Joseph James Swaby senior

Joseph James Swaby (1732/1733 to August 1811), physician, plantation owner and Custos of St Elizabeth, Jamaica.

1. Joseph James Swaby was baptized at St Paul’s church, Hammersmith in Middlesex on the 16/12/1733. His parents were Joseph and Sarah Swaby nee Ford.

2. His Middlesex baptism, and as his name suggests, places him in the right location and time period to have been the highwayman Joseph James Swaby, late of Finchley in Middlesex, who was transported to the American colonies in late 1750 for assault with a pistol on the Queen’s highway. (Swaby had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to be transported for seven years.) This event both interestingly and paradoxically contrasts with his later accomplishments. However, to date no documentary evidence has surfaced to explain where he gained his medical experience.

3. The earliest documented record of his presence in Jamaica is his marriage to Catherine Hart in St Catherine, 17/09/1751 where he appears as Joseph James Sawby of Kingston. A 20-acre land purchase deed from Thomas Durant dated 17/12/1754 records Swaby's residence as Vere Parish and his profession as “Practitioner in Physick and Surgery” suggesting he gained his medical training between 1751 and 1754. Subsequent deeds record his residence as St. Elizabeth and indicate that he retained the occupation of “Practitioner in Physick and Surgery,” at least until 1766. An indenture dated 27/12/1757 confirms that Joseph James Swaby, “Practitioner in Physick and Surgery,” was the husband of Catherine Hart, and that he inherited substantial land holdings (875 acres) and nine enslaved people from the Hart family. Catherine was the daughter of Solomon Hart and Elizabeth, his wife, born 22/08/1731 and baptised 11/06/1732 in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. The baptism registry for Swaby and Hart's daughter, Sarah Swaby born 02/04/1756, lists the mother as Catherine Swaby and the father as “Dr. Swaby.”

4. Joseph James Swaby was the recipient of three 300-acre land patents. The first patent, dated 19/04/1758, for land in Vere identifies him as Doctor Joseph James Swaby. The second and third patents were for property in St. Elizabeth, dated 1763 and 1805 respectively. His continued transition from doctor to landowner is well documented by indentures which show that between 1757 and 1781 he purchased 1,948 acres of land. It is apparent that even at a young age Joseph James Swaby was building his legacy by increasing his property holdings.

5. By 1770 he had attained a higher social standing and was referred to as “Joseph James Swaby, Esquire.” After entering public service from at least 1776 as an Assistant Judge, Swaby quickly rose to further prominence in St. Elizabeth. In 1782, he became a Justice of the Peace (JP). He became a member of the Legislative assembly in 1781. He was appointed Custos in 1787 by Alured Clarke, the Governor of Jamaica, thus achieving the title of “Honorable Joseph James Swaby.” He retained the post of Custos until his death in 1811.

6. National Library of Jamaica Records denote that Swaby had a distinguished career in the militia, beginning with his appointment as Lieutenant Colonel in 1784. Although Library records state that he was a Major General in 1806, he is typically referred to as “Colonel in Chief” in almanacs from this era. He appears to have played an important military role during the Maroon uprisings in Jamaica; Robert Charles Dallas's History of the Maroons makes several references to him and contains a transcript of a 1795 letter describing him as “Colonel Swaby, Custos.”

7. It is recorded in 1835 Chancery case documents that, as of the date of his will, 5 November 1807, he owned three properties: “a coffee plantation called ‘Hope’ in the parish of Manchester, a breeding pen called Montpelier in St Elizabeth and a large piece or parcel of Moras [sic] land called New River in Saint Elizabeth.” [Hope plantation was part of Saint Elizabeth until 1814 when Manchester Parish was created.] In 1811 his property holdings encompassed over 3,000 acres, 340 enslaved people and 500 stock. According to the 1819 crop report made by Martin Johnson, the overseer of Hope plantation, the estate shipped 144 tierces of coffee to England.

8. Birth records and his will attest that he fathered 11 children with 4 women. He married Catherine Hart in 1751 and with her had one daughter, Sarah. He had relationships with and provided residences for both Ruth Burton and Martha Wilson Brown. His children with Ruth Burton were Joseph, John and Elizabeth; his children with Martha Wilson Brown were Thomas, Eleanor, Martha and Ann Wilson. His second marriage was to Ann Wilson nee Badioli, a widow, in St. Elizabeth 28/09/1784, and with her had three children, Caroline, Joseph James junior and Frederick Badioli.

9. In December 1780 Swaby established a residence for Martha Wilson Brown by an indenture which transferred 50 acres from the westward part of his New River pen into her name for the term of her natural life. The indenture included houses on or houses to be built on the property; the purchase price of the property was set at ten shillings.

10. In August 1783 Swaby provided a residence for Ruth Burton through a more restrictive tenant/landlord messuage indenture. The indenture names Ruth Burton as a tenant of “the Tavern,” a home which included two acres of adjoining property, located in an area of St. Elizabeth called the Gutters. [Gutters Tavern can be seen on James Robertson's 1804 map.] The indenture was for the full term of her natural life and no more, and the rent was fixed at an annual sum of 5 shillings. The tenant was responsible for all repairs to the property.

