Built St. Mary the Boltons, the Borrows’ church
This is research in progress: it may contain errors, and is not complete.
Hogarth John Swale was born in Westmorland, Kendall, on 6 September 1810. His father, John, was a successful attorney and rich man.
There are claims on the Internet that Holy Ascension Church, Settle, Westmorland, was built 1838 by money from Hogarth’s mother Ann. Hogarth was the first incumbent of Holy Ascension church.
A Hogarth John Swale married at Settle, April-June 1841, one of the following: Ellen Gifford, Ellen King, Mary Lambert, Ann Taylor. Chasing through it looks like it was Mary Lambert, as Mary Swale is the person Hogarth shares a grave with.
The 1841 census has Hogarth living in Langcliffe Hall, Settle, aged 30, with wife[?] Mary (20) and four servants. There’s also a 1841 poll book where he voted for “Wort.” and “Denis.”, presumably tory candidates(!)
His daughter Ellen Eliza Swale was born April-June 1843 registered at Settle.
His son John Lambert Swale was born April-June 1844 registered at Settle.
A Mary Swale died May 20, 1844 (see grave below). It appears Mary died in giving birth to John, or soon after.
Meanwhile, in 1829, a new parish of Brompton was formed out of Kensington, London. The vicar was Rev. William J. Irons. By the 1840’s Brompton had a growing population and a new church was needed. Towards the end of the 1840’s, Swale gave a lot of money towards the building of a new church, that would become St. Mary the Bolton’s. Land was donated by Robert Gunter; George Godwin the architect designed the church, and plans were sent to the Commissioners for Building New Churches in May 1849. The foundation stone of St. Mary’s was laid in August 1850, it was consecrated on 22 October 1850 by the Bishop of London: Rev. Hogarth Swale became the first incumbent. His parish was around 3,500 people, but fields and market gardens were gradually giving way to suburban development.
Swale had insisted on free seats being available, and the effect scandalised The Ecceliologist:
... not what we should have expected from the Vicar of Brompton, the services being read from a desk of stone in the lantern. The chancel is filled with stall-like seats of deal, and there are sedilia in the sanctuary. We were, we own, not a little scandalized to see a central block of inferior free seats up the middle of the nave. Really Mr. Irons ought not to have sanctioned such an outworn corruption in 1850 ... Neither can we approve of the plan. The cruciform church without aisles, with clustered lantern-piers, and the desk and pulpit in the lantern, and a door in one of the transepts, is an auditorium disguised, rather than a place of collected worship:—the congregation being divided into three perfectly distinct bodies, (arranged on the radiating principle), of which the largest is entirely invisible to the two smaller ones, who sit facing each other like adverse squadrons,—the pulpit and desk forming the centre of radiation, and the altar standing quite out of sight of the two minor congregations.
Survey of London, Vol. 41, p. 234,
quoting The Ecclesiologist, n. s., vol. viii, 1850, p. 8a.
In the 1851 census Hogarth was living in Merton Tower, which is now one of the large mansions in the Boltons (near the school end), he was 40, a widower, and incumbent of West Brompton (it was originally St. Mary West Brompton). In the house is his elder sister Barbara (45), his children Ellen E. (8) and John L. (6), a governess, and five servants.
So, Swale started small at St. Mary’s. On 12 May 1851 the Rev. Hogarth John Swale, 40, widower, clergyman, living Merton Tower, West Brompton, father John Swale, attorney, married Emily Charlotte Gater 19, spinster, of Hereford Square, West Brompton, father William Henry Gater, fishworker[?]. They were married at St. Mary’s Church, West Brompton (i.e. St. Mary the Boltons), by Rev. William J. Irons, the Vicar of Brompton. Present as witnesses were John Buhstah[?] and Barbara Swale (presumably Hogarth’s elder sister).
In 1852 Hogarth resigned the incumbency of St. Marys. The last entry in the Baptismal Register for St. Mary’s, signed by Swale, was 23 February 1852, with the next one on 27 March 1852 being signed by Swale’s successor, Rev. Thomas Pearson.
It was probably around this point that Hogarth and Emily moved to Paris, and Hogarth became chaplain at the British Embassy: it’s referred to in a later census.
His son Harold was born around 1854 in Paris: see the 1881 census.
His son Hugh[?] was born around 1857 in Paris.
Hogarth has not been found in the 1861 census, probably because he was in Paris at the time.
The 1862 electoral register for West Yorkshire lists Hogarth John Swale, holding lands in Kirkbanks, Langcliffe, resident at 9 Rue des Jeuries d’Artois, Paris.
His son Gerald was born around 1863 in Paris.
His daughter Edith was born around 1864 in Paris.
The 1869 Thom’s Directory lists Rev. H. J. Swale as Chaplain to the British Embassy in Paris.
His son Francis Hewit was born in Settle, in 1871.
The 1871 census sees Hogarth (60) and Emily (39) living in Settle, Westmorland. He’s a clergyman without care of [souls?]. Some of the children are living with them: Hugh[?] 14, Edith, 7, Gerald 8, Cecil 6, Francis Hewit 3 months. There’s a single governess, and seven servants. Francis was born in Settle, but the rest in France, and they were all British subjects.
In the 1881 census Hogarth (70) and Emily (49) are living at The Elms, Stoke, near Guildford. Hogarth is a clergyman. With them are two children: Gerald, 18, a “student”, and Francis, 10, a “schoolboy”. Harold Swale (son 27, house physician) is also there. Four servants are listed.
The 1891 census has Hogarth (80), clerk in holy orders, late Chaplain to the British Embassy, Paris. Emily is 58, and they have children living with them: Francis 20 (no occupation given), Charles A. Swale, 20, a grandson and student; plus five servants.
Hogarth died 10 August 1893, when he was living at Ingfield, near Settle. His effects were valued at £11,555 and he left them to Emily Charlotte Swale (i.e. his wife) and Harold Swale, M.B. He buried in the same grave as Mary, his first wife, in Holy Ascension Churchyard, Settle, and the gravestone reads:
In Memory of
MARY SWALE
of Ingfield
Who died May 20th 1844.
Aged 25 Years.Blessed are the poor in spirit for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.also of the
Revd. HOGARTH JOHN SWALE
FIRST INCUMBENT OF THIS PARISH
Born Sep 6th 1810
Died Aug 10th 1897He Giveth His beloved sleep
...
