Author: Sweeny, Robert
Biography:
SWEENY, Robert (d 1840: WBIS)
The spelling on the title-page is "Sweeny" in 1826 although some records have "Sweeney." (The Belfast record of his death uses "Sweeny.") His date of birth is not known, but his father was Campbell Sweeny of Belfast, an Irish Protestant. Robert Sweeny emigrated in 1818; by 1820 he had settled in Montreal, where he eventually established a successful legal practice. His first volume of verse, Odds and Ends, published in New York, was well received. Its dedication to the Hon. Henry Dilkes Byng, the fourth son of a British peer who was at the time a captain in the Royal Navy in charge of the Lake station in Canada, gives an indication of the author's social status. Sweeny himself served for a time as a lieutenant with the Royal Montreal Cavalry. In Sept. 1833 he married Charlotte Temple (1813-83) in Rutland VT. She was unfortunately and probably guiltlessly the cause of a duel in 1838--the last fatal duel fought in Canada--in which her husband killed Major Henry Warde. Sweeny died in Montreal of causes unknown and is buried in St. Gabriel's St. Presbyterian Church. His widow had children in her second marriage (1843), which was to John Rose, also a lawyer and military man. (ancestry.com 29 Oct. 2020; New-York American [New York] 20 Sept. 1833; Montreal Courier 28 May 1838; "Le Matin du 22 Mardi 22 Mai 1838," proposmontreal.com 30 Oct. 2020; O'Donoghue) HJ