Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/243

 beautiful Sheridan sisters, the Countess of Dufferin, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, and the Duchess of Somerset, is in the possession of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. Swinton also drew and painted the portraits of eminent men with great success, among them being Louis Napoleon (afterwards Napoleon III), Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Canning, Bishop (afterwards Archbishop) Tait, Lord Dufferin, and others, a full-length of Colonel Probyn being considered especially successful. Swinton exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1844, and his portraits were familiar objects there for thirty years. Swinton was dependent on the vagaries of fashion for his vogue as a portrait-painter, and his portraits quickly lost their repute, although they will always retain their value as historical memorials. Swinton died at his residence in Harrington Gardens, South Kensington, on 18 Dec. 1888. He married, on 23 July 1865, Blanche Arthur Georgina, daughter of the twentieth Lord de Ros, but left no children.

A drawing by Swinton of Mrs. Mary Somerville [q. v.], executed in 1848, is in the National Portrait Gallery.

(1812–1890), elder brother of the above, was born on 15 July 1812, and educated at the Edinburgh Academy with Archibald Campbell Tait [q. v.], afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, and at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. Joining the Scottish bar, he acquired a large practice and initiated an important reform in the system of reporting criminal trials. In 1852 he was elected professor of civil law in Edinburgh University, his lectures being largely attended. He resigned the professorship on succeeding in 1872 to the Kimmerghame estate, and devoted himself to political work. He served on various royal commissions, and by his oratorical powers and legal knowledge won a foremost place as a layman in the general assembly of the church of Scotland. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the conservative interest for the parliamentary representation of Haddington Burghs in 1852 and of the universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews in 1869. He died on 27 Nov. 1890, having married, first, Katherine, daughter of Sir John Pringle of Stitchell, bart., and secondly, Georgina Caroline, daughter of Sir George Sitwell of Renishaw, bart. Besides a lecture on ‘Men of the Merse’ (privately printed, Edinburgh, 1858, 8vo), Swinton published a family history entitled ‘The Swintons of that Ilk and their Cadets’ (Edinburgh, 1883, 8vo), which had originally been contributed in 1878 to the ‘Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club’ (information supplied by the bishop of Winchester; Times, 6 Dec. 1890).

[Private information.] 

SWINTON, JOHN (d. 1402), Scottish soldier, was in the service of Edmund de Langley, earl of Cambridge and afterwards duke of York [q. v.], in 1374 (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 221). He probably continued in the English service till December 1377, when he had leave to return through England to Scotland (ib. iv. 254). Swinton distinguished himself by his valour in the battle of Otterburn in August 1388, when he had a leading part in the capture of Harry Hotspur [see, (1364–1403)]. He had a safe-conduct on 14 Nov. 1391, and again on 24 July 1392, as Scots ambassador to England (ib. iv. 431; Fœdera, vii. 733). He again came to England in July 1400 (ib. viii. 151). At the battle of Homildon Hill, on 14 Sept. 1402, Swinton led the disastrous charge of the Scots, supported by Sir Adam de Gordon, with whom he had previously had many quarrels. Both Swinton and Gordon were slain in the battle.

Swinton married (1) Margaret, countess of Mar, who died in 1390; and (2) Margaret, daughter of Robert Stewart, duke of Albany [q. v.], the regent of Scotland. By the latter he had a son John, who fought against the English in France, and first struck down Thomas, duke of Clarence, at the battle of Beaugé, on 20 March 1421 [see, (d. 1421)]. He was killed fighting for the French at Verneuil on 17 Aug. 1424.

[Bower's continuation of Fordun's Scotichronicon, iv. 1078, 1149, 1215, 1220; Annales Henrici Quarti ap. Trokelowe, &c., p. 415 (Rolls Ser.); Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. iv. p. clxxxvi; Anderson's Scottish Nation, iii. 547.] 

SWINTON, JOHN (1621?–1679), Scottish politician, born about 1621, was the eldest son of Sir Alexander Swinton of Swinton, by his wife Margaret, daughter of James Home of Framepath, Berwickshire. The father, who was sheriff of Berwickshire in 1640 and M.P. for the county in 1644–1645, died in 1652. Alexander Swinton [q. v.] was his younger brother. John received ‘as good an education as any man in Scotland,’ and devoted his attention especially to law. In 1646 and 1647 his name appears on the committee of war for Berwickshire, together with that of his father. In 1649 he was returned to parliament for the Merse, and in that capacity