Charles Swanston
| Charles Swanston | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Charles Swanston 1789 Berwick upon Tweed, England |
| Died |
5 September 1850 On board ship |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Merchant, banker and politician |
Charles Swanston (1789 – 5 September 1850) merchant, banker and politician was a financial backer of the Port Phillip Association. He was born in Berwick upon Tweed, England the son of Robert and Rebecca (née Lambert) Swanston. At 16 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the private army of the British East India Company.
In 1810 he was a member of an expedition which obtained the political overthrow of Mauritius and was appointed to survey the island.
In May 1814 Swanston left England and returned to duty in India via Scutari and Baghdad, a distance of 3000 km on horseback in 48 days. In September 1817 he was ordered to raise 1000 men for the Poona Auxiliary Horse brigade and was appointed commander. In command of these troops he was involved in several actions and was wounded three times. In 1818 he captured Trimbackjee Dainglia an agitator on whose head the British had placed a price of £10,000. In January 1819 Swanston was promoted captain, but within a year lost his command because of great reductions in the army. In 1821 he was offered the position of assistant quartermaster-general of the army but declined, accepting instead the office of military paymaster in the provinces of Travancore and Tinnevelly a position he held for six years. In September 1828 he was granted a year's leave to Van Diemen's Land on account of ill health.
Swanston arrived at Hobart Town in HMS Success on 4 January 1829 with his wife Georgina (née Scherson) and young family. Although on leave, he soon purchased 'Fenton Forest' an estate on the Styx River. He also bought several other properties of over 3000 acres (12 km²). He returned briefly to India in 1830 at the expiration of his leave, where he resigned his military commission and returned to Van Diemen's Land in May 1831.
In November 1831 he was appointed managing director of the Derwent Bank, which had recently been established as a partnership predominantly by supporters of the government. He was also nominated a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council in 1832. He soon bought a controlling interest in the Derwent Bank, and under his control the enterprise prospered attracting large amounts of overseas capital for investment at high rates of interest. He was responsible for introducing the overdraft system to Australian banking in 1834 in which year he established the Derwent Savings Bank. In addition to banking he conducted an import-export business for commodities such as tea, rum and wool. On behalf of many officers and officials in India he invested money in Van Diemen's Land in mortgages and bank shares.
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