SWAINSWICK, a parish in the hundred of BATH-FORUM, county of SOMERSET, 3 miles (N. by E.) from Bath, containing 381 inhabitants. The living is a discharged rectory, in the archdeaconry of Bath, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at £9- 17- 8., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £ 200 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Provost and Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, contains the remains of the celebrated William Prynne, barrister at law, an active statesman and public writer during the disturbed reign of Charles I. He was born at this place in 1600, and died in 1669.