This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Swinburn,' a township in the parish of Chollerton, Northumberland.

William de Swinburne, 1278, Northumberland: Lower's Patronymica Britannica.

John de Swynburne, Northumberland, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

Nicholas de Swynburne, Northumberland: ibid.

William de Swyneburne, Northumberland: ibid.

1576. Henry Swynburn, Yorkshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1793. Married — Paul Binfield and Mary Frances Swinburne: St. George, Hanover Square.

Perhaps from the township of Swinburne in Northumberland. There appears, however, to have been a place named Swinburne near Stenton in the reign of Alexander II. William de Swineburne, the king's clerk, was granted a dispensation to hold an additional benefice in 1253 (Pap. Let.., I, p. 283; ES., II, p. 572n). Sir W. de Swyneburne witnessed a charter to the Priory of May by Alexander Comyn, earl of Buchan (RPSA., p. 383). An annuity paid to John de Swyneburne, 1291 (Bain, II, 490).

(English) belonging to Swinburn; or Dweller at the Swine-Brook [Old English swín + burne] The Northumbrian Swinburn, 13th cent. Swynbume, “takes its name from the Swinburn brook, a tributary of the North Tyne.” (National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland) (Scandinavian) the O.Scand. Suinbiörn = WiseBear [Old Norse suinn-r, wise, intelligent + biörn, a bear]

A township in the parish of Chollerton, co. Northumberland, which was possessed by the first recorded ancestor, John, father of Sir William de Swinburne, who was living in 1278, and of Alan Swinhurne, rector of Whitfield, who purchased Capheaton (the present abode of the family) from Sir Thomas Fenwick in 1274. Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men. Sir William de Swinburne, just mentioned, held Chollerton under the Umfreville family, and the arms of the Swinburnes are evidently derived from those of Umfreville.

Local. Sweyne's burn or boundary, from bourn, a boundary.

Or Hairun. In the 13th cent. William Herun held a barony in Northumberland, including Swinburne, which John de Wircester held from him by ancient enfeoffment (Testa de Neville). Ralph de Wircester had held the same barony 1165, as had Paganus de W. a quarter of a fee from him (Swinburne). The family of Wircester, of which Swinburne was a branch, appears to have been the same as that of Heron or Hairun. See Heron.

Swinburne was the name of an old gentle family of Huthwaite, Cumberland, in the 16th century, and long before (P.). The Cumberland Swinburnes were perhaps derived from the Northumberland Swinburnes, an ancient knightly family owning the township of Swinburne, in that county, as far back as the 13th century (L.). A few of the name of Swinbourne now occur in Essex.

The Swinburnes for centuries possessed lands at Chollerton (C.).