A mythical figure said to have led a series of riots in England in the November of 1830. This was after a period of high unemployment, low wages and horrible working conditions among farm workers.
600 rioters were imprisoned, 500 sentenced to transportation and 19 executed.
The true leaders of the riots adopted the pseudonym "Captain Swing," or merely "Swing," to avoid detection. A number of threatening letters, signed "Swing," were sent to farmers and landowners.
It is assumed that the name was meant to invoke the image of men who had died on the gallows.