Daniel McSwiney, M.A.

Daniel McSwiney - Greek and Latin Scholar, Teacher, Poet and Novelist.

Daniel's father Morgan was born at the large family farm at Dromboy, Co. Cork, Ireland - six miles north of Cork City, owned by his grandfather, also Daniel McSwiney.

Birth April 12 1790

Baptism April 13 1790

Daniel's birth and baptism are recorded in the Registry of Births for St. Mary's Cathedral, cork City [Source: National Library of Ireland - http://registers.nli.ie/registers/vtls000633153#page/1/mode/1up]

Morgan had the means to ensure that his son Daniel received a good education - M.A. in the Classics (Latin, Greek). His Cork cousins were also similarly well-educated and successful in their professions.

1808 Register, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland,.

The 1808 Register (page 116) lists a Daniel McSwiney (age 18) of Cork matriculating in "Logic Class" (#5864)
Also listed on the same page is

• a Patrick McSwiney matriculating In the "Humanity Class" (presumably Daniel's younger cousin) who later had a distinguished career as Professor and Rector (President) of the Irish College in Paris. (#5865
• a Daniel McSwiney - older brother of Patrick) receiving his ordination (he matriculated in 1801 in the Humanity Class) (#5863)

[Further listed is a Peter McSwiney of Cork matriculating on 6 February 1810 (#5866). The Diocese of Cork and Ross lists a Rev Peter McSwiney as a cousin of the brothers Very Rev Daniel and Very Rev Patrick McSwiney.]

Daniel writes in a poem (see below "The Home of my Childhood) about returning after his parents had passed and looking down from the wood to the 'village', reminiscing about the good times of his youth, so it is highly probable that he, too, was born at Drumbuoy, Cork Co., Ireland, The poem also refers to his carefree youth and attending 'balls' - which would imply that his parents had the means.

Given the age on his death certificate - 44 years - he was born in 1790 - and this correlates to the Register of Births at St. Anne's and St. Mary's in Cork's North-East Parish as follows:

- parents Morgan McSwiney and Abigail Mulcahy. -children:

• Elizabeth birth 1788.05.11 * Daniel's birth 1790.04.12
• David birth 1792.04.23,
• Cornelius birth 1801.10.30
• Abigail birth 1805.09.30

[Source: St. Mary's and St. Anne's RC Church, North Parish, Cork, Birth Register 9, Page 56, Entry 16]

Both the marriage and the birth certificates of his son, Herbert, refer to him as being Daniel McSwiney. Also his great-nephew Denis refers to him as Daniel - see 1898 letter below. [The photo of him shown here on Geni.com was wrongly attributed to his brother David by a family descendant]

His great-nephew Denis, Dean of Cork, in a letter dated 14 December 1898 to his cousin Rev. Herbert (Daniel's son), mentions "All I ever learned of Daniel is that he went to Brighton in the early part of this Century, and became a teacher in your maternal grandfather's (Edward Allfree) educational institution." Dean Denis also referred to Daniel's brother David, and two sisters. Cornelius was not mentioned.

1817 Daniel ,age 27, left Ireland with his M.A. degree in the Classics. .In the 19th century, one of the main routes to England was from South Leinster and Munster - Cork - via boat to Bristol.

Connection with Elizabeth Barrett Browning

He was hired (at the age of 27) in 1817 by Mr Barrett of Hope End, a 500-acre estate near the Malvern Hills in Ledbury, Herefordshire, England, to tutor his son Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett in the Classics (the 'learned' languages, Latin and Greek) in order to prepare him for entrance to Charterhouse (a prestigious school for boys, age 13 to 18) in Godalming, Surrey. Edward's sister - the precocious prodigy 11 year old Elizabeth Moulton Barrett [later to become Elizabeth Barrett Browning] - sat in on those lessons to receive her first Greek lessons.

