Betty Jane Andrews is Hester's g-g-g-g granddaughter.

From WIKISOURCE: By his wife, Elizabeth MacFadden of Ulster, Thomas Sheridan b. 1687, had issue James, Richard, Thomas (1719–1788) [q. v.], and a daughter, who was the ancestress of Sheridan Knowles.

From "the Peerage.com", page 33867
Hester Sheridan
daughter of
Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan
b. 1687

Hester Sheridan is the daughter of Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan and Elizabeth MacFadden.1,2 She married John Knowles.1
Her married name became Knowles.1

Child of Hester Sheridan and John Knowles

1.Frances Knowles+

Citations:
1.[S47] Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), page 706. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Irish Family Records.

2.[S68] H. Pirie-Gordon, editor, Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, 15th edition, (London, England: Burke's Peerage Ltd, 1937), page 2045. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Landed Gentry, 15th ed.

Mrs. Frances Sheridan persuaded her husband's sisters, Mrs. Sheen and Mrs. Knowles, and other ladies to send their children to be taught, and, ‘thus favoured, young Samuel Whyte had a handsome show of pupils on first opening his school’ (Memoirs of Frances Sheridan, p. 83). Her own three children, the eldest not seven, were among them. Charles Francis remained a few weeks only, while Richard Brinsley and his sister Alicia were under Whyte's care as a schoolmaster for upwards of a year.

From "The Life of James Sheridan Knowles", by his son and Hester's great-grandson Richard Brinsley Knowles:

"... John Knowles having gone the way of all flesh, leaving behind him a widow and four children unprovided for, it became necessary for widow Frances (Hester) to justify the family crest. That she did so successfully is clear from the fact that the plate which bears it still remains in her daughter’s family. She was cleaver, as a Sheridan ought to be; a woman of spirit, and well educated. She opened a ladies’ school in Dublin, and her speculation throve so well that she was soon relieved of all care for the future. As her sons grew up, two of them went out to Jamaica. Her daughter was married to the Rev. Peter Le Fanu, of St. Paul’s, Dublin, an incumbency which has long been filled by his son; and she had now only to provide for her youngest son, James."

__________________

A ROUND TABLE OF THE REPRESENTATIVE IRISH AND ENGLISH CATHOLIC NOVELISTS, At which is Served a Feast of Excellent Stories, THIRD EDITION, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: BENZIGER BROTHERS, Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. Copyright, 1897, by Benziger Brothers:

R. B. SHERIDAN KNOWLES.

R. B. Sheridan Knowles is the eldest and only surviving son of the late Richard Brinsley Knowles, a barrister, the author of "The Maiden Aunt," and a well-known London journalist. He is the grandson of James Sheridan Knowles, author of "Virginius," "The Hunchback," "The Love Chase," etc., and great-grandson of James Knowles, the lexicographer, whose mother, Hester Knowles, nee Sheridan, was the daughter of Dr. Thomas Sheridan of Quilca, the friend of Swift, and grandfather of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the author of "The School for Scandal."
______________
THE POEMS OF THOMAS SHERIDAN
Edited by Robert Hogan
University of Delaware Press

[Hester's father] also had a large family. In a Latin letter to Swift, written possibly about 1732, Sheridan remarked, "Habeo novem infants et uxor." Of these nine children, two were particularly interesting. His second son Thomas became an eminent actor, theatrical manager, lexicographer, and theorist, who married the play-wright and novelist Frances Chamberlaine, and whose most notable child was the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. His daughter Hester, who was named after Swift's Stella, married John Knowles and her grandson was James Sheridan Knowles, the once eminent nineteenth-century dramatist and actor.

