who broke our fair companionship 
And spread his mantle dark and cold."

EVERARD: 
"Tis common; all that live must die, 
Passing through nature to eternity."

LEIGHTON: 
" Ay, Sir, it is common."

EVERARD: Therefore, instead of further lamentations on our friend's
departure, let us take up the moral of his life.. and hope that we may
be as honestly mourned.

The man we celebrate must find a tomb, And we that worship him, ignoble
graves." Who can tell the story ?

LEONARD: Mr. William, Swift died on Thursday evening, December 10, 1874,
at Ash Cottage, near Staveley, where a few weeks before he retired from
his usual residence in St. James' street, for the benefit of change of
air. He had all but completed his 56th year; having been born on the
13th December, in 1818. " Mr. Swift was a remarkable man, whose
avocation in life as assistant distributor of stamps conveys no idea of
the esteem in which he was held, or the extent of his erudition as a
genealogist and topographer. Born in a modest cottage near Chesterfield,
of humble but respectable parents, he succeeded by his own perseverance
in amassing a store of information in his own special field of study not
equalled by any other collector; and it is not too much to say that no
man knew so much of the History of the Hundred of Scarsdale, or of South
Yorkshire, as he did. For many generations the Swifts have lived in
Staveley and the neighbourhood, but probably none of them ever knew so
much of themselves and their progenitors as did the late William Swift;
who, happily, is not the last of his race, but, by his marriage with
another Swift, unites, in the persons of his two sons, two branches of a
genealogical tree that sprung from the common root of John Swift, of
Inkersall, in Staveley parish, six generations ago.

" After passing through the ordinary curriculum of a country school, he
began the active duties of life as a clerk in a lawyer's office in
Chesterfield, but at the age of 18 removed to Sheffield to enter the
service of the late Mr. Brown, of St. James's street, and for 38 years
he has remained in the same occupation, though not under the same
employer. Mr. Brown was distributor of stamps as well as a solicitor,
and, finding how valuable a servant he had in Mr. Swift, he gave him the
entire management of his stamp business; and some years ago, when Mr.
Brown was succeeded as stamp distributor by Major Fawkes, Mr. Swift
retained his old place, and in the office at the corner of St. James's
row, he might be seen until the end of September, when his health broke
down.

" It was not his social position that gave our late friend a name and a
place in the annals of Sheffield ; nor was it even the kindly good
nature with which he answered all inquiries ; nor the humble simplicity
and piety of his private life; but his marvellous industry and care as a
genealogical and topographical collector. A career less eventful than
his could scarcely be imagined. He lived in a house adjoining his
office, and when business was over, he much too rarely went out for
fresh air and exercise. Far into the night, he would pore over
manuscripts, sometimes copying old parish registers, sometimes making
abstracts, or copies of documents that had been lent to him, or entering
up his volumes of pedigrees. His mind was ever intent on the acquisition
of genealogical facts, and whether they came under his notice in written
papers, or in conversation, he carefully noted them, and systematically
stored them away in the volumes to which they belonged. The desire to be
accurate was with him a passion. He could not endure a false date, and
smiled when he observed the vanity, that, in pedigrees, could not call a
spade a spade, but turned a cutler, a grinder, or something humbler,
into a gentleman. During the thirty-eight years he lived in Sheffield he
had been carefully accumulating fact upon fact, and there is probably
not a faImly in the town, save the most recent importations, of whom he
had not a more or less complete account. He was the Old Mortality of
Sheffield, and carefully copied the gravestones in the church and chapel
yards. The parish registers wore more familiar to him than to the parish
clerk. He knew the genealogical value of wills and deeds, and had made
himself master of those old handwritings under which our forefathers
have shrouded so much valuable information. Not having enjoyed
the'advantage of a classical  education, he yet so far mastered the
difficulties of Latin and Norman French as to be able to  translate
intelligibly such mediaeval documents as were couched in those
languages; and of late  years, so vast was the fund of information which
he possessed, that he was able at once to  appreciate the value of new
facts that might come under his notice, and to see meanings in entries 
and items that to an ordinary observer appeared to have no special
significance.For years past he  has been the oracle to which all
inquirers into Sheffield history resorted. The antiquarian student 
perpetually made use of his kindly advice and counsel; the lawyers
flocked to him regularly when  any question arose affecting family
history; and to one and all he was alike ready to tell what he  knew,
and in return to accept any crumbs of information his visitors might be
able to impart. In  this way his store of facts grew. Persons who had
learned the value of his information were glad  to be able to offer him
some return in kind, when anything came under their notice. His fame as 
 a  collector of information spread, and from far and near matters found
their way into his hands that  would not have been entrusted to one less
discreet. He was scrupulous  in preserving and returning  everything
that was lent to him ; and exercised a marvellous reticence in dealing
with subjects that  might have given pain to families or individuals. He
never spoke unkindly, and, though his mind  was the depository of more
family secrets than that of any man in Sheffield, we never heard of an 
instance where an unfair or unkind use had been made of what he knew.
Like many great  collectors of information, Mr. Swift seemed to lack the
aptitude for collating, arranging, and  editing his materials. He shrank
from the task of composition, fancying, very mistakenly, that he  could
not compose; and yet we have had in our hands fragments of his that
would have been no  discredit to so lucid and interesting a writer as
the late Joseph Hunter.Our own columns" [it is the  Independent from
which I am quoting] " have not unfrequently contained most valuable
scraps  from his pen; but he would more frequently give his information
verbally, and leave others to  clothe it in set words. Under the
signature ' St.' he sometimes contributed to Notes and Queries.  Several
papers of his have appeared in the Reliquary: and he has also enriched
the Chesterfield  newspapers from the stores of his Derbyshire lore; but
we never heard of his publishing a book,  nor ever knew a man more
capable of doing so. In connection with the inquiries arising out of the
 bequest to the town of the property of the late Samuel Bailey, Mr.
Swift rendered great service;  and the Rev. Dr. Gatty, in his preface to
the new edition of Hunter's Hallamshire, thus  acknowledges his
obligations:-' The services of Mr. William Swift, well known for his 
genealogical studies, experience and accuracy, as well as for his
accumulated stores of information  relating to the various properties of
the neighbourhood, have been especially great throughout the  latter
part of the work, and deserve ray warmest appreciation. He has extended
the pedigrees with  a careful hand, and by an old deed or memorandum has
often contributed what the antiquarian will  -value.' Among his friends
might be mentioned every name of note in Sheffield; but it is enough to 
say that he was on intimate terms with Joseph Hunter, James Montgomery,
John Holland, Samuel  Mitchell, and Henry Jackson; without
particularising those who have lived to feel his loss. When  the late
Samuel Mitchell's papers had to be arranged for the British Museum, Mr.
Swift was  selected to perform the task, and very ably he discharged it.
He had a pure and Simple mind,    inexpensive tastes and habits, and if
there was a thing he erred in, it was in taking too little care of  his
own health. At one time he paid some attention to a garden at Steel
Bank, with a view to obtain  out-door exercise and recreation ; but of
late that has been much neglected, and sometimes for a  week together he
never left St. James's street. On the occasion of the funeral of Mr.
John Holland,  now nearly two years ago, My. Swift took a severe cold,
which clung to him for many months;  and over a year ago he suffered
greatly from a carbuncle on the leg. During the past twelve months  he
has not looked well, and many times have friends given him good advice
in vain.  home and occupations. A short visit to the sea- side in the
early autumn did but little to restore tone to his system, and for two
Months or more he has been unable to attend to business, though up to
the last few days of his life his mind retained all its clearness. A few
weeks ago, in the hope of deriving benefit from change Of air, he went
on a visit to friends in lib native district of Staveley, but nature was
too far exhausted to revive, and he there gradually grew worse and
passed away, leaving many sincere friends to mourn him, and not a single
enemy to throw obloquy on his memory. His wife, who has been the
attached companion of his life, and two sons survive, and in their
bereavement it may be some small consolation to know how universally the
deceased husband and father was esteemed. Some time ago Mr. Swift
purchased for himself a family burial place in the new Cemetery at
Norton, within the confines of that county of Derby he loved so well."

