Author: Courtenay, John, Jr.
Biography:
COURTENAY, John, Jr. (c. 1776-1794)
A younger son of John Courtenay (q.v.) and his wife (Esther?), he was born in 1776, possibly in Ireland. No birth records have been found. He is almost certainly the John Courtenay who has an entry in ACAD where his dates are given as 1776-1874. ACAD identifies him as being educated at Dr. Thompson’s school in Kensington. Courtenay’s elder brother, Kenneth (1769-1838), also listed in ACAD, attended the Kensington school. The John Courtenay listed in ACAD was admitted to Peterhouse College, Cambridge, in June 1792 and matriculated in 1793 but did not proceed to a degree. Those dates fit with ones given in Juvenile Poems when John Courtenay was in Cambridge. According to a note in Juvenile Poems, he travelled to Paris with his father in 1792 and showed bravery in resisting an assault by a young soldier at the door of the National Convention. He left Cambridge to become a cadet in the Royal Engineers and was stationed in Portsmouth in Apr.-May 1794. He suddenly collapsed and died at a ball in Calcutta on 14 Dec. 1794. No death notice has been located. (ODNB [for John Courtenay, Sr.] 3 Apr. 2024; ACAD)