Swan (James) is born in Scotland.

James Swan arrives in Boston in 1765, joins the Sons of Liberty, serves in the Colonial artillery corps, and is said to be a privateer while holding various government post during the Revolutionary War. He marries Hepzibah Clarke in 1775, moves to the former Stephen Greenleaf House near today’s 140 Tremont (then Common Street), and builds a summer home in Dorchester in 1796.* After squandering his wife’s wealth through gambling and poor investments, Swan moves to Paris in 1788, makes and loses his own fortune, serves more than 20 years in a French prison, and dies on a Paris Street shortly after his release in 1831.