Children of Sergeants Corsbie & Brenan

One of the few tombs to still have a legible inscription was for two children from the Royal Regiment which was stationed in the West Indies in the 1820s & 1830s.

      To the memory of                                                       To the memory of

    Henry R. CORSBIE                                                              Alicia

  Son of Serjt Henry and                                                 the beloved daughter

Margaret CORSBIE of the                                          of Serjt Hugh BRENAN

Royal Regt.  Born 9 May                                                and Celia his wife of

1826 died 10 May 1832                                                  the Royal Regiment

   aged 6 years & 1 day                                                   who departed this life            

                                                                                        27^th October 1832                                                                                                                           aged 9 years

Hast thou ere seen a Mother                                                    Job 121

                           weep                                                  The Lord gave and the

While bending oer her                                                    Lord hath taken away

                           infants tomb                                      Blessed be the Name of

she mourns the everlasting                                                       the Lord

                          sleep

Which calls her ofspring

                          to its home

Henry Corsbie had been born in Edinburgh in 1793 and had enlisted with the 1^st. Regiment of Foot at Kensington at the tender age of 14.  He was promoted to Corporal when he was 33 and Sergeant at the age of 37.  Corsbie finally left the military in January 1836 in Dublin at which time he was suffering from catarrh and biliary attacks.  He had seen service in Holland, America, France and finally served for ten years in the West Indies.  Corsbie was described as being 5ft. 6 ¼ ins tall with fair hair, brown eyes and a pale complexion. 

There is little information available for Hugh Brenan but the Military Chaplain’s returns of births does record the birth of an Elizabeth Brenan in Tobago in 1831 and this could well have been another of Hugh and Celia’s children.

The Sergeants and their wives would be proud to know that the inscription to their children can still be read some 180 years later.  Unfortunately the only way to have been able to take a good photo would have been to clamber up on top of the tomb and I was reluctant to do that – so a sideways shot will have to suffice.