Swinburne was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1805. By 1833 he had moved to Paterson, New Jersey, where, in 1837 he was employed by Rogers, Ketchum and Grosvenor as a pattern maker. He was later promoted to shop foreman.
He left Rogers in 1845 to form his own company, Swinburne, Smith and Company, in a partnership with Samuel Smith, a foreman moulder at Rogers. Swinburne's company did not survive the Panic of 1857 and was reorganized in 1858 as the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company.[1]
After leaving the locomotive manufacturing trade, Swinburne held a number of public offices in Paterson until his death in 1883.
