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The Swayne family connection with Pucklechurch goes back to the 18th century. The Rev. George Swayne, a clergyman like his father before him, was vicar here for about 60 years. A graduate of Wadham College Oxford, George came to Pucklechurch in 1772 and was subsequently vicar and then also rector of Dyrham until his death in 1827. A window dedicated to his family, his wife Sarah as well as 6 sons and 3 daughters can be seen at St. Thomas a Becket. In 1790 he published what is now an extremely rare and highly unusual book entitled:

Gramina Pascua: or a collection of specimens of the common pasture grasses, arranged in the order of their flowering, and accompanied with their Linnæan and English names, as likewise with familiar descriptions and remarks.

This item contains real dried specimens of common pasture grasses which may have been cultivated by Swayne himself, and possibly collected and dried by his daughters. Only a very few copies appear to have survived and one of these is held by Bristol City Museum. [2] This is an important work as it was the first treatise on pasture grasses for agriculture and calculated to spread knowledge of them amongst farmers and gentlemen. The Rev. George was a keen and knowledgeable botanist who corresponded with, and supplied information to, other contemporary botanists although not always accurately.[3] 

The only female member of Swayne family for whom I have found a legible tombstone in Pucklechurch is Frances Louisa Swayne, Sir Eric’s first cousin. Her history is possibly also one of the most adventurous and intriguing for a woman living in Victorian England.  Frances was the daughter of an eminent physician Joseph Griffiths Swayne, a pioneer in anaesthetics, an obstetrician and researcher into the cause of cholera. [10] She appears to have been very well- educated and in 1881 working at the University of London. As a woman of independent financial means she also travelled and given the family connection with Somaliland she went to Africa. She published memoirs of her visit in 1907 entitled “A Woman’s Pleasure Trip in Somaliland” which included her own photographs and accounts of sights not normally noted. Copies of this book are now rare and very valuable, currently selling for between £200-£500 in specialist bookshops. In a letter accompanying one of these she wrote “I always consider the time I spent in Somaliland was the most interesting, if not the happiest, part of my life, and fearing to lose the impression of that time I jotted down the little incidents of my stay, while they were quite fresh in my mind” [11]

My journey through the Swayne family tree has bought me into contact with so many wonderful characters it’s impossible to write about the all here, there’s a another explorer and big game hunter, a chess champion, several Bishops and a spymaster to name but a few! What I hope I have done is help to illuminate a little bit of village history that’s been forgotten. As for more research I’ve even been in touch with a living descendant of the Rev. George who has family papers for me to look at….but that’s another story!!