EVERARD: Let me read to you also what Dr. Gatty says of our late friend
:-" I cannot allow Mr. Swift to pass away from us without expressing my
personal regret for his departure, and my conviction also that Sheffield
has lost in him one of its most useful though least self-asserting
citizens. So far as my opinion has any value, I am certainly entitled to
speak of him, for circumstances threw me into frequent communication
with him ; and there was something so genuine and truthful in his
character that acquaintance soon ripened into friendly regard. During
the four years that my leisure time was occupied in enlarging Mr.
Hunter's 'History of Hallamshire,' my intercourse with Mr. Swift was
frequent and intimate. I had known him long before, and regarded him as
a curiosity; and I found him a treasure, when I needed his help. I
applied to three other gentlemen for cooperation, with whom I was also
acquainted-Mr. Henry Jackson, Mr. Samuel Mitchell, and Mr. John
Holland-but was too late, for death removed the two former before they
could render substantial aid, and the *several sheets written by good,
kind John Holland were not of the slightest use to me; and I only name
this because the contrary has been assumed in his recent biography. Mr.
Swift, on the other hand, was a true and worthy disciple of Hunter. He
cared and knew, I believe, little of the present, while he loved and
lived in the past. Remarkably sensitive and fearful of giving offence,
he seemed scarcely to like even to talk of the living, but of their
ancestry he often knew more than they themselves did, and he always used
his knowledge with discretion and kindness. It is as a local genealogist
that Sheffield may deplore his death. Whilst I was busy over '
Hallamshire,' he passed several Sundays at my house-coming here on
Saturday afternoon, and going home on the following evening. We all
liked him, and there was one then present who thoroughly estimated the
simplicity of his character, and the reverent spirit which was a marked
feature in it. He always liked our Church Service, but the hymns were
the portion that seemed to interest him most. He was a good listener,
and I suspect always carried away what was worth remembering. I always
felt that Pegasus was harnessed to a cart, when I saw him called awa.y
from a genealogical memorandum on his desk, or an open County History in
which he had discovered some ancestral link with some South Yorkshire or
Derbyshire family, and that to attend at his counter to a question of
stamps or licenses. His proper place would have been the Record Office
or the Heralds' College; but his scholarship being self-acquired had no
warranty,. and his native modesty stood in his way. From his office
window in St. James's row, he kept a watchful eye on the Parish Church
and churchyard, which he deeply reverenced; and he himself told me that
he was the means of preserving the single stone of Norman Carving which
was found in the rubble of the tower in 1867, when the new clock was
fixed; also of rescuing the dial slab from destruction when it was taken
down, and which Dr. Sale restored at his own cost. Let me add that he
possessed that generosity of feeling which is common amongst all really
scientific men; whatever he knew he was ready to impart, provided the
information was sought for a good purpose, and not from vulgar or
mischievous curiosity. I repeat my regret that poor Swift is no longer
amongst us, and I throw this small flower of appreciation on his grave."

LEIGHTON And so this is the grievous end of our many dialogues.

EVERARD Yes, it is no use continuing them now Farewell !

Omnes: Farewell!

[Exeunt