Taylor Swift’s family tree connects her to the Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, New Netherland settlers and French-Canadian pioneers who helped establish Quebec. While most people recognize her as a pop culture icon, her family history tells an equally impressive story, one that may be even more fascinating. For all the Swift fans who are also interested in genealogy, follow along as I explore Taylor Swift’s French-Canadian roots and trace her early American ancestry.
French Canadian Roots
The French side of her family, through her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, dates back to Quebec’s early days when Samuel de Champlain was the unofficial governor of the colony. Her French Canadian pioneer ancestors include:
| Abraham Martin dit l’Écossais and Marguerite Langlois | Arrived in 1620. The Plains of Abraham are believed to be named after him. |
| Zacharie Cloutier and Xainte Dupont | Settled in Beauport in 1634 with their five children. |
| Henri Pinguet and Louise Lousche | Arrived in Quebec in 1634 with their three children. |
Are you interested in the earliest settlers of New France? Check out New France’s Founding Families and Their Fascinating Stories.
The Swift Family History
The Swift family traces their roots back to England. The first member of the family to come to the Massachusetts Bay Colony was William Swift. He was a leather seller who settled in Waterdown in 1634 and then moved to Sandwich, Plymouth Colony, in 1639. William married twice, first to Sarah in about 1618 and then Joane in 1626.
Swift’s family stayed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony until Nathaniel Swift moved to Warren, Litchfield, Connecticut. He died there in 1790. For a couple of generations, the family stayed in Connecticut until Julius Ceylon Swift moved to Hartwick, Otsego County, New York, where he married Lydia Hawkins and had several of their children. Julius died in Edinboro, Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1876.
The Swift family remained in Pennsylvania for the next five generations. Taylor Swift’s second great-grandfather, Charles James Fox Swift, her great-grandfather, Archie Dean Swift Sr., her grandfather, Archie Dean Swift Jr., and her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, all were born and raised in Pennsylvania.
Puritan Connections
Through her father, Taylor Swift has numerous Puritan connections dating back to the beginnings of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Connecticut Colony and the Rhode Island Colony. Some of her ancestors were prominent members of these communities.
Roger Williams
Roger Williams was a minister, theologian, author and interpreter who was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for advocating for the separation of church and state and the rights of Indigenous peoples. He established Providence Plantations in 1636, which offered a haven from the rigid Puritanism of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as religious liberty and separation of church and state. Williams also formed a new congregation in 1638 with 12 others known as the First Baptist Church in America.
John Greene
John Greene was a surgeon who briefly lived in Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, during the 1630s before following Roger Williams to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636, becoming one of the 12 original proprietors of the town. He was a co-founder of Warwick, Rhode Island, and one of the 12 original members of the First Baptist Church of America in 1638. Greene served on the Warwick town council in 1647 and 1648 and was the Warwick Deputy to the Rhode Island General Court from 1649 to 1657. He was also a magistrate for the Rhode Island General Court of Trials in March 1656.
John Sanford
John Sanford is considered one of the founders of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He followed his mother-in-law Anne Hutchinson there in 1638 and is one of the 23 men who signed the Portsmouth Compact. Sanford held many important offices in the Rhode Island Colony, including Constable in 1640, Lieutenant for the island in 1644, and Assistant to the Governor of the colony from 1647 to 1649. In 1650, Sanford was appointed Town Magistrate and, at the time of his death, he was president of the Rhode Island Colony.
Thomas Prence Jr.
Thomas Prence Jr. came to Plymouth in 1621 aboard the Fortune. He played a prominent role in Plymouth politics throughout his life, serving as Governor of Plymouth Colony for three terms, from 1634 to 1635, 1638 to 1639 and 1657 to 1673. Prence was part of a group of eight leaders in the colony who were known as the “Undertakers,” who assumed all of the colony’s debts to the merchants in exchange for being granted a monopoly on the local fur trade. In 1644, he helped found Eastham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, with Edward Bangs, John Smalley, John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Richard Higgins and Josiah Cook. Prence was also a devout Puritan who was intolerant of Quakers. He led their prosecution, imprisoning them and exiling them.
John Johnson
John Johnson emigrated to New England as part of the Great Puritan Migration. Although his exact date of arrival is unknown, he arrived via the Winthrop Fleet and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Johnson was the quartermaster at Roxbury. His duties included supervising and distributing supplies, provisions and armaments. Johnson was also one of the two delegates from Roxbury to the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, where he served as a Deputy. He also served on many committees in Roxbury and was an advisor and counsellor to powerful men in the Massachusetts Bay area, including Governor Thomas Dudley. Fun fact about Johnson — President Franklin D. Roosevelt is also one of his descendants!
Samuel Gorton Sr.
Samuel Gorton Sr. arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 during the Great Puritan Migration, settling in Boston first, where he found the religious climate too stringent and then in Plymouth, where strict religious conformity was not mandated. Gorton was banished from Plymouth in December 1638 for a religious argument he had with his landlord and moved to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1639, but was also expelled from the community. He then tried to settle in Providence, but was at odds with Roger Williams, who refused to grant him freemanship. Gorton moved to Warwick in 1642. Gorton acquired a group of about 40 supporters who shared his religious views, admired his outspoken disdain for church authorities and resented the prevailing leadership in Rhode Island. These supporters became known as Gortonites or Gortonists.
