John Swinton (clergyman, born 1703)
British writer, cleric and orientalist
John Swinton (1703 – 4 April 1777) was a British writer, academic, Fellow of the Royal Society, Church of England clergyman and orientalist. In 1731, he was a fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, but migrated to Christ Church in 1745. He contributed to George Sale's Universal History. Swinton also contributed articles on the transcription of the 'Ruins of Palmyra'. Beginning in 1749, Swinton donated a number of Roman coins to the collection at Christ Church. From 1767 until the year of his death he was Keeper of the Archives at Oxford University.
Life
The son of John Swinton of Bexton in Cheshire, he was born in the county. He entered Wadham College, Oxford as a servitor, matriculating on 10 October 1719, and on 30 June 1723 he was elected a scholar. He graduated B.A. on 1 December 1723, and proceeded M.A. on 1 December 1726.
Swinton was ordained deacon on 30 May 1725 and priest on 28 May 1727; and in February 1728 he was instituted into the rectory of St Peter-le-Bailey, Oxford.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6259828. VIAF identifies the subject as 73887240. The Library of Congress control number is nr91025734. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1703, 1777, 1731 and 1745.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Swinton (clergyman, born 1703)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.