Sarah Curran (1782-1808), the youngest daughter of John Philpot Curran, an eminent Irish lawyer, was the great love of Irish nationalist Robert Emmet.
Curran met Robert through her brother Richard, a fellow student of Emmet's at Trinity College in Dublin. Sarah's father considered Robert unsuitable, and their courtship was conducted through letters and clandestine meetings.When her father discovered that Sarah was secretly engaged to Emmet, he disowned her and then treated her so harshly that she had to take refuge with friends in Cork, where, in 1805, married Robert Sturgeon. The two had a child which died in infancy. Sarah died of consumption in 1808. She is buried in County Cork.
Born in Burford, Oxfordshire, 1753, William Beechey was appointed portrait painter to Queen Charlotte in 1793 and knighted in 1798 in recognition of his most ambitious painting, the huge Review of the Horse Guard with King George III and the Prince of Wales. Beechey painted not only the portraits of the royal family, but of nearly all the most famous or fashionable people of the time. Beechey died in London, 1839.