In the account of his father which the younger Thomas wrote in his life of Swift, there is no allusion to his father's relations with his mother, but there are other indications that Sheridan was not entirely faithful. In "On the Five Ladies at Sot's Hole, with the Doctor at Their Head," a poem written about 1728, Swift gibes at Sheridan for regaling himself at a Dublin tavern among prostitutes:

Fair ladies, number five,
Who in your merry freaks,
With little Tom contrive
To feast on ales and steaks.
While he sits by a-grinning,
To see you safe in Sot's Hole,
Set up with greasy linen,
And neither mugs nor pots whole.
Alas! I never thought
A priest would please your palate;
Besides, I'll hold a groat,
He'll put you in a ballad…

Whatever his attractions to other women, Sheridan's aversion to his wife remained constant, and be left his "unkind spouse" and one of his daughters who had married against his wishes only five shillings in his will (To his other children. he left £50 each. However, in a lease registered in the Deeds Office on July 26, 1746, Sheridan's surviving sons, Richard and Thomas, allowed their mother to enjoy Quilca during her life and to receive all rents and profits from it.)
_____________
THE BLACKWELL COMPANION TO MODERN IRISH CULTURE - Page 532:

Sheridan family
Denis Sheriden (born County Cavan), an Irish speaker, was brought up a Protestant in the house of John Hill, dean of Kilmore, ordained 10 June l634 by William Bedell, bishop of Kilmore, and is said to have assisted Bedell in translating the Old Testament into Gaelic. He married an Englishwoman and had the following children:

1. William (1636- 1711). Born Togher, Kilmore, County Cavan. He became Bishop of Kilmore (be was Bisbop Bedell's godson). He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 15 May 1652 aged 17 years. He was imprisoned and deprived of the bishopric for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to King William III. He married Mary O'Reilly, and bad a son, Donald.

2. Patrick.(c. 1638-82). Born near Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. He was appointed Bishop of Cloyne (l679:). He entered Trinity College, Dublin, l5 May 1652, aged 14 years.

3. Thomas (c. 1646 -88/1712). Born St. John's near Trim, County Meath. He was a Jacobite and author. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 17 January 1660/1, aged 14 years. He became collector of customs in Cork. He was imprisoned during the ‘popish plot' scare in 1680; in 1688 he became private secretary to James II in exile. He married (?natural daughter of James II), and had a daughter who married Col. Gullaume, aide-de-camp to William III and a son, Thomas the younger (1684-1746), who became tutor in exile to Prince Charles 'the Pretender', and fought at Culloden.

4. James (c. 1649-?). Born near Trim, County Meath. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 11 May 1665, aged 16 years.

Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan (1687-1738) was the nephew of William, bishop of Kilmore, and of Thomas, the Jacobite and author; he was probably the son of James. Born in Cavan, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, 18 October 1707, aged 20 years. A noted scholar and close friend of Dean Jonathan Swift, he had a distinguished school for boys in Capel Street, Dublin. He married Elizabeth, only daughter and heiress of Charles MacFadden of Quilca, County Cavan, and had the following children:

1. James (d. 22 August 1724). He is buried in St. Mary's, Dublin.

2. Richard, of North Earls Street, Dublin. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, 14 March l731/2, aged 16 years. His will is dated 15 May 1782, proved 10 March 1787. He married Elinor and had at least five children.

3. Thomas (1719-88).

4. Elizabeth, of Camden Row, Dublin. She died November 1784, aged 70 years.

5. Anne, who married (1735) John Sheen of Custom House, Dublin.

6. Esther, who married John Knowles of Dublin.

7. Meliora.

Thomas Sheridan (1719-88) was an author, actor, theatre manager and elocution teacher. He was born at 12 Dorset Street, Dublin, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, 26 May 1735, aged 16 years. In 1743 be made his debut as an actor at the Theatre Royal, Smock Alley, Dublin; in 1745 he became manager of Smock Alley. He left with his family for London in 1754. Swift was his godfather. In 1747 Sheridan married Frances, daughter of Rev. Philip Chamberlayne, archdeacon of Glendalough. Frances Chamberlayne Sheridan (born Dublin, 1724) was a successful writer and dramatist; the family settled in Blois, France, in 1764, where she died (20 September 1766). Thomas, her husband, then went back to England and settled in Bath, where be taught elocution. There were five children:

1. Thomas (1748-50).
2. Charles Francis (1750 -.1806), author and politician. He was born in Dorset Street, Dublin. Elected MP for the Borough of Belturbet in 1776, he became MP for Rathcormack in 1780. He was secretary of war in Dublin (1782-9). In l783 he married Letitia Christiana, daughter of Robert Bolton of Dublin. He died in Tunbridge Wells.
3. Right Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816).
4. Alicia, author of a memoire of her mother. Born in 1753, she married Joseph Le Fanu (11 October 1871).
5. Anne Elizabeth Hume Crawford. Her letters to Alicia were published in 1960. Born in 1758, she married Henry Le Fanu, Captain of 56th Foot, in 1789.

