Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/98

 SWIIT

SWIFT

ncers for the Atlantic cocost, April 21, 1817; eliief of the engineer bureau at Washington, D.C, April 3, 1817, and inspector of the Jlilitary acad- einy. April 7, 1818. He was Burvoyor of the U.S. revenue for the jKirt of New York, 1818-27; niem- l)er of the board of visitors to the Military acad- emy, 1822-24; chief engineer of the U.S. harbor improvements on the Groat Lakes, 1829-35, and of the New Orleans and L;ike Pontchartrain rail- rojid, 1830-31; was active in suppressing Canada border disturbances, 1839, and in 1841 was ap- jwinted by President Harrison U.S. commissioner to the British provinces to negotiate a treaty with Cfreat Britain. He was married in 1805, to Louisa, daugliter of Capt. James Walker, of W^il- mington, N.C., and of liis children, two sons died in the service; Jonathan Williams, an officer in the U.S. navy, was crippled for life on board the frigate Brandywine, and IMcRea Swift became a civil engineer. General Swift received the degree of LL.D. from Kenyon college, Gambler, Ohio, in 1843; was elected a member of La Societe Frangaise de Statique Universelle de Paris in 1839, and was a member of several scientific and historical societies. He is the author of a diary and of contributions to scientific publica- tions. He died in Geneva, N.Y., July 23, 18G5.

SWIFT, Lewis, astronomer, was born in Clarkson. N.Y., Feb. 29, 1820; fourth son and last survivor of a familj' of nine children of Gen. Lewis and Anna (Forbes) Swift; grandson of Roland Swift, a Revolutionary soldier, who died in De Ruyter, N.Y.,

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in 1849, aged 96; and a descendant of Will- iam Swj^ft, who emi- grated from England and settled in Sand- wich, Mass., in 1638. Gen. Lewis Swift moved from W^ind- ham, Conn., to Clark- son in 1809, and set- tled in a dense forest eighteen miles west of Rochester, which was then a settle- ment consisting of five log houses and one log prist mill. Dr. Lewis Swift was ed- ucated at Clarkson academy. At the age of thirteen he broke the bone of his left hip, which made him permanently lame. On leaving school he took up the stu.ly of electricity, electro-mag- netism, and later, without a teacher, astronomy. His first honor in this science was achieved in JIarathon, N.Y., where from a platform on the gable end of his barn he discovered the great comet of 1862 (iiaving a period of 123 years), re-

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markable as having elements identical with those of the star shower of Aug. 10-11. In 1872 he moved to Rochester, where he was a hardware merchant by day and a comet seeker by night. From the roof of a large cider mill, he in five years discovered six new comets. In 1903 he had discovered eighteen comets, several being periodic, ranging from 5^ to 8J to 123 years. He saw in all its indescribable glory the great star shower of Nov. 13, 1833, and two years later in- dependently discovered Halley's comet, having a period of 75^^ years, and the great comet of 1843. He had in 1903 observed three total eclipses of the sun, and the return of the November, 1833, star shower in 1806. In 1882 he received $13,000 from the people of Rochester to purchase a 16-inch tel- escope, a spectroscope and sidereal clock, and Mr. H. H. Warner built for their use one of the finest observatories in the world, of white sand-stone. W^lnle its director, Dr. Swift discovei'ed 900 new nebulte, and at the Lowe observatory. Echo Moun- tain, Cal., 242 more, and several comets. For his discoveries he received in prizes $1000 in cash, and nine medals (three of gold) from Austria; the Lalande prize of 540 francs and a silver medal from France; the Mrs. Jackson Gwilt bronze medal from England (being its first recipient), and four bronze medals from the Astronomical Society of California. In 1880 the University of Rochester conferred on him the degree of Ph.D., and in 1879 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Astronomical society of England. In Ai^ril, 1903, he was elected a F.R.A.S. of Canada, and an honorary member of the Astronomical Society of Mexico. Because of failing sight he sold his astronomical equipment to the Lowe observatory, Cal. He was twice married, and was in 1903 a widower, with four children living.

SWIFT, Zephaniah, jurist, was born in Ware- ham, Mass., Feb. 27, 1759; son of Roland and Mary (Dexter) Swift; grandson of Jireh and Abigail (Gibbs) Swift; great-grandson of "VVilliam and Ruth Swift, and a descendant of William Swyft, born in England, who settled at Sandwich in 1638. He was graduated from Y^'ale college, A.B., 1778, A.M., 1781; was admitted to the bar and began practice at Windham, Conn. He was a Federalist representative from Connecticut in the 3d and 4th congresses, 1793-97; served as secretary to Oliver Ellsworth, U.S. minister to France, 1800; was judge of the state supreme court, 1801-06, and chief justice, 1806-19. He was a member of the New England Federalists' convention at Hartford, Conn., Dec. 15, 1814; and of the committee on the revision of the state stat- ute laws. He was married to Lucretia Webb, by whom he had seven children; their daughter, Mary A. Webb, is the author of "First Lessons on Natural Philosophy " (about 1843), transhited