(See 'The Origins of a New Poetry' by Dorothy Mermin, which refers to Daniel as a tutor to the Barretts)

• ...at ten, she began to study Greek with Bro’s tutor Daniel McSwiney
• at eleven, she began writing her own Homeric epic The Battle of Marathon; and,
• on her fourteenth birthday in 1820, exulted to see her epic privately printed in fifty copies (a gift from her father). She ‘was familiar with Shakespeare Milton Homer and Virgil Locke Hooker Pope’, reading Homer and Virgil ‘in the original with delight inexpressible’ (352).
• By 1821, she had also read Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), responding with such enthusiasm that her mother teased her about founding hopes for female happiness ‘on yours & Mrs. Wolstonecrafts system’ (BC, I, 132). ‎Mary Wolstonecraft was married to Percy Bysshe Shelley‎. [Source: “Elizabeth Barrett Browning,” by Marjorie Stone, Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, 60 vols. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Vol. 8, pp. 233-42.]

Daniel wrote a poem entittled "Miss Barrett Barrett," on 19 September 1820"

Daniel stayed as a tutor to the Barretts at Hope End until September 1820 when Edward "Bro" left for Charterhouse (a prestigious, private secondary school in Godalming, Surrey, England) but continued to visit and write to them both.

".....Barrett ...... continued to hone her skills in correspondences with him and with the learned Uvedale Price, and later with the eminent Victorian classicist Hugh Stuart Boyd. [Citation: Harvard Noah Comet . (January 2013). ' Conclusion ' in Romantic Hellenism and Women Writers pp.113–120. Online Available at: http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137316226.0009. (Accessed: 29 January 2014).]

"When she began studying Greek, she wrote enthusiastically that Greece's glory eclipsed that of Rome. an opinion in which Mr. McSwiney fortunately concurred." [Citation: p. 23, "Elizabeth Barrett Browning" by Dorothy Mermin.]

Daniel's poem: To the Home of my Childhood

alludes to returning home after his parents have passed on and looking down on his home from the woods. (Presumably he had returned to visit his home in Ireland just prior to this writing) [The original of this poem is with the Armstrong Browning Library, Baylor University, Waco, Texas - EBB Collection - and was included with papers from EBB's sister Henrietta. It is dated May 29th. It is thought he wrote this while still in the employ of Mr. Browning - in 1820, when he would have been 30 years old.]

In July of 1820 Danielwas completing an application for a position as a Tutor to a gentleman in Somersetshire, although it is not known if he went there.

Danielcontinued to write and visit Barrett family members and Edward M. in London and also corresponded with him and offered advice to Elizabeth. (see "Elizabeth Barrett Browning: The Origins of a New Poetry" by Dorothy Mermin - Professor and Chair, Department of English, Cornell University)

'Ba' signed her letters and poems during her maiden years with varying forms of ‘Elizabeth Barrett Barrett’, often simply using ‘EBB’.

The lines of a poem addressed to Miss Barrett Barrett by Daniel McSwiney on 19 September 1820 were produced within the "Scenic Beauties of Hope End". [http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/recorddetails.php?id=15980. "The Reading Experience Database Record Number 15980"]

1821, March 18 - In a letter from Edward in London to his sister Ba at their home in Hope End, Ledbury, he mentions "Mr. McSwiney and Miss Edwards again reconciled to each other, he who but a fortnight ago had returned all her letters and picture, this last week walked so many miles on purpose to see her." Daniel was obviously present with Edward in London at that date as he uses some space at the end of this letter to write to 'Ba', addressing her as "Miss Sauce-vox" and signing himself "Yours ever affectionately, Much underrated Hero". [The manuscript is at Eton College Library]

23 Jun 1822 Country: England Citation: The Brownings' Correspondence (Winfield, 1984), 1, p. 159, - Daniel was listed as a "Professional / academic, Country of origin: Ireland , Country of experience: England "

24 June 1822 Edward Moulton Barrett wrote to his sister Elizabeth Barrett (Browning): 'Mr. McSwiney dined with us yesterday and was shown your Greek epitaph, in the first place he says Anacreontic measure is not proper for an epitaph,it ought to be Hexameters or Pentameters, in the second place you must send down the translation of it, as he cannot make out your meaning. He also saw your lines which were sent to Colburns [i.e to Henry Colburn, founder of the New Monthly Magazine] and thinks them quite beautiful but it is not adapted to the public, as it is not so interesting to them not knowing the circumstances which attended it."