Right Hon. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, dramatist, orator and politician, was born 30 October 1751 at Dorset Street. He left Ireland with his parents and never revisited. Manager and subsequent owner or Drury Lane Theatre(1776-l809), he became MP for Stafford (1780-1812). In 1782 he was made under Secretary of state for foreign affairs, and in 1783 secretary of the Treasury. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. In 1773 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Linley; she was a vocalist, and they had one son Thomas. In 1795 Richard married Esther Jane, daughter of Dr. Ogle, Dean of Winchester; they had a son, Charles Brinsley, who died 1848.

Thomas, son of Richard, ‘Tom' Sheridan married Caroline Henrietta, daughter of Col. James Callander (aftenwards Sir. James Campbell) and his wife Lady Elizabeth Helena, youngest daughter of Alexander Macdonnell, fifth earl of Antrim. ‘Tom' died (1817) in the Cape of Good Hope, where he was posted with his family as colonial treasurer. Caroline Henrietta Sheriden returned to London with her seven children (four sons and three daughters). She was a novelist and died 1851. Their eldest son was Richard Brinsley Sberidan, MP for Shaftersbury (1845-52). In 1835 he married married Marcia Maria, only surviving child of lieut.-Gen. Sir Colquhoen of Frampton Court; they had nine children. He died 1888.

'Tom' and Caroline Henrietta Sheridan's eldest daughter was Helena Selina Sheridan (1807-67), a songwriter, wife of Commander Price Blackwood) baron of Dufferin and Clandeboye.
______________
SUCCESSION OF CLERGY
S. Bride, S. Michael Le Pole, and S. Stephen, Dublin,
AN APPENDIX FROM THE PREACHER'S BOOK,
AND A NOTE ON DEAN SWIFT'S BIRTH-PLACE

WITH
A PREFACE BY THE VERY REV. W. REEVES, D.D.,
DEAN OF ARMAGH, ETC, ETC.,

BY
W. G. CARROLL, M.A.,

DUBLIN:
J. CHARLES & SON., 6t, MIDDLE ABBEY-STREET.
PARKER & CO., OXFORD, AND 6, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, LONDON

