FRENCH CANNINGS:
Picture of Swan Tavern, Seven Islands (Rector's Island), Rotherhithe, London
This is a rendition of the Swan Tavern, a landmark you will see on most old maps of Rotherhithe such as this 1740 map of the Seven Islands area (also known as The Rector's Island, because the area was owned by the Rector of Rotherhithe). This may have been our family's view as they came home from trips to Rotherhithe, or larger London.
Look at the bridge and building in the picture above, and compare it to the bridge and building in the 1827 (larger) map of Rotherhithe.
The Seven Islands area was composed of many canals creating many intricate islands. The canals were used to gain "head" or height of water which powered a mill near the bank of the Thames. Sluices in the canals were opened and closed in labyrinthine ways to achieve this water flow.
This was, at one time, our English Canning homestead. Rotherhithe was also the cradle of the American spirit, due to the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower having origins here.
Speaking of spirit, our Raftan Canning was a "Beer and Spirit" merchant, and owned "an Ale and Stout Depot" in London in 1865 (these two quotes are from entirely different sources: the first from his death certificate, the second from the journals of the officers of the Confederate Steamer Shenandoah, after its surrender in Liverpool). So it is unlikely that the Swan was Raftan's pub. However, Raftan's brother Baltriune Canning was born "in a cottage on the Rector's Island" in 1837, so perhaps Raftan's ale and stout depot was somewhere in Rotherhithe. Perhaps he knew the Swan as a youth.
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Kim Salisbury
Bixby Knolls, California
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