The Swanbourne Anstees

by Gary. M. Anstey, chief researcher of the Anstey story project.

• Swanbourne Anstees Overview
• Swanbourne Anstee Sub-branches
• SW 1. Richard Anstey (m c1582 Swanbourne)
• SW 2. Thomas Anstey (b 1584 Swanbourne)
• SW 3. Benjamin Anstey (b 1594 Swanbourne)
• SW 4. John Anstey (b 1615 Swanbourne)
• SW 5. Maria Anstey (d 1666 Swanbourne)
• SW 6. Edward Anstey (b 1626 Swanbourne)
• SW 7. Richard Anstey (b 1629 Swanbourne)
• SW 8. Thomas Anstey (b 1632 Swanbourne)
• SW 9. Benjamin Anstey (b 1635 Swanbourne)
• SW 10. William Anstey (b 1641 Swanbourne)
• SW 11. Thomas Anstee (b 1656 Swanbourne)
• SW 12. Edward Anstee (b 1660 Swanbourne)
• SW 13. Benjamin Anstee (b 1658 Swanbourne)
• SW 14. Edward Anstee (b 1660 Swanbourne)
• SW 15. John Anstee (b c1685 Swanbourne)
• SW 16. William Anstee (b 1686 Swanbourne)
• SW 17. Edward Anstee (b 1695 Swanbourne)
• SW 18. Joseph Anstee (b 1702 Swanbourne)
• SW 19. John Anstee (b c1750 Swanbourne)
• SW 20. John Anstee (b c1730 Swanbourne)
• SW 21. Edward Anstee (b 1729 Swanbourne)
• SW 22. Robert Anstee (b 1734 Swanbourne)
• SW 23. William Anstee (b 1737 Swanbourne)
• SW 24. Thomas Anstee (b 1754 Swanbourne)
• SW 25. John Anstee (b 1759 Swanbourne)
• SW 26. William Anstee (b 1767 Swanbourne)
• SW 27. Thomas Anstee (b c1790 Swanbourne)
• SW 28. James Anstee (b 1795 Swanbourne)
• SW 29. John Anstee (b 1792 Swanbourne)
• SW 30. William Anstee (b 1801 Swanbourne)
• SW 31. William Anstee (b 1793 Whaddon)
• SW 32. Thomas Anstee (b 1822 Swanbourne)
• SW 33. George Anstee (b 1820 Swanbourne)
• SW 34. Henry Anstee (b c1840 Marylebone)
• SW 35. William Anstee (b c1817 Whaddon)
• SW 36. Harold Anstee (b 1835 Swanbourne)
• SW 37. William George Anstee (b 1859 Clerkenwell)
• SW 38. Alfred Ernest Anstee (b 1860 Clerkenwell)
• SW 39. Robert Doe Anstee (b 1845 London)
• SW 40. William Anstee (b 1837 Swanbourne)
• SW 41. Henry Anstee (b 1846 Swanbourne)
• SW 42 Robert Anstee (b 1852 Swanbourne)
• SW 43. George Valentine Anstee (b 1869 Swanbourne)
• SW 44. William Charles Anstee (b 1861 Mursley)
• SW 45. Edward Harry Anstee (b 1869 Mursley)
• SW 46. Hugh Anstee (b 1871 Mursley)
• SW 47. Elizabeth Anstee (b c1768 Aylesbury – convict shipped to Australia)
• SW 48. Frederick William Anstee (b 1861 Islington – served during World War One)
• SW 49. Henry Anstee (b 1869 Clerkenwell – served during World War One)
• SW 50. Samuel Anstee (b 1876 Dorking – served during World War One)
• SW 51. William Thomas Anstee (b 1878 Leighton Buzzard – served during World War One)
• SW 52. Joseph Frederick Anstee (b 1879 Dorking – fought in the Second Boer War and served and died during World War One)
• SW 53. Albert Anstee (b 1882 London – served during World War One)
• SW 54. William John Anstee (b 1887 Swanbourne – served during World War One)
• SW 55. Harry Edward Anstee (b 1891 Swanbourne – served during World War One)
• SW 56. Alfred George Victor Anstee (b 1893 Wandsworth – served during World War One)
• SW 57. Arthur George Anstee (b 1893 Soulbury – served during World War One)
• SW 58. Henry Moorman Evelyn Anstee (b 1895 Islington – served during World War One)
• SW 59. Cecil George H. Anstee (b 1900 Lambeth – served during World War One)
• Further Details on the Swanbourne Anstees

Swanbourne Anstees Overview

The Swanbourne Anstees, headed by Richard Anstey (SW 1) are one of the biggest ‘Anstey’, Ansty’, ‘Anstee’ and ‘Anstie’ sub-branches in existence today – they are a descendent sub-branch of the medieval Warwickshire Ansteys, originally based in Swanbourne, as well as the surrounding villages of Mursley, Whaddon and Winslow. It is postulated that the Swanbourne Anstees could be a sub-branch of the Newport Pagnell Anstees, though this is speculative at present.

It is interesting to note that almost all Swanbourne Anstee descendants alive today spell their name ‘Anstee’, however the original spelling of the surname of this sub-branch per the Swanbourne parish registers was ‘Anstey’, right through to 1641 (which was the last appearance of ‘Anstey’ as a spelling in Swanbourne). The spelling ‘Anstee’ did not appear until 1665 in Swanbourne, after which it became the permanent spelling for this sub-branch.

