Author: Swanwick, John
Biography:
SWANWICK, John (1759?-98: ANBO)
He was born in Liverpool, the son of Richard Swanwick and his wife Mary Bickerton, who emigrated to America about 1770 and settled in Philadelphia. (Father and son later supported opposite sides, loyalist and patriot respectively, in the Revolution.) Though self-educated, Swanwick was well read and good with figures. He started work in 1774 as an apprentice clerk in a counting-house. In 1783 he became a partner in the import-export firm of Willing, Morris, and Swanwick. Eventually he bought out his partners and became a prosperous merchant. But even before then, through the influence of Morris, he had become a receiver of taxes for Pennsylvania, then treasurer of the superintendant of finance for the US government. In 1792-3 he acted as Director of the Bank of North America. He never married, but supported such progressive social issues as education for women. Elected to Congress in 1794 and again in 1796, he championed an economic policy that would favour urban entrepreneurs or "merchant-Republicans." But when his own fortunes collapsed, his supporters fell away. He died a bankrupt, of yellow fever, at his home in Frankford PA. (ANBO 29 Oct. 2020) HJ