The 1814 Michaelmas Quarter Sessions for Kendal Westmorland tell of a Mary SWALES who was apprehended at Kirkby Lonsdale. She had been gathering rags, selling spoons and sometimes begging. She stated that she married Richard SWALES 15 years earlier at Kirkby Moorside Yorkshire and that he was a tinker of Dent. Her age can be further narrowed down because in 1811 she had been supplied with lotion and ointment (presumably for childbirth?). Her legal place of settlement was declared to be Dent which is a small town now although it used to be much more densely populated during wool production.
The burial register for Dent shows a Mary SWALE 'of Town' buried 22 April 1830 aged 70. It also gives a Richard SWALE 'of Hall Bank' buried there on 17 August 1825 aged 48. His close relative, John SWALE, also of Hall Bank, was described as a razor grinder is one of his children's baptisms but there is no mention of the word 'tinker'. This John was the ancestor of a later Robert SWALES who is found in 1861 Pembrokeshire 4167/82/7.
Since Kirkby Moorside had its own supply of SWALES, and a few links to places in Westmorland amongst them, I wonder if anyone knows who this Mary was and whether the link with Kirkby Moorside can be unravelled.