Theme: Surprise

I am reposting this blog due to the amazing number of typos and other errors … I plead being under the influence of a strong painkiller at the time I wrote it … but that is no real excuse (!) My thanks to Lesley, Arthur and Dave for pointing out some of the errors.

My Great Great Uncle John Lyle (1789-1822), born in Paisley, Scotland was a soldier with the 51st Regiment of Foot. He fought at Waterloo – and survived. Seeking more information about him, I hired a researcher to check the Regimental files in the British Archives. The British Army kept very detailed records in those days so among other things I learnt that he had enlisted on 24 August 1805 when he was 18 (the Battle of Trafalgar was in October of that year) and that he was 5 feet 3 inches in height which increased to 5 feet 7 inches over the next six years. He had a brown complexion, grey eyes, brown hair and a round face. He rose through the ranks quickly, becoming a Corporal the year after enlistment and attaining Sergeant (”Serjeant”) rank 7 years later. He is mentioned in detailed Muster Lists and Pay lists and notes about long marches.

In 1822 John was sent to Jamaica with the Regiment, where he died of yellow fever a few months later. The Regimental Returns for June-July 1822 show that following John’s death, a quite reasonable sum of money for those days was retained “… for the benefit of his three orphan children left with the Regiment”. What a surprise!

The births of all three children are in the Regimental records, which give his wife’s name as Agnes Lyle (it is not certain that Agnes’ maiden name was also Lyle). I have not been able to discover a marriage record. Their first child, named John, was born in Dumfries in 1810, after the Regiment had served in the Peninsular Wars for several years and returned home. His second child, a girl named Agnes, was born in 1813 in Liverpool; soon after John would have been sent away to fight in the Pyrenees. How many years was it before he saw his daughter again? Or did his wife and children follow the Regiment? The third child, another daughter, was born in Valenciennes, France in 1819, where the Regiment was posted after Waterloo.

Regimental records do not show whether his wife accompanied John during his various campaigns, and there is no record of her death. Did she go to Jamaica with him? No burial records can be found. The children, too, cannot be traced. Maybe one day a DNA match will be found ….