Ties to the Pilgrims
Taylor Swift has a few Pilgrims in her family tree. Through her father, she descends from five people who were aboard the Mayflower, and four of them signed the Mayflower Compact. Her Pilgrim ancestors include:
| Richard Warren | Travelled on the Mayflower without his wife, Elizabeth Walker and their five daughters. He was also one of the 41 men who signed the Mayflower Compact. |
| John Billington and Elinor | Arrived in Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower and signed the Mayflower Compact. Was the first citizen in Plymouth convicted of murder and executed. |
| Stephen Hopkins | Lived in Jamestown, Virginia from 1610 until 1614 and travelled to Plymouth in 1620 aboard the Mayflower with his second wife, Elizabeth Fisher, and three children. Signed the Mayflower Compact. |
| Francis Cooke | Was a Leiden separatist who arrived in America in 1620 on the Mayflower. Was a signer of the Mayflower Compact and a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. |
Quaker Ancestry
Taylor Swift also has some Quaker ancestry. All of the Quakers I found in her tree resided in Pennsylvania during the 1600s and 1700s.
Richard Iddings
Richard Iddings was a Quaker who emigrated with his wife, Sarah Thomas, and her extended family from Wales to East Nantmeal, Chester, Pennsylvania, around 1700, as part of a larger exodus of Quakers, where they established a Welsh community there.
Godwin Walter
Godwin Walter was a Quaker who was born in Froxfield, Wiltshire, England, around 1661, and arrived in Philadelphia on December 16, 1685, aboard the “Unicorne.” He married fellow Quaker Elizabeth Sanghurst under the care of the Concord Monthly Meeting of Friends on September 2, 1696.
Benjamin Mendenhall
Benjamin Mendenhall was born in Marridge Hill, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, England, in 1662, and settled in Pennsylvania in 1689. He attended Quaker meetings in Pennsylvania, which is how he met his wife, Ann Pennell. They were married at the Chichester Friends Meeting in February of 1689.
New Netherland Settlers
Taylor Swift descends from several New Netherland settlers who helped establish New Amsterdam before the British took control of it in 1664.
Harmen Meyndertsz van der Bogart
Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert came to New Netherland in 1631 as a surgeon at just 18 years old. He worked for the Dutch West India Company until 1633, when he settled in New Amsterdam and became the commissionary to Fort Orange. Meyndertsz died in either1647 or 1648 after he was caught having homosexual relationships with his slave, Tobias, and another boy. Because Dutch law punished homosexual relationships by death, Meyndertsz and Tobias fled and sought refuge among the Mohawks. Dutch soldiers eventually captured them, but Meyndertsz escaped again and drowned in the Hudson River while attempting to flee.
Jacob Janse Schermerhorn
Jacob Janse Schermerhorn emigrated to New Netherland around 1637. He reportedly settled in Rensselaerswyck but also owned a house inside Fort Orange. Schermerhorn was a fur trader in the Beverwyck/Albany area and also traded in Albany and Schenectady real estate. In 1648, he was arrested for selling firearms to Indians, violating a West India Company restriction that forbade such sales. It’s not clear when Schermerhorn died. He filed his will in May 1688. He may have died in the Schenectady Massacre of February 6, 1690, when French and Indian raiders destroyed the settlement of Schenectady.
Anthony Janszoon van Salee
Anthony Janszoon van Salee was a prominent Dutch settler who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1630 and purchased land in what is now Lower Manhattan. Known as “Anthony the Turk,” he reportedly had an abrasive personality, a reputation for slander and was eventually banned from New Amsterdam. Janzoon moved to Gravesend, which is now a neighbourhood in south-central Brooklyn, along the shore of Gravesend Bay and Coney Island, after Governor William Kieft granted him 200 acres. Following the death of his first wife, he moved back to New Amsterdam, despite the ban, purchasing a property on Bridge Street, where he remained until his death.
Taylor Swift’s French Canadian Cousins
Taylor Swift shares common ancestors with many other celebrities. In this instance, I am focusing only on the French Canadian pioneer ancestors she shares with other celebrities.
My Common Ancestors with Taylor Swift
Through my French-Canadian and Puritan sides, I share some common ancestors with Taylor Swift.
Shared French-Canadian Ancestors
- Abraham Martin dit l’Écossais and Marguerite Langlois
- Zacharie Cloutier and Xainte Dupont
- Jean Petit and Jeanne Gaudreau
- Laurent Seguin and Marie Massieu
- Pierre Barbeau and Madeleine Babin
- Léonard Leblanc and Marie Riton
- Jean DeNoyon and Marie Chauvin
Shared Puritan Ancestors
On the Puritan side, there are multiple connections.
Fitch Line
Taylor Line
Benedict Line
- William Benedict and Elizabeth Stephinson
- Thomas Benedict Sr. and Mary Bridgham
- John Benedict and Phoebe Gregory
Salmon/Ketcham Line
Gregory Line
Bridgham Line
Knapp Line
Bushnell Line
- Francis Bushnell and Ferris Quenell
- William Bushnell and Rebecca Chapman
- Francis Bushnell and Hannah Seymour
- Hannah Bushnell and Samuel Knapp
Seymour/Marvin Line
- Richard Seymour and Mercy Ruscoe
- Matthew Marvin and Elizabeth
- Thomas Seymour and Hannah Marvin
- Hannah Seymour and Francis Bushnell
Want to discover more celebrities with roots in New France’s founding families? Check out Celebrities You Didn’t Know Have French Canadian Pioneer Ancestors.
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