Her father Mann Page of Gloucester County had died in 1779, when she was a child, but left her 2000 pounds if she reached adulthood, as well as a personal estate including many slaves.
In 1794, Loudoun County voters elected him as one of their two (part-time) representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he served alongside fellow Alexandria attorney Charles Lee.
[5] Either as prosecutor or city councilor (or both), in 1805 he joined Edmund J. Lee and other attorneys in petitioning President Thomas Jefferson to grant an official pardon to a slave sentenced to death for committing a burglary in Alexandria.
[7] Swann became involved in the business life of Alexandria and the new federal city across the Potomac River, as well as witnessed many real estate deeds throughout northern Virginia.
[10] Four years later, in 1808, Swann joined again with Powell but now with Edmind J. Lee and others at Gadsby's Tavern to form the Alexandria Turnpike Company, in order to construct a road and bridge to Georgetown on the other side of the Potomac River.
[16] Swann became the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1821, and remained such until 1833, when he sold the house he had built at the corner of Columbus and Prince Streets in Alexandria.
[19] However, the cost of that house, controversy between President Jackson and the Bank of the United States, and the Panic of 1837 led to financial difficulties for both Swann and his nemesis, Biddle, both of whom sold property to their sons in order to raise cash.
Morven Park remained in the family until 1898, and a few years later was acquired by future Virginia governor Westmoreland Davis, whose widow created a foundation to operate it as a historic site and museum.