Background
Born in Oxford in 1820, he was second son of Ebenezer Swain by his wife Harriet James. Joseph Swain, pastor of East Street Baptist church, Walworth, was his grandfather. In 1834 Swain was apprenticed by his father, a printer with the firm of Wertheimer & Company, to the wood-engraver Nathaniel Whittock, and was transferred in 1837 to Thomas Williams, brother of Samuel Williams.
Education
He was educated at private schools, first in Oxford, and then in London, where the family moved in 1829.
Career
He is best known from his engravings in Punch magazine of cartoons by Sir John Tenniel. In 1843 he was appointed manager of the engraving department of Punch, but in the following year set up in business for himself, retaining the whole of the engraving work for Punch from 1844 until 1900. He taught William Harcourt Hooper.
Swain died at Ealing in west London in 1909.
In 1843 Swain married Martha Cooper.