Rainey & Gloster lookup & guidance

[feliscatus]

Here is one for the professionals to sharpen their pencils & swab their spectacles.  The challenge is that although I know where Samuel RAINEY was born, and that he joined the army (seems he went to Scotland & joined up) and went on to spend time in Burmuda, Nova Scotia and then back to Isle of Wight Parkhurst before retiring to Tasmania, for the halos in heaven I cannot find when Samuel married Mary GLOSTER or GLOUSTER (everyone from 17th century onwards must have been aspiring to be a doctor because their handwriting, while picturesque, is horrendous to read), who Mary Gloster/Glouster was or who was Samuel's parents.

What I know is that:
Samuel RAINEY born Donaghadee in 1810; served with Rifle Brigade 1828- 1849; discharged aged 41; emigrated to Hobart, Australia on the 'Eliza' in 1850 with his wife Mary GLOSTER/GLOUSTER. 

This has been confirmed via a thread in 2004 on Rootsweb: Soldiers from Donaghadee Parish Ireland extracted from British National Archives: WO 97/1086/24 SAMUEL RAINEY Born DONAGHADEE, Down Served in Rifle Brigade Discharged aged 41 [1828-1849]

Contacts & RC's have been able to confirm Mary Rainey (78) died at Bothwell [Tasmania] on 9th June 1895.  From the 19th June 1895 Hobart Mercury “Mary ...was the wife of the late Samuel Rainey, Sergeant 60th Rifles, Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion”.  This would set Mary's birthdate about 1817.

but wait, there is more...
Ros Davies [Co. Down, Ireland Genealogy Research Site] bless her, checked the land records of 1823-1848 but couldn't find any “Rainey”s or “Gloster”  in Donaghadee or surrounding area.  Also the 1863 land record to get a surname distribution.  No Raineys in the Donaghadee area.
Who are Samuel's parents?

As for Mary, where did she come into the picture?, and where/who did she come from.  Ive had a look at the public profiler for surnames and there was a concentration of Gloster's in Guildford, much more in Conventry, Walsall, Birmingham, with a smattering in Warrington. 

Im slowly working my way through the in's & out's of parish records, census etc, & I read a really interesting RCrs entry on female namings, etc.  but there are oodles of places a newbie gets lost in.So if anyone would like to take a punt, I would be everso grateful.

[feliscatus]

More specifics on postings which may catch him in the light - having joined 29 March 1828, and served in Malta, Corfu, Cephalonica, Ionian Island from December 1829 - April 1837, then "around England" until 1841. Then went to Bermuda until 1842, then to Halifax, Nova Scotia 1843-1846 [Corporal at this point]. In 1846 Samuel returned to Parkhurst, Isle of Wight & was discharged via the Invalid Depot at Chatham in July 1849 "unfit for service due to chronic rheumatism" as a Sargent.

[bloodties]

Hi
   This may be of some help on roots Ireland the name Gloster seems to oringinate  is from Limerick closest dates to a birth for Mary Glouster was 1822.
Could not match up marriage dates of a Samuel Rainey and Mary Gloster.
Samuel Rainey born County Down 1803 next nearest date in County Down 
1828

www.rootsireland.ie

               regards       

[feliscatus]

Thank you, it is a gold thread no less, that I can follow to see if there is any link. We have Samuel born 1810, and her death in Tasmania via a newspaper suggested that she was born around 1817 so you could be on to something because her first child was born 1843 which going by your suggested year, would make her 21 at the time. I will now throw my head back into the bunker and trawl through Limerick area. I did notice in  my research yesterday through "History from Headstones" web & Freeholders Records from Proni's, that there were more Rainey's [spelt exactly as we know it] around the greater Down area, moving further up toward north east.