36 SWABEY DIARY. 
and other authorities, and have appended footnotes explanatory of the history 
and services of officers incidentally mentioned in Lieutenant Swabey’s pages. A 
summary of the principal events of his life has been kindly sent me by his son, 
the Rey. Maurice Swabey, and is as follows :— 
William Swabey was born in Doctors Commons, London, on the 13th of June, 
1789. He was the third and youngest son of Maurice Swabey, of Langley Marish, 
Bucks, D.C.L., Fellow of the College of Advocates, and Chancellor of the Diocese 
of Rochester. His early education was received at Westminster School and the 
Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. On the 1st of July, 1806, at the age of 
16 years, he received a commission in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and, in 
1807, was present with Captain Cockburn’s No. 7 Company, 1st Battalion, in 
the land force which co-operated with Admiral Lord Gambier at the bombardment 
of Copenhagen. He was ordered in July, 1811, to the Peninsula, with “E” 
Troop, R.H.A., and served in it during a considerable portion of the war. He 
was severely wounded at the battle of Vitoria and invalided home, but rejoined 
the army before the close of the war. He was present at the battle of Toulouse, 
and, marching through France to Calais, returned home in 1814 with the troop, 
which the following year he accompanied to Belgium and was with in the retreat 
from Quatre Bras, and at the battle of Waterloo. He received the Peninsular and 
Waterloo medals. Shortly after promotion to the rank of 2nd Captain, he retired, 
in March, 1825, from the service and settled down in Buckinghamshire, where 
he became J.P. and D.L., and captain of a troop of Bucks Yeomanry Cavalry. 
In 1840, he emigrated with nearly all his family to Prince Edward’s Island, of 
which his friend, Sir Charles Fitzroy (an old Waterloo officer), was then Lieut.- 
Governor. Captain Swabey continued in the colony till 1861, and developed such 
capacity for the management of public affairs that he became, successively, a 
member of Her Majesty’s Legislative and Executive Councils, Registrar of Deeds, 
Commissioner of Crown lands, and member of the Board of Education, besides 
undertaking latterly the duties of Lieut.-Colonel and Adjutant-General of the 
local Militia. It is scarcely too much to say that the Statute book of the Island 
is full of useful measures which he either initiated or promoted in his adopted 
home. When the Prince of Wales visited the Colony in 1860, Colonel Swabey 
was one of the two Military Aides-de-Camp to the Lieut.-Governor, who received 
from his Royal Highness’s own hand a fine portrait of himself, in recognition of 
their services. Colonel Swabey was entertained at a public banquet in the Colony 
and presented with a flattering address, signed by the heads of departments and 
many other prominent inhabitants, on his return to England in 1861. He was 
also allowed to retain for life the prefix of “Honourable,” which was a privilege 
limited to those members of Council who (prior to the Union, about 1867, of the 
North American Colonies) had received their appointments under the sign manual 
of Her Majesty the Queen. 
Captain Swabey married, in 1820, Marianne, third daughter of Edward Hobson, 
of Somerly, Hants, and Hope Hall, Lancashire, Esquire, and had a family of 
eleven children. He died on the 6th of February, 1872, having, towards the close 
of his life, resided for some years at Wavenden House, Bucks, a county endeared 
to him by family ties and early associations. : 
A few words as to “Ei” Troop, R.H.A., may not be amiss here. It was formed 
on the Ist of November, 1794, and in 1811 was stationed at Christchurch, under 
the command of Captain Robert Macdonald, in July of that year it was ordered 
on its first active service, and embarked at Portsmouth to join the army under 
