AustLit

Swan was a Scottish social libertarian and friend of John Dunmore Lang. He worked for the Scots Times in Glasgow and then for the Colonist and the Sydney Herald in New South Wales. After proving unsuccessful as a farmer, Swan began his connection with the Moreton Bay Courier, initially as the newspaper's founding printer, and subsequently as owner and editor/co-editor.

Raymond Evans and William Thorpe in 'In Search of "Jack Bushman"' argue that Swan might have been the author 'Jack Bushman' , whose works appeared in the Moreton Bay Courier in the period 1858-1860, however the evidence for this claim remains circumstantial.