Thomas Swan

Thomas Swan (1749-1805) was a tailor, originally from Boston. He also seems to have worked as a sea captain. In 1772, he allegedly took part in the burning of the armed schooner Gaspee. In 1774, as part of a town-wide effort in Bristol, Thomas sent a sum of six shillings to support the people of Boston (that city’s port having been recently closed by the British). That same year, he married Elizabeth Bosworth. Thomas and Elizabeth had several children including: Peggy, Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan Bosworth, Jeremiah Osborn, Nathaniel P., William, George Washington, and John Jay (the first seven being baptized together in 1793 at the Congregational Church). Thomas was counted as a head of household in the 1774 Rhode Island Census. In 1776, he was commissioned as an ensign and shortly after a second lieutenant in Benjamin Tallman’s Rhode Island State Regiment. He held this same rank in Christopher Smith’s Regiment in 1777. After the war, he became a justice of the peace. In the 1802 General Assembly election, Thomas was coerced by Simeon Potter into voting for James DeWolf. He was the vice president of the 1804 Independence Day celebrations in Bristol.

A song about the Burning of the Gaspee has been attributed to Thomas by Wilfred H. Munro:

‘T was in the reign of George the Third,

Our public peace was much disturbed

By ships of war that came and laid

Within our ports, to stop our trade.

Seventeen hundred and seventy-two,

In Newport Harbor lay a crew

That played the parts of pirates there,

The sons of freedom could not bear.

Sometimes they weighed and gave them chase,

Such actions, sure, were very base.

No honest coaster could pass by

But what they would let some shots fly;

And did provoke, to high degree,

Those true born sons of liberty;

So that they could no longer bear

Those sons of Belial staying there.

But’t was not long ‘fore it fell out,

That William Duddingston so stout,

Commander of the “Gaspee” tender,

Which he has reason to remember,

Because as people did assert,

He almost had his just desert;

Here, on the tenth day of last June,

Betwixt the hours of twelve and one,

Did chase the sloop, called the “Hannah”

Of whom one Lindsay was commander.

They dogged her up Providence Sound,

And there the rascal got aground,

The news it flew that very day,

That they on Namquit Point did lay.

That night about half after ten

Some Narragansett Indian men,

Being sixty-four, if I remember,

Which made the stout coxcomb surrender;

And what was best of all their tricks,

They in his breach a ball did fix;

Then set the men upon the land,

And burnt her up, we understand;

Which thing provoked the King so high

He said those men shall surely die;

So if he could but find them out,

The hangman he’ll employ, no doubt;

For he’s declared, in his passion,

He’ll have them tried in a new fashion,

Now for to find these people out,

King George has offered very stout,

One thousand pounds to find out one

That wounded William Duddingston.

One thousand more, he says he’ll spare,

For those who say the sheriffs were;

One thousand more there doth remain

For to find out the leader’s name;

Likewise, five hundred pounds per man

For any one of all the clan.

But let him try his utmost skill,

I’m apt to think he never will

Find out any of those hearts of gold,

Though he should offer fifty fold.