The Anthony and Abigail Swaim House
South Springfield Avenue
Springfield, Union County, New Jersey

The original date stone from the rear chimney

The house on South Springfield Avenue, Springfield, NJ, was built by Anthony Swaim in 1744 for himself and his wife Abigail. He was baptised at the Port Richmond Reformed Dutch Church on Staten Island in Richmond County, NY. His parents were Mattys Sweem and Catharina Mangels Ral. Anthony Thysz Sweem and Neeltje Jansz, his paternal grandparents, were the baptismal witnesses.* He was a joiner, a skilled woodworker who crafted such structures as doors and stairs. His skill shows in the photograph below.

The Anthony Swaim house, built in 1744.

In the old Springfield cemetery is the headstone reading "Anthony Swaim, who died in 1758 when he was fourty years of age." His wife died in 1764. There were six children by the marriage; all of them were under age at the death of Abigail Swaim. The guardians were Samuel Brook and Samuel Miller. The will stipulated that when the oldest son John came of age, the property was to be divided.

The abstract of his letters of administration reads, "1758. Aug. 22. Swaim, Anthony, of Elizabeth, Essex Co., joiner. Int. Adm'x- Abigail Swaim, of same place, his widow. Bondsman- Samuel Brooks of said town. Witness- Thomas Bartow. 1758. Aug. 16. Inventory, £84.17.5, by Jacob Brookfield and Philip Denman, both of Elizabeth. Lib. F, p. 547."**

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*Wright, Tobias A., Editor. "Staten Island Church Records." Collections of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, Vol. IV; 1909. Reprint. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1997. Page 21.

**Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Vol. III, 1751-1760. Page 315.

Swaim Homestead
Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record
Drawings, photographs and documentation are available here.