Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Swift's father died in Dublin about seven months before his namesake was born.He died of syphilis, which he said he got from dirty sheets when out of town.

At the age of one, child Jonathan was taken by his wet nurse to her hometown of Whitehaven, Cumberland, England. He said that there he learned to read the Bible. His nurse returned him to his mother, still in Ireland, when he was three.

His mother returned to England after his birth, leaving him in the care of his uncle Godwin Swift (1628–1695), he sent the younger Swift to Kilkenny College age six, Swift graduated in 1682, when he was 15.