Biography

Son of Elizabeth Seward and Johnathan Sweezy, Thomas Sweezy was the nephew of SSS and may have worked as a law partner with SSS for a short time. He is found listed as "Thomas Swezey," an Attorney in Orange County, NY on 1812. This is likely the date he became an attorney. 18390216BJS_WHS1 mentions: "From you & from Tom Sweezy I have always been led to think the world & all of Mr Duer – and he may ^have^ & I suppose has, a lawyers skill and a lawyers caution – but depend upon it he has no mercantile precision or dis-patch and cannot be a financier." Ouch. The Tom Sweezy mentioned seems as though it could only be the cousin of BJS, but it is strange that BJS is mentioning a man 20 years dead. There is a possibility the Tom Sweezy mentioned in the letter is not this Thomas Sweezy, especially if BJS and WHS weren't yet acquainted with John Duer by 1818.


A genealogical blogger says, "You would think that if Thomas was an Attorney in 1812, I should see him in the 1820 census somewhere in New York, but I do not. Nothing in 1830 either. Thomas must have died young, or he moved out of state. Even if he moved out of state, he could not have a large family, or have lived very long, because I would have seen him in the 1850 census somewhere."

According to Family Bible, Thomas and his brothers died unmarried.

The Sept. 1813 edition of the Orange County Patriot says: "Attorney's Office, Thomas Swezey, Attonerney at Law, Informs the Public that he has opened an office opposite the Academy in the village of FLORIDA, where all business in his profession will be strictly attended to. June 12th, 1813."
Another record, Manual, Complied and Prepared for the Use of the Assembly..., by Aaron Clark, says that a Thomas Sweezy practiced law in Warwick. Either way, Florida is very close (5.5 miles) to  Warwick, and this Thomas Sweezy is likely the same attorney of law found in the following 26 May 1818 Edition of the "Orange County Patriot":

"DIED
At Florida, on the 19th inst. after a short and severe illness, Thomas Swezey, Esq. Attorney at Law, in the 29th year of his age. Affectionate tenderness, had endeared him to his family and relations; urbanity of manners, and candor of conduct, had given him strong and acknowledged claims upon the circle of community in which he moved."