August 1824 - A letter from Edward Moulton Barrett mentions McSwiney’s appearing on the scene at Charterhouse “as great a dandy as ever.” The same letter tells of Daniel being comfortably settled at Brighton.

Daniel became a teacher in the Allfree educational institution, probably not (as mentioned by Dean Denis McSwiney in his letter to his son Herbert) at the Windmill School - the first English co-ed boarding school - owned and run by his mother-in-law and father-in-law in Herstmonceux, Sussex, but rather one at Cannon Place, Brighton, run by his brother-in-law John Allfree in Brighton, since in 1926 his marriage address was listed as such.

[Some Allfree children also taught and established educational establishments in Herstmonceux and Brighton (Sussex) and the "Romanoff School" in Tunbridge Wells Kent]

Marriage 1826, Daniel, 36 years old, married into the Allfree family - Sarah Allfree, 32, also a teacher, was born in Herstmonceux, Sussex, c. 1794.

Marriage of Daniel and Sarah Allfree by License by the Reverend Hare* Name: Sarah Allfree (of Herstmonceux Parish) Gender: Female Spouse's Name: Daniel McLiviney (Note transcription error in spelling of McSwiney. Daniel was 36 years old) Marriage Date: 6 Jan 1826 Marriage Place: Herstmonceux, Sussex, England Source Citation: Place: Herstmonceaux, Sussex, England; Date Range: 1807 - 1837; Film Number: 1468901. Source Information: License (Marriage Bond) - Lewes (Sussex) Archdeaconry in Sussex Record Society Vol. 26 -

25 December 1826 - Birth of their son John Henry 'Herbert' McSwiney. Despite Daniel being Catholic, Herbert was christened on 18 April 1827 in the (Church of England) Parish of St. Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex -. Father's Name DANIEL McSwiney, Mother's Name Sarah McSwiney, nee Allfree - living at Cannon Place, Brighton – site of the Allfree educational establishment. Record Source: Parish Baptisms: St. Nicholas, Brighton, Sussex, (Stored at the East Sussex Record Office, Lewes, Sussex)

Two and a half years later: 17 March 1829 - Birth of daughter Emily Sophia McSwiney at Cannon Place, Brighthelmstone ( a division of Brighton) , Sussex, United Kingdom

1830: A letter from (EBB's father) Samuel Moulton-Barrett to his sister Henrietta dated 17 June 1830 (SD727) mentions McSwiney still being at Brighton teaching seventeen scholars.

In 1831 Daniel and Sarah purchased a handsome home at 7 Sussex Square, Kemptown, near stupendous gardens and tennis courts. An engaging history of Sussex Square and KempTown in Brighton can be read at http://www.kte.org.uk/history.html and at "Education on the Estate" by Simon Smith, whose research states that "The pioneer of education on the (Kemptown) estate was Daniel McSwiney , an Irishman from Cork, who opened the first school in 1831.... A classical scholar and aspirant poet, he secured “in his youth” a footnote in literary history.”
i
In 1831, the parish of Brighton contained 40,634 inhabitants.

