SWERD, Henry

The Swerds were settled in Derby at least as early as 1381, when Peter Swerd, an ironmonger, was one of the assessors for the poll tax in the borough. Thomas Swerd, who was perhaps Peter’s son, was named on a Derby jury panel in 1414, and in 1421 he was sued by James Tuchet, Lord Audley, for illegal hunting in his park at nearby Markeaton. He was dead by February 1425 when his widow Agnes was the defendant in an assize of novel disseisin.2 I.S.W. Blanchard, ‘Economic Change in Derbys.’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1967), 446; KB9/204/2/34; CP40/644, rot. 183d; JUST1/1537, rot. 22. If Thomas and Agnes were our MP’s parents Henry must have been very young at his father’s death for he does not appear in the records until the early 1450s. Very little is known about him. He was involved in the cloth trade: the alnager’s account for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire from August 1465 to July 1467 shows that he paid alnage on two dozens. His commercial interests do not appear to have generated much litigation, although in 1453 he had a plea for a debt of ten marks pending against the parson of Barnburgh in south Yorkshire.3 E101/343/21; CP40/769, rot. 458.

On 16 July 1455 Swerd attended the parliamentary election at Derby, and on 8 Nov. 1459 he himself was elected to the Parliament summoned to take action against the Yorkist rebels. The return is slightly irregular in that his name, together with all bar the initial letter of his fellow Member’s surname, have been added over an erasure. It may be that those originally elected by the burgessess refused to serve.4 C219/16/3, 5. If, however, Swerd was not the electors’ first choice, he certainly had sufficient standing in the town to merit election (in contrast with the very obscure John Burgh V* who was returned with him). Although he is not known to have held borough office, he was named to a royal commission of gaol delivery in the town in the spring of 1463. He last appears in the records as a juror before commissioners of oyer and terminer who came to Derby in April 1468 to investigate disorders in the county.5 KB9/13/60.