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Roger Sweny

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Unknown Report 28 Mar 2003 02:47

The name of SWENY is, fairly obviously, a variant of the Irish name SWEENEY. However, I have found it spelt Sweny in Dublin Directories of the late C18th; also, a direct male ancestor signed himself thus, when he signed for the pay of his regiment, 1st the King's Dragoon Guards, when they were stationed at Arundel, Sussex, in the early years of the C19th, when the total amount was over £2,000 - a small, or even alarge, fortune in those days. He was John Paget SWENY, who was injured at the battle of Quatre Bras, (just before Waterloo), where he received 17 lance and sabre wounds, was captured and taken before Napoleon for questioning, who saw how faint he was from loss of blood and fatigue, and insisted that his own doctor treated JPS's wounds. He survived Napoleon's retreat, escaped and received further treatment in Brussels after the Battle of Waterloo. We have all this from letters written by his brother, Mark Halpen Sweny, who joined the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman, saw action at the Battle of Copenhagen, where he lost a finger, (and gained a pension of £91 p.a.!), becoming known in the family as "Three-fingered Jack". MHS was also at Trafalgar, where he was a lieutenant on the 'Colossus', a ship of the line. He had various other actions, including a trip to the West Indies, and acting as a Coast Guard at Hastings, where he was in charge of a party who came across some smugglers, one of whom was shot; which caused a great commotion at the time.