Denis, RC Dean of Cork, wrote to Rev. John 'Herbert' McSwiney (son of Daniel) January 28 1899: "One day in about 1848, or 1849**, I was making the crossing from Dieppe to Newhaven; while walking on the deck, a gentleman of about 50 or so, seeing my name on a bag of mine, accosted me and mentioned your father's name, and his place of residence; on my stating that he must have been my cousin, he volunteered the statement ' that he never changed the old Religion'. If you do not care to have this fact imparted to others, keep it to yourself. I have thought it right to let you know, as you were very young when he died." [**perhaps a precurser to the Newhaven-Dieppe passenger service introduced in 1863 by the LB&SCR and the Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest ]

Daniel was born Roman Catholic and as attested to by Dean Denis never gave up his faith. However he was buried in his wife's family vault in Herstmonceux in Sussex on June 28 1834. The Reverend Hare officiated. The Allfree's were Protestant (Episcopal).
'

'''UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current'''

• Daniel McSwiney
• Death Date:
• 25 Jun 1834
• Cemetery: All Saints Churchyard
• Burial or : 28 June 1834 - All Saints Church, Herstmonceux, Wealden District, East Sussex, England

Daniel's wife Sarah died of unknown cause aged 38 on August 9, 1832 - three months after her sister Jane Allfree.

Daniel died two years later of unknown cause in June 1834, aged 44 years and one month,

(Many deaths registered at that time were from scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus fever or measles. A death registration and cause of death has yet to be discovered. However cholera could have been the cause as it was rampant in Brighton at that time. (See https://www.coastaldrains.co.uk/blog/history-brighton-sewage-system/)

• Daniel McSwiney died Intestate
• Administrator was his brother-in-law William Alfree of Southfield, Tunbridge (Kent) [Source: 1834 Death Duty Register and: http://search.findmypast.com/record/image?id=bmd%2fir27%2f43%2f101&...]

Survived by his son - eight years old - and his daughter - six years old, both of whom were brought up by Allfree relatives and in the Church of England (Episcopal) faith.

His son, Herbert, went to live with and attend his Uncle *Thomas Robert Allfree's "Romanoff School in Tunbridge Wells, and years later went on to become the celebrated Church of England Chaplain to the "British Factory" in Kronstadt and St. Petersburg, Russia for over thirty years. [Thomas Robert Allfree had been the English tutor to the Tsar of Russia - his wife Helen Lyon had also been born in Russia).

The home on Sussex Square passed on to Herbert, and was leased during his youth

13 Sep 1834 ACC 10149/2 Lease of 7 Sussex Square, Brighton for £200 and £63 11s on agreed dates; William Allfree and John Allfree (on behalf of John Henry McSwiney in his minority)

1848 ACC 10149/3 Release in the matter of the administration of the estate of the late Daniel McSwiney: John Henry (Herbert) McSwiney to William Allfree and John Allfree 1848

Source: East Sussex Records Office - Accession # 10149 'McSwiney family of Brighton, records, 1800-1944, including deeds of

• 7 Sussex Square (Daniel McSwiney to his son J.Herbert H McSwiney)
• 40 Havelock Road, and
• 94 Waldegrave Road, Brighton

  ---

  
  

https://www.browningguide.org/browning-collections:

L0168McSwiney, Daniel. Comparisons (“Man is the rugged lofty pine”). § Four 4-line stanzas, 1 page, signed (initials); n.d. Part of Graham-Clarke album, L0110. § In private collection. [ ]
L0169McSwiney, Daniel. The home of my childhood (“To this home of my childhood in sorrow I came”). § Poem, 2 pages, 4to. Signed “Dl. McSwiney May 28th.” Image [ABL/Altham]
L0170McSwiney, Daniel. Lines Produced by the Scenic Beauties of Hope End (“The shades of night are hastening down”). § Poem, 2 pages, dedicated to EBB; signed and dated 19 September 1820; part of Graham- Clarke album, L0110. § In private collection. [ ]
L0171McSwiney, Daniel. To the Harp (“Thou child of my country, thou source of emotion”). § Two 8-line stanzas, signed (initials); n.d. Part of Graham-Clarke album, L0110. § In private collection. [ ]

[NB The portrait shown of Daniel on his Geni profile has erroneously been attributed by a family member to "David". It IS that of Daniel as explained above.]