Pennsylvania assemblyman and militia officer.

Innkeeper at York. Coroner (1761). J.P. (1764). Member of the Pennsylvania Assembly (1768-71, 1774-75). Major, later colonel, in Thomas Hartley’s battalion of York County Associators (1775-76). Recruited the first Pennsylvania battalion of the Flying Camp (1776). Captured at Fort Washington (November 1776) and imprisoned at New York. Proposed as an exchange for William Franklin (1778). After fourteen months’ parole, spent the rest of the war in prison; exchanged (January 1781). Returned to York, where he became a storekeeper and was reappointed Justice of the Peace (1782). Moved to Alexandria, Virginia (1785). Both John Hancock and Baron von Steuben briefly resided in Swoope’s house at York during the Revolutionary War.

Married (1) Anna Maria Spangler. Married (2) Eva [last name unknown].