1884

1810. PETER LEFANU, M.A. [Verschoyle promoted.]
He was the son of William Lefanu, Esq., of S. Stephen's Green. In his father's will he is called the fifth son, i.e., the fifth surviving son. He was really the seventh son as well as child (two having died in infancy), and on this account, in accordance with the superstition of the time, he was often asked to touch for the evil. Peter was married to Frances Knowles, whose mother was Esther Sheridan, daughter of Dr. Sheridan the schoolmaster,* Swift's friend, and was called after Mrs. Esther Johnston (Stella). In this way, through his wife, our Incumbent was connected with the Sheridans, though not descended from them, as has been often erroneously said. By this marriage, he had issue - one son the Rev. W. J. H. Lefanu, late Rector of St. Paul's. and three daughters, mentioned in the charming Annals of Ballitore.† One of the daughters, Esther, married Captain W. Dobbin, and was mother of the late Rev. W. P. H. Dobbin, Scholar and Ethical Gold Medalist of T.C.D., and Chaplain of Dr. Stevens's Hospital, and of the three unmarried daughters still living. Peter Lefanu was also uncle to Dr. T. P. Lefanu, Dean of Emly, who was married to a daughter of Dr. Dobbin, F. T. C. D., and Rector of St. Mary's, Dublin. The Lefanus are an old Huguenot family who were long settled at Caen, in Normandy, and had a patent of nobility granted by Henty IV. of France and confirmed by Louis XIV. On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the. head of the family, Stephen Lefanu, was seized and imprisoned, when his wife voluntarily shared his imprisonment during many years. Their young child Philip was rescued by being hidden in a cupboard and fed through a hole, and was at last conveyed to Ireland. Here, when grown up to manhood, he engaged in the linen trade in the North, and realised considerable wealth, with which be joined Mr. LaTouche in establishing the old Castle-street Bank. He lost a good deal of it in the South Sea Scheme; and his son William, Peter's father, becoming nervous, withdrew from the bank and business, and lived and died a private gentleman. He was married to Miss. Henriette Raboteau, a Huguenot whose escape while a young girl from the dragonades was very full of adventure and interest. She and her two young sisters were wrecked. on the coast of Wicklow, where they were taken in and sheltered by the clergyman of the place. Here William Lefanu met her, and fell in love with her. Peter Lefanu was educated in Dr. Buck's school in King-street, near Bolton-street where Barry Yelverton, afterwards Lord Avonmore, was at one time usher. He took his degree of B.A. in 1769; was Curate of S. Michan's, and became Prebendary successively of Tassagart and of Dunlavin. In 1810 he was chosen Curate of S. Bride's by S. Patrick's Chapter, when. he voluntarily resigned Dunlavin. He was then appointed Chaplain to the Rotundo Lying in. Hospital. He was considered the most eloquent preacher of his day. In a letter from Monasterevan in l796 he says:

"Preaching here every Sunday keeps me continually writing, so that my eyes are quite tired of it. I found everything I had ever said totally unfit for the meridian or this place...
____________________

* The schoohmaster was son of Mr. Patrick Sheridan, nephew of Dr. William Sheridan the deprived non-juring bishop of Kilmore, and of Dr. Patrick Sheridan, F. T. C. D., Vice Provost, and Bishop of Cloyne, and of Thomas Sheridan, F. T. C. D. He was grandson of the Rev. Dionysius Sheridan, the Roman Catholic priest whom Bishop Bedell converted to Protestantism, who afterwards assisted Bedall in the translation of the Bible into Irish, who saved Bedall's life in the insurrection of 1641, and in whose house the bishop died. By his marriage with Miss. Elizabeth M'Fadden he (the schoolmaster) became possessed of Quilca, whiter Swift used to retire with Stella, of which he gave such a humorous description, where he played so many jokes, and where he finished "Gulliver's Travels" after Stella's death. Sheridan quite perceived the cruelty of Swift's treatment of Stella, and offers no defense of his behavior. He w as present at the scene in Stella's last illness, when the Dean savagely refused to comply with her dying request and acknowledge even then the disgusting sham marriage. Sheridan was one of Stella's executors. Notwithstanding the calling of her daughter after Stella, Swift hated Mrs. Sheridan, and lampooned her as he lampooned everyone else male and female whom he disliked, and the cause of his dislike of Mrs. Sheridan was that she objected to allowing her grown up girls to join in the Deanery circle, or to be reared in the unwholesome atmosphere that surrounded Stella. Swift said she was a shrew, but her husband told Stella that "she was like other women bas as she was; and that they were all alike." Esther was his favorite daughter, and he left her £50. He left 5s. each to his other daughters and to his wife. On the schoolmaster's death Quilca passes to his son Dr. Thomas, and on his death in 1788, Joseph and Henry Lefanu, brothers of Peter, who were married to two of Sheridan's daughters, redeemed the place from the creditors for £600. Quilca thus passed into the Lefanu family, and with all its reminiscences it came into the Rolls Court a few years ago.

