The history of the name Sweit goes back those Anglo-Saxon tribes that once ruled over Britain. Such a name was given to a person who was referred to as swete, which is an Old English word used to describe a sweet or gentle person. [1] Another source claims the name was "probably an Anglo-Saxon personal name, having reference to character." [2]
The surname Sweit was first found in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 where the name was found as both a forename and a surname: Swet le Bone, Norfolk; Adam Swet, Oxfordshire; and Roger Swet, Cambridgeshire. [3]
In Somerset, Walter Swete was listed there 1 Edward III (during the first year of the reign of King Edward III) [4] and later the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 listed Johannes Suete and Johannes Swete as holding lands there at that time. [3]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Sweit research. Another 265 words (19 lines of text) covering the years 1660, 1672, 1672, 1712, 1685, 1752, 1821, 1752, 1770, 1774, 1777, 1781, 1578, 1700, 1583, 1583 and 1708 are included under the topic Early Sweit History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Sweit family name include Sweit, Sweet, Swete, Sweete, Sweett and others.
More information is included under the topic Early Sweit Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Some of the Sweit family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 34 words (2 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Investigation of the origins of family names on the North American continent has revealed that early immigrants bearing the name Sweit or a variant listed above: Robert Sweet who settled in Virginia in 1623; George settled there in 1653; Thomas Sweet settled in Boston Massachusetts in 1633; William Sweet settled in Virginia in 1654.