Our indexes include entries for the spelling swyer. In the period you have requested, we have the following 83 records (displaying 1 to 10): 

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Inhabitants of Yorkshire (1297) Taxation roll of the lay (non-clergy) inhabitants of Yorkshire from the 25th year of the reign of king Edward I. Latin	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons (1317-1321) The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 11th to the 14th years of the reign of king Edward II (8 July 1317 to 7 July 1321) were edited for the Public Record Office by G. F. Handcock, and published in 1903. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons. Most extensive are the commissions of oyer and terminer to justices to investigate complaints about specific crimes and wrongs in particular counties.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Inhabitants of Yorkshire: Agbrigg Ash wapentake (1379) The poll tax returns for this wapentake, the area around Dewsbury, Huddersfield and Wakefield.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Inhabitants of Yorkshire: Staincliff wapentake (1379) The poll tax returns for this wapentake, the area around Keighley, Settle and Skipton.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Landowners and tenants in Lincolnshire (1345-1485) Inquisitions ad quod damnum were held by the appropriate sheriff or escheator (or other officer in whose bailiwick the matter in question might lie) to investigate cases in which the royal or public interest might be damaged by proposed alienation or settlement of land (especially alienation to religious uses, into mortmain). The key findings from these inquisitions were as to the tenure of the land and the service due from it; its yearly value; the lands remaining to the grantor, and whether they sufficed to discharge all duties and customs due from him; and whether he can still be put upon juries, assizes and recognitions, so that the country be not burdened by his withdrawal from them. Generally speaking, this process had the makings of a system of licensing such alienations, and raising money in proportion to the valuations. Equally, there are many items that deal with subjects such as the closing of public roads, the felling or inclosing of woods, or the proposed grant of liberties or immunities. A calendar of these inquisitions from the 19th year of the reign of king Edward III to the 2nd year of Richard III was prepared by the Public Record Office and published in 1906. We have now indexed this calendar by surname and county. Most of the individuals appearing in the calendar are either pious individuals seeking to make grants to religious bodies for the sake of their souls; or landowners securing the disposition and settling of their real estate. But some other names do appear - tenants, trustees, chaplains and clerks.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Yorkshire Testators and Legatees (1484-1508) Wills and testaments from the diocese of York (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Hexhamshire, Lancashire north of the Ribble, and southwest Westmorland) registered at York. Richmond and Southwell archdeaconries had their own lower probate jurisdictions, so the wills registered at York are predominantly from the East and West Ridings and the eastern part of the North Riding of Yorkshire. In theory, wills dealt with real property and testaments with personal property, but the distinction hardly applies in practice: most of these wills are in Latin, but some are in English. Being before the Reformation, they commonly start with benefactions to churches, chantries, chapels, &c., and with provisions for the burning of candles ('lights') and saying of masses. This publication in 1869 by the Surtees Society as Testamenta Eboracensia iv is an edition by James Raine of selected wills from the period. Some additional material is included from the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and the York Dean and Chapter archives.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Ilkley Archers (1539) In anticipation of war with France, Henry VIII ordered a general muster of able-bodied men throughout the kingdom. That for the wapentake of Skyrack, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, took place at Wike (near Leeds) before sir William Gascoigne the elder, sir William Middleton and sir William Maleverer, on 26 March 1539. Skyrack wapentake consisted of the ancient parishes of Aberford, Adel, Bardsey, Barwick in Elmet, Bingley, Collingham, Garforth, Guiseley, Harewood, (part of) Ilkley, Kippax, Otley, Swillington and Thorner, as well as the borough of Leeds. This muster roll listing the archers, billmen and spearmen of the wapentake by township or constablewick, was preserved among the State Papers in the Public Record Office; it was edited by W. Paley Baildon, and printed in three issues of the Miscellanea of the Thoresby Society (volumes 4 and 9) through to 1899. For each township there is a list of archers, divided into those fully and those partly ('parcel') armoured ('harnessed'), and a similar list of billmen; a few spearmen also appear. The weapon of the billmen - the bill or halberd - was a blade with a long wooden handle, sometimes with a hook with a cutting edge added at one side.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Tenants, founders and incumbents of Yorkshire chantries (1546-1548) Chantries were established to perform services for the souls of their founders and other faithful dead, including annual obits and anniversaries at which alms were usually distributed. The chantries could be at an existing altar in a parish church, a new altar in a side chapel of an existing church, in a new chapel in the churchyard or some miles from an existing church: few were founded before 1300, and most date from 1450 to 1500. Hospitals were places provided by similar foundations to receive the poor and weak; there were also religious guilds, brotherhoods and fraternities, and colleges (like large chantries at which three or more secular priests lived in common). An Act of Parliament of 1545 gave king Henry VIII the power to dissolve such chantries, chapels, &c., the proceeds to be devoted to the expenses of the wars in France and Scotland. Commissioners were appointed 14 February 1546 to survey the chantries and seize their property, and from 1546 to 1548 the commissioners produced these certificates giving brief details of the establishment and nature of each foundation, with an inventory of valuables and rental of lands. The individuals named in the certificates are thus the founder, the present incumbent, and the tenants whose rents provided the chantry's income. All the surviving certificates were edited by William Page for the Surtees Society, and published from 1892.	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Yorkshire Feet of Fines (1571-1584) Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Yorkshire	Sample scan, click to enlarge
Jurymen in the North Riding of Yorkshire (1605-1612) The Quarter Sessions minute books for the North Riding from April 1605 to July 1612 were edited by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson for the North Riding Record Society and published in 1884. This is a calendar of sessional orders, minutes of criminal cases, memoranda and other entries of record concerning the administration of the riding, for the quarter sessions and special sessions held at Thirsk, Stokesley, Richmond, Malton, Helmsley, Northallerton and Topcliffe. This is the index to the jurors.	Sample scan, click to enlarge

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