The Swain Family has had an adventurous life in America. Our branch of the family arrived in Massachusetts in the early 1600s and then moved on to Nantucket in 1659 with the purchase of the island from Thomas Mayhew. They lived there as sea-faring whalers until the mid-1700s when a large group from the island sailed to North Carolina. Their settlement there was temporary as they did move to Indiana and the Kansas following. We are still researching the causes for these moves.

My direct line to the Swains comes from my mother, Darlene Artman Hagen, for whom I must credit the knowledge provided in these pages. Her mother, Ethel Swain Artman, was the last in our line to carry the Swain name.

In 1634, Richard Swain arrived from England on the ship "True Love". He later had his wife, Elizabeth, and children, including his son John, sent over on another ship. He settles in the New England area, namely New Hampshire and Massachusetts. He was a planter and bought and sold land around the area of Salisbury, Massachusetts. He was a freeman, meaning that he could vote and he was a leader in the community.

In 1659, he sold everything and moved to Nantucket island with his son John. He and eight other men bought the island from a man named Mayhew. The ten moved to Nantucket because they were tired of Puritan rule. Richard, so the story goes, gave shelter during a rainstorm to some Quakers and was punished by the Puritans. The island became mostly Quaker. The ten men brought ten more men over (caftsmen) and gave them half shares of the island. After a short time, the poor soil was not god for farming so they looked elsewhere to support their families. After a whale had beached itself on Nantucket, they took up whaling. At one time Nantuket was the whaling capitol of the world, providing most of the whale oil to London and elsewhere. Only after the discovery of kerosene did Nantucket quickly die. But during the high time of whale oil, Nantucket grew with big houses and big ships. In the south seas where the sea captains went looking for whales, north of Samoa is an island named Swain. There is also a reef north of the coast of Australia named Swain's reef. Ships would leave for three to four years filling their barrels with whale oil before returning and many lost their lives on the sea.

Around 1760, Nathaniel Swain and his wife Bethiah Macy (a descendent of the Macy's Department Store Macy) left Nantucket and moved to Guilford county, North Carolina to escape the problems of the Revolutionary war. The Quakers are peace loving and wanted nothing to do with fighting. They got along wel with the Indians and were known as honest, hardworking, and caring people. Also, there were just too many people on the island. They settled along with others from Nantucket in Nothern North Carolina. With the Civil war approaching, they took off through Virginia and the Cumberland Gap for Indiana. They did not believe in slavery and wished to remove themselves from the area. Sylvanius Swain and his wife Mariam Gardenre with son Shubel settled in Wayne county, Indiana, due West of Dayton, Ohio. There was a large Quaker settlement there and today there is a Quaker college in Richmond, Virginia.

When the Kansas territory opened around 1855, Shubel Swain, his wife Mary B. Barnard and son Byron moved there. Shubel first settled at the Clinton Lake area where he had a grist mill. Later he moved north near the Quaker settlement of Springdale.

Byron and his wife Ruth Ann Carey, who were born in Indiana, settle in Kansas. They had a son, Clyde Orville, who married India Cain. They are all buried in Wildhorse Cemetary. From the time Richard moved to Nantucket in 1659 until Shubel moved to Kansas, the Swains married a number of other original settlers of Nantucket. Shubel's wife, Mary Barnard, is a descendent of Nathanial Barnard, also one of the original settlers.

1. Richard Swain
  2. John Swain m. Mary Wyer
    3. Joseph Swain m. Mary Sibley
      4.Caleb Swain m. Margaret Paddock
        5. Nathaniel Swain m. Bethiah Macy
          6. Sylanius Swain m. Miriam Gardener
            7. Shubal Swain m. Mary Barnard
              8. Byron Swain m. RuthAnn Carey
                9. Clyde Swain m. India Cain
                  10. Ethel Swain m. Earl Artman
                    11. Darlene Artman m. Frederick Hagen
                      12. Caroline Hagen m. Thomas Addair


1. The first wife of Richard Swain, and mother to John Swain is unknown. 
However, the second wife was the first person on the Nantucket death record.

    3. Joseph Swain was a brother to John Swain Jr. who married Experience 
    Folger. Experience Folger was sisters to Abigail Folger who was the mother of 
    Benjamin Franklin. Abigail Folger visited her sister on the island until just one 
    month before Benjamin's birth in Boston.

        5. Bethiah Macy:
        1a. Thomas Macy m. Sarah Hopcott
          2a. John Macy m. Deborah Gardener
            3a. Thomas Macy m. Deborah Coffin
              4a. Joseph Macy m. Hannah Hobbs
                5a. Bethiah Macy m. Nathaniel Swain

            3a. Deborah Coffin:
            1b. Tristam Coffin m. Dionis Stevens
              2b. John Coffin m. Deborah Austin
                3b. Deborah Coffin m. Thomas Macy

              2b. Deborah Austin:
              1c. Joseph Austin m. Sarah ?
                2c. Deborah Austin m. John Coffin