Timothy Swan

Timothy Swan (1758–1842)[1] was a Yankee tunesmith and hatmaker born in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

These tunes and settings were produced for choirs and singing schools located in Congregationalist communities of New England.

Barnes, an "importer of foreign goods"[7] was a loyalist who eventually left the colonies to return to England as relations between the two became increasingly strained.

After leaving Barnes' employ, Swan moved to Groton, Massachusetts to live with his older brother William.

In 1774, Swan left Groton to enlist in the Continental Army located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

His marriage to Mary on May 5, 1784, produced a large family similar to his own, ten children several of which were musicians like their father.

By 1800, his tunes were being printed in larger areas: New York, Virginia, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

[6][14] In October 1807, 25 years after settling in Suffield, Swan and his family moved back to the town of his childhood.

Swan continued to compose music and receive requests from other compilers seeking to purchase the copyright of some of his more popular tunes.

An obituary published in the Boston Daily Advertiser, dated August 5, 1842, noted, "Timothy Swan, 82, generally known to the public as the author of China and other pieces of sacred music, which have [so] long held a place in successive musical collections, that they have seemed to belong to an age long gone by.