† "In the summer of 1808 a family came to reside in the neighborhood of Ballitore, and we frequently saw them driving through the village. The father, though advanced in years, was active and animated. He was exceedingly attentive to his three young daughters… The father was Peter Lefanu, the rector of Dunlavin, a man very eminent in his clerical character….I was informed that the clergyman's father was a native of France, a man of high respectability, who had become a banker in Dublin on his emigration…. In the summer the Lefanu family returned to the Rectory. The rev. gentleman possessed a vivacity which bespoke his French extraction, and he was a truly pleasant companion. Having lost his wife some years before, he superintended the education of his daughters himself…. They had a cousin-german on a visit with them, a lively and most engaging girl, niece to Richard Brinsley Sheridan… It was a great trial to us when Peter Lefanu and his charming family left our neighborhood on his obtaining the parish of Saint Bride in Dublin." [Mary Leadbeaters's Annals of Billitore.]
______________________

I was obliged to compose new discourses every Sunday. The labour has been very great, but the practice will be of use in the main." In an unpublished letter to Miss Lefanu (1824) Archbishop Magee is quoted as speaking of him in the highest terms. His Grace "considered him a man of first rate merit in his profession; and whatever were his bodily sufferings, he had such a cheerful way of viewing things in this world, and such a well-grounded satisfaction in those of the next, that his manners inspired respect and admiration in all who knew him." While in S. Bride's he obtained by vestry assessment upwards of £730 for beautifying the church; and the assessments for communion elements exceeded £474, or more than £31 a year. The price of port wine at the time was about £1 15s. per dozen, large bottles. The other Dublin churches seem to have been nearly as well off in this respect as S. Bride's; e.g. in the Parochial Rates Return to Parliament for the year 1827, the cess for Communion wine was £36 in S. Peter's, £30 in S. Mary's, and £.20 each in S. Anne's, S. Mark's, and S. Andrew's; that year S. Bride's had only £ 10. In Lefanu's incumbency (1815) the Molyneux Asylum for Blind Females and the Chapel were opened in Peter-street and Bride-street, with Rev. John Crosthwaite as chaplain. In 1825 the Chapel was licensed by Archbishop Magee, in compliance with a petition of the Trustees stating the difficulty they had experienced. in procuring suitable chaplains owing to the Chapel not being licensed. The Rev. I. C. Lloyd was the first licensed resident chaplain and. preacher. He and the chapel appear for the first time in the Visitation Book of 1830. In 1823 the Rev. J. C. Lloyd, "assistant chaplain of the Molyneux Asylum, Dublin" published an 8vo. volume of sermons preached in the Chapel, so that be must have been connected with the place before that date. In the "Irish Pulpit", second series, there is a sermon without any date on the sin and danger of forgetting God, by the R.ev. C. J. Lloyd, "one of the chaplains of the Molyneux Asylum." In this discourse the preacher insists upon the eternity of punishment, and explains the phrase "salted with fire" as meaning that "the fire of hell shall have the property not of wasting but of preserving substances." The Chapel was bound to yield, and used to yield, an annual sermon in aid of S. Bride's Daily Schools, -it was afterwards caelld the Albert Chapel and Retreat for Aged Females. The Chapel is now called the Molyneux Church. During the vacancy consequent on Lefanu's death the parish was sequestrated, and the Rev. Moore Morgan, Prebendary of Dunlavin, was named sequestrator. In Lefanu's time the Ship-street School had 54 boys, of whom 20 were boarders and the rest were day boys. Lefanu lived in Camden-street, and died there in 1825. His wife predeceased him. [Lefanu's Will, Family Manuscripts, Gilbert's "Contemporary Affairs of Ireland," & c.]
______________

Hester, the daughter of Thomas Sheridan and Elisabeth Mac Fadden was born in 1738 in Capelstreet Dublin (in King James's Mint House where her father kept his school). She died in 1825.
Hester married J. KNOWLES
They had two children
Frances Knowles
Peter Knowles

James Sheridan Knowles, born 12 May 1784 was the grandson of Hester Sheridan. He became a dramatist and author. He was born in Cork and, when only fourteen, produced an Opera called "The Chevalier Grillon."

In 1808 he appeared on the stage in Dublin. After a series of successful appearances he opted for a new career. In 1849 he became a Baptist Minister and controversialist. He died on the 1st. of December 1862.

As far my documentation tells me, Peter Lafanu married Frances Knowles and Frances had one brother Peter knowles. As John Knowles was the grand son of Hester Sheridan, it