REV. William Swift

Documentation for the Rev. William Swift can be found in the Fulham Papers in
the Lambeth Palace Library, London, American Colonial Section, Calendar of
Indexes Oxford, 1965, p.p. 180 and 167, 215-6 and 227-8, constitute a history
of the English Clergy in the early days of English colonies in America. A
micro-film copy of these papers are on file in the Southern Collection,
Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. According to
these papers, compiled by William Wilson Menross Ph. D. Oxford at the
Clarendon Press, includes an account of the Rev. William Swift.

According to the papers, the Reverend William Swift, four years after
graduating from Cambridge in 1717-18, was sent to Bermuda in 1722 by his
Majesty, King George II, and while there, he was granted the "Kings Bounty"
or "Ransome". After spending very trying years in Bermuda, he petitioned
Governor Gooch of Virginia to assign him to the Virginia Colony where he
arrived in 1728. The Rev. William Swift was granted two tracts of land by
King George II, in Goochland County, VA., for a total of 400 acres. He was
the first rector of the parish which included Old Fort Church in Hanover
County, VA, and Hollowing Creek Church in the part which eventually became
Louisa County, Va. Hollowing Creek Church was donated the land for the
church by Chisholm Duke, ancestor of the George Washington Duke who
established the famous tobacco industry in Durham, NC. The Rev. William
Swift's son, Thomas married one of the daughters of Chilsolm Duke, Amedia
"Amy" Duke, and eventually settled in the part of Orange County, NC which is
now Randolph County, on land referred to as "Swift's Choice". Rev. William's
other son, William Swift, my ancestor, settled in Orange County, NC in the
part that became Caswell County.