Born in Tetney,[3] Swaby was educated at Durham University, where he won the Barry Scholarship.
[4] He eventually gained a doctorate in Divinity[5] He held incumbencies at Castletown, Sunderland[6] and at Milfield before being ordained to the episcopate in 1893[7] as Bishop of Guyana.
[8] He was consecrated a bishop on 24 March 1893, by Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey.
[9] In Guyana he encouraged the development of a Third Order of Saint Francis within the Anglican church based on the work by Emily Marshall.
The idea grew[10] and when Swaby was Translated to Barbados and the Windward Islands in December 1899[11]/1900 then the new order quickly took hold.