Swynfen was one of the members excluded from parliament by ‘Pride's Purge’ in 1648. He was returned for Tamworth to Richard Cromwell's parliament, which met on 27 Jan. 1658–9; but when the Long parliament was restored on 7 May following, Swynfen, as an excluded member, was not allowed to take his seat. He was, however, restored with the other excluded members by Monck on 21 Feb. 1659–60, and was returned for Stafford to the Convention parliament which met on 25 April following. His prompt action was largely instrumental in securing the election of Sir Harbottle Grimston [q. v.] as speaker (Bramston, Autobiogr. Camden Soc. pp. 114–16).
Swynfen was re-elected member for Tamworth in Charles II's first parliament, which sat from 8 April 1661 till 24 Jan. 1678–9, and became prominent as an opponent of the court party. On 10 Nov. 1662 Pepys refers to him as ‘the great Mr. Swinfen, the Parliament man’ (Diary, ed. Braybrooke, ii. 64), and on 3 Jan. following considered himself fortunate in hearing Swynfen speak in a conference between the two houses on the wine patent (ib. iii. 370). In the debates on the exclusion bill Swynfen, who had been appointed one of the committee to draw it up, took an active part, and Arlington is said to have made a vain endeavour to bribe him to join the court party (Tucker, Life of Earl St. Vincent, i. 2, 3). Swynfen was again elected for Tamworth to the parliament which met on 28 March 1680–1, but did not sit during James II's reign. He was, however, returned for Beeralston on 11 March 1689–90. Narcissus Luttrell reported his death on 29 March 1694 (Brief Relation, iii. 287), but, according to the inscription on his tomb, he died on 12 April. His successor in the representation of Beeralston was elected on 14 May. He was buried at Weeford, Staffordshire (Shaw, Staffordshire, ii. 25).
By his wife, daughter of one Brandreth, Swynfen had a large family. Two sons, John (d. 1671) and Richard (b. 1634), were graduates of Pembroke College, Oxford, and members of Gray's Inn (Foster, Gray's Inn Reg.; Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714). The former's only daughter and heiress, Mary, married, on 14 July 1692, John Jervis (1670–1746), and became mother of Swynfen Jervis, father of John Jervis, first earl St. Vincent [q. v.], the naval commander.
Swynfen's third son, Francis, was father of Samuel Swynfen or Swinfen (1679–1734), who matriculated from Pembroke College on 31 March 1696, graduated B.A. in 1699, M.A. in 1703, M.B. in 1706, and M.D. in 1712. He was lecturer in grammar to the university in 1705 (Hearne, Collections, i. 8), and afterwards established himself in practice as a physician at Lichfield. There he became godfather to Dr. Johnson, giving him his name Samuel (Boswell, Johnson, ed. Hill, i. 34, 58, 64, 80, 83, iii. 222, 240). Dr. Johnson as a boy submitted to Swynfen an account in Latin of his maladies, with the ability of which Swynfen was so much struck that, much to Johnson's disgust, he showed it to several of his friends [cf. art. Johnson, Samuel, (1709–1784)]. Swynfen died at Birmingham on 10 May 1736.
[Much of Swynfen's correspondence is preserved at Meaford Hall, Staffordshire, some is in the Salt Library, Stafford, and twelve volumes of letters are now in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 29910–20, 30013). See also, besides authorities quoted, Hist. MSS. Comm. 6th Rep. App. passim, 12th Rep. App. ii. 447; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1640–71; Commons' Journals, iv. 619, v. 530; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Parl. Debates, i. 293; Macleane's Hist. of Pembroke Coll. Oxford, p. 330; Shaw's Staffordshire; Harwood's Erdeswick, 1844, pp. 154, 292, 316, 433; Burke's Landed Gentry, 5th edit., and Peerage, 1896, s.v. ‘St. Vincent;’ Notes and Queries, 6th ser. v. 352; information supplied by Mr. F. Huskisson of Warlingham.]
SWYNFORD, CATHERINE, Duchess of Lancaster (1350?–1403), mistress and third wife of John of Gaunt [see John], was younger daughter of Sir Payne Roelt, a knight of Hainault, who came to England in the service of Philippa, the queen of Edward III, and was Guienne king-of-arms. Her elder sister, Philippa, is somewhat doubtfully said to have been the wife of Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, and by him mother of Thomas Chaucer [q. v.]
Catherine was born about 1350, and in or shortly before 1367 married Sir Hugh Swynford (1340–1372) of Coleby and Ketelthorp, Lincolnshire. Hugh Swynford was in the retinue of John of Gaunt in Gascony in February 1366, and died abroad in 1372, having by his wife one son Thomas (see below). Catherine seems to have received charge of John of Gaunt's daughters, and, not long after her first husband's death, to have become the duke's mistress. A century later it was actually declared that her eldest son by the duke was ‘in double advoutrow goten’ (Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd ser., i. 164), and her son by her first husband had some trouble to prove his legitimacy; it is not, however, necessary to suppose that John Beaufort was born as early as 1372. On 4 March 1377 a grant which John of Gaunt had made to Catherine of the manors of Gryngelley and Whetely was confirmed by
