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.
He 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 river Styx. He also bought several other properties of over 3000 acres (12 km²). He returned briefly returned to India in 1830 at the expiration of his leave where he resigned his military commission and returned to Tasmania in May 1831.
In November 1831 he was appointed managing director of the Derwent Bank which had recently established as a partnership by a group of Hobart citizens. He was soon to buy a controlling interest in the bank. 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. His influence in the colony increased when he was nominated to the Tasmanian Legislative Council. 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.
In 1835 John Batman's expedition landed at Port Phillip and bought 600,000 acres (2400 km²) including the future sites of Melbourne and Geelong. It had been bankrolled by a group of Hobart investors, including Swanston, who acted as the syndicate's banker. Recognition of the title to this land was refused by the government in Sydney and London despite strenuous claims by the Port Phillip Association of its legality. The Port Phillip Association was granted compensation of £7,000, allowed as a reduction on the purchase price of land bought by the association in Melbourne at public auction. Most of the members of the association sold their entitlements to Swanston.
In 1844 Swanston, in partnership with his son-in-law Edward Willis, began trading as a grazier and merchant in Geelong. They controlled several properties in western Victoria totaling over 150,000 acres (600 km²).
In 1841 Swanston had converted the Derwent Bank into a mortgage bank. As the economic depression of the 1840s deepened the flow of overseas capital to the bank greatly diminished, the value of the land over which the bank held mortgages dropped and the price of wool fell. He managed the bank to last for another five years; he was forced to resign and the Derwent Bank went into liquidation. His liabilities were estimated at £104,375. He became a bankrupt and settled with his creditors at 10 shillings in the pound. In 1850 he fled Australia and sailed for America but stayed only briefly. Departing California he died on 5 September on board "Raven" and was buried at sea.
Swanston Street in Melbourne is named after him.