See ‘Anstey: A Complete History From the Norman Invasion to World War One‘ for more.

Swanbourne Anstee Sub-branches

There are numerous sub-branches of Ansteys in existence today which descend from the Swanbourne Anstees (all but one of which share the ‘Anstee’ spelling), including:

• the Barnet Anstees of Middlesex
• the Edlesborough Anstees of Buckinghamshire
• the Flamstead Anstees of Hertfordshire
• the Hemel Hempstead Anstees of Hertfordshire
• the Houghton Regis Anstees of Bedfordshire
• the Ivinghoe Anstees of Buckinghamshire
• the Kilmore, Victoria Anstees of Australia
• the Majorca, Victoria Anstees of Australia
• the Market Harborough Anstees of Leicestershire
• the Marylebone Anstees
• the Newport Pagnell Anstees
• the Potsgrove Anstees of Bedfordshire
• the Prittlewell Anstees of Essex
• the Salt Lake City, Utah Anstees of America
• the Stratton Audley Anstees of Oxfordshire
• the Subiaco, Western Australia Ansteys of Australia
• the Thornborough Anstees of Buckinghamshire
• the Toddington Anstees of Bedfordshire

However, certain Anstey families remained in Swanbourne for generations, and there was still a thriving Anstey community in Swanbourne in the mid-1800s (and likely longer), nearly three centuries after they first arrived, making the Swanbourne Anstees one of the longest resident Anstey sub-branches in a single parish.

See ‘Anstey: A Complete History From the Norman Invasion to World War One‘ for details of all of these sub-branches.

Further Details on the Swanbourne Anstees

#1. The following list gives the names of all persons who registered for the ‘Oath of Allegiance’ in 1723, and it may be taken as being comprehensive of all persons over the age of 18 who owned and occupied lands in the county who were not papists. “Anstee Edward, of Swanbourne (2 pax, both literate), Anstee Elizabeth, of Cheddington, wife of Richard (literate); Anstee John, of Swanbourne (literate); Anstee Jonathan of Cublington (literate); Anstee Richard, of Cheddington (illiterate); Anstee Thomas, of Swanbourne (2 pax, both illiterate); Anstee William, of Stewkley (illiterate)“

#2 In the 1784 ‘Poll for Knights of the Shire for the County of Bucks‘ the list of Freeholders was as follows: John Anstee of Swanbourne house and land occupied by himself; John Anstee of Mursley house and land occupied by John White; John Anstee of Twyford house and land occupied by James Stephen; Robert Anstee of Swanbourne house and land occupied by himself; William Anstee of Swanbourne house and land occupied by himself; another William Anstee of Swanbourne house and land occupied by himself – there was also William Anstee of Luton and Joseph Anstee of Houghton Regis (see the Houghton Regis page)

#3. The ‘Buckinghamshire Posse Comitatus 1798‘ In February 1798. as part of the preparations for defending England from Napoleon, a survey was undertaken in Buckinghamshire of the names and occupations of all the men between the ages of 15 and 60 years, in each of the hundreds of the County. Of the 92 people named in Swanbourne, 14 were farmers, 4 butchers, 12 baker, 3 carpenters, 2 wheelwrights, 3 blacksmiths, 1 shop keeper, 2 gardeners, 6 cordwainers. 3 tailors, 1 tinker, 1 chimneysweep, 13 servants, 37 labourers and 1 constable – there were six ‘Anstee’, being John Anstee, Thomas Anstee and William Anstee (blacksmiths); Joseph Anstee and Thomas Anstee (cordwainers); and Edward Anstee (chimney sweep)

#4. William Anstee, a labourer of Mursley, married Harriet Turvey on 29 October 1835 in Mursley. To our knowledge they had a single child Charles Anstee (b 1837 Mursley, baptised 19 March 1837). Charles Anstee married Mary Ann Kimble [Kimbler, Kimbley – b c1834, a lace maker] on 6 September 1858 in Hoggeston – the marriage certificate confirms Charles was a “22 year old labourer living in Shipton Lee in Quainton (near Mursley)“; that his father was “William Anstee labourer“; that he was literate; and that the witnesses were Elizabeth Turvey and George Hopkins. Note: this gentleman is NOT Charles Anstey (SU 1 – b 1840, patriarch of the Subiaco, Western Australia Ansteys).

#5. Duck End in Swanbourne was a hive of activity for shoe manufacturing, and numerous Swanbourne Anstees lived there in the mid-1800s, including William Anstee (SW 31), Thomas Anstee (see SW 25) and James Anstee (MH 2). Ivy Farm (previously Maudlin’s Farm) was located at Boot End which follows from Duck End and in the mid-1800s a considerable shoe manufacturing business employed many members of the Swanbourne Anstee family. The farmhouse has been separately developed in about three stages over the centuries. In the 1800s in this area there was also a (now long since closed) pub called ‘The Boot’

See also ‘Anstey: A Complete History From the Norman Invasion to World War One‘

Anybody who finds any mistakes on this page, please contact us at research@theansteystory.com and we will correct them.