Samuel Swann, Colonel Thomas Swann I’s son and principal heir, was born in 1653 and was the son of Sarah Cod. In 1668 Samuel Swann patented 248 acres of land in Surry County, acreage that formerly had belonged to his brother, Thomas Swann II. Later, he laid claim to 960 acres in Lower Norfolk County. In 1673 he married the daughter of William Drummond I. He became a Surry County justice in 1674 and served as high sheriff in 1675 and two years later was elected a burgess. He represented Surry in the assembly in 1677, 1680, 1682, 1684, 1686, and 1692. He also was a major in the local militia (Withington 1980:534-535; Surry County Deeds, Wills, &c. 1671-1684:115, 165, 272; 1687-1694:28; Stanard and Stanard 1965:82-84, 88-89; McIlwaine 1918:93; Nugent 1969-1979:II:55, 303).
During the early 1680’s Samuel Swann and his stepmother, Mary, who were co-heirs to the late Thomas Swann I’s estate, shared ownership of the decedent’s taverns in Jamestown and at Wareneck, and they also were co-owners of some land in Surry County. On February 25, 1682, Madam Mary Mansfield Swann released her dower interest in all of her late husband’s property to her stepson,Samuel, with the exception of the taverns in Jamestown and Wareneck. However, on February 15, 1685, Samuel conveyed to Mary his interest in 300 acres at Swann’s Point, part of her dower share. By July 1685 the widowed Mary Swann had remarried, taking as her husband Robert Randall, with whom she moved to England (Surry County Deeds, Wills, &c. 1671-1691:297; 1694-1709:413, 418-419; Withington 1980:525).
Major Samuel Swann, who was intensely disliked by Governor Francis Nicholson, eventually moved to Carolina. He married Elizabeth Lillington, the daughter of Carolina’s governor, and disposed of the ancestral plantation at Swann’s Point (Withington 1980:42, 534-535; Sainsbury 1964:22:158; Meyer and Dorman 1987:325).