11. Joseph James Swaby was buried at New River, St. Elizabeth, 15 August 1811, "Custos aged 78," putting his date of birth in 1732 or 1733. Probate of his will was granted to the executors in St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica, by Lieutenant Governor Edward Morrison on 20 September 1811. In addition to providing for his legitimate children, his will mentions two illegitimate sons, John and Thomas. To John Swaby he left £100 Jamaica currency to purchase mourning: "I would give him a much larger bequest but for the amplitude of his own property." Thomas Swaby was offered the choice of either receiving the estate deeded to his mother, Martha Wilson Brown, or £500. Joseph James Swaby’s estate inventory, taken by the executors on 26 September 1811, confirms that his primary residence was a 7-room great house at New River pen, with a smaller house located at Montpelier pen.

12. Swaby’s sons with Ann Wilson served in the St Elizabeth militia. Joseph James Swaby Junior was an adjutant in 1810 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1814. He became a JP in 1812. Frederick Badioli Swaby was an Ensign in 1811 and promoted to Lieutenant in 1813. Frederick Badioli Swaby married Ann Haigh in Eton, Buckinghamshire, in 1813 and moved, with his wife's family, to Philadelphia in 1821, where he appears in the US census of 1840. By 1850 he had moved to Seneca Falls, New York, where he died in 1875.

13. Joseph James Swaby Junior was buried in Kellington, Yorkshire, aged 32, 03/10/1821. The marriage announcement of his daughter Ann Margaret Eleanor Swaby in 1842 describes her as "elder dau. of Joseph James Swaby late of Kilnsey, Yorkshire, and grand-dau. and co-heiress of the Hon. Joseph James Swaby late of Jamaica." Frederick Badioli Swaby was educated in Yorkshire between 1805 and 1806.

14. His property locations can be ascertained from historical maps. Thomas Craskell's map of Jamaica (1763) shows a property called "Swaby" just south of "Gutters." [Present-day Gutters is a small community in St Elizabeth parish at the foot of Spur Hill.] On James Robertson's map (1804), there are four pens in St Elizabeth owned by Hon. J. J. Swaby, three of which are grouped around Gutters Tavern and one of which is to the north-west in "Great Morass" (the New River pen, which is located above present-day Santa Cruz). Another pen, the property of J. Swaby, is sandwiched between two of Joseph James Swaby Senior's pens south of Gutters and may have been "the amplitude of his own property" owned by John Swaby, as mentioned in the will.

We are very grateful to Denny Swaby, David J. P. Wood and Peter Durbin for compiling this entry.

1. Findmypast.co.uk, Middlesex Baptisms 1543-1876 [database online].

2. Old Bailey Online ref. t17500530-1.

3. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; L.O.S Deeds Vol 60, Folio 29; L.O.S Deeds Vol 216, Folio 187; L.O.S Deeds Vol 170, Folio 69.


4. Vere, Liber 28 folio 140 & 141; St. Elizabeth, Liber 30, folio 92, St. Elizabeth, Liber 36, folio 3; L.O.S Deeds: Vol 167 Folio 82; Vol 239 Folio 88; Vol 242 folio 12; Vol 306 Folio 167.

5. LOS Deeds Vol 239 Folio 88; Jamaican Almanacs (1776, 1787, 1805, 1815, 1812); National Library of Jamaica Records.

6. National Library of Jamaica Records; Robert Charles Dallas History of the Maroons (2 vols, London, 1803).

7. Chancery document: Swaby v Swaby (1835) (National Archives ref: C 13/1086/7); Jamaican Almanacs 1811; Crop account Hope Plantation Liber 30, Folio 144 (1802).

8. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; PROB 11/1536.

9. L.O.S Deeds 305 Folio 107.

10. L.O.S Deeds 318 Folio 211.

11. Registrar’s General Department St. Catherine Register St. Elizabeth Vol 1 Folio 346; Inventory Liber 118, Folio 69.

12. National Library of Jamaica records. Papers read before the Seneca Falls Historical Society for the year 1906 pp. 69-71 (via archive.org. Note this text contains some factual errors); Ancestry.com, Pennsylvania, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962 [database online]; US censuses 1840-1860.

13. Seneca Historical Society publication; Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. IV p. 280; Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 172 p. 661 (June 1842).

14. Map of 1763: 12 Sheet Map of the 3 Counties of Jamaica prepared by Thomas Craskell and James Simpson on the orders of Henry Moore, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica, from surveys conducted between 1756 and 1761 and published in 1763 (copies available at The British Library and The National Library of Scotland and at www.raremaps.com). Enlarged image of the County of Cornwall section (http://www.raremaps.com/gallery/enlarge/21966) shows a property labelled “Swaby” just below “Gutters”. Map of 1804: The National Library of Scotland http://maps.nls.uk/jamaica/index.html; gazetteer available at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/Jam1755_1804Maps.htm.

We are grateful to David Wood for his assistance with compiling this entry.