This past weeks finds...

MaryAird

Samuel Sweeny
1785-1823

                                       

                                                                                        

                                                         

 Married in Colchester, Essex, England in 1811   at All Saints Church across from Colchester Castle.

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Samuel Sweeny and Mary were born in Ireland

no birth or death date can be found for Mary she was born in the Army  Barracks in Maryborough, Ireland where her father was the Quarter Sergeant. nevertheless an article was written about her legacy. Her surname Aird is found as part of the name of at least 17 of her descendants all over the world.

After their marriage Samuel and Mary had five children the first three were born on the Isle of Wight.

Samuel Sweeny fought in the Battle of Vittoria in 1813 in Spain against Napoleon and was badly injured..

In 1817 he was in Malta, by  1821  he was in Corfu where his last two children were born and where he died in 1823.

Their eldest son Samuel Aird Sweeny born in 1819 on the Isle of Wight is my connection to this family one of his descendants married a cousin on my Oldcorn direct line.  Samuel Aird Sweeney worked as a Clerk for British Railways, married and had three children before emigrating to Australia in 1855 where he had two more children. One son Aird Sweeny born in England in 1855 is found in the following portrait with his family in Sydney Australia where he died in 1934.

History in Colchester 
 Colchester has as long a history as anywhere in Britain.

It was here that the Emperor Claudius received the surrender of the Celtic kings to found the Roman Province of Britannia. And every era since - from the Saxon, the Norman, the Medieval, the Tudor, the Stuart, the Georgian, the Victorian to the Modern - has left its mark on the town and added to the richness of its heritage.

I spent several hours reading and watching video on Colchester and the history of England because I looked for the marriage place of Samuel Sweeny and Mary Aird information on the History Channel was amazingly well done. Took me right back to history lessons in school where we learned about the Roman conquest of Britain.

The miniature portraits of Samuel and Mary were painted of them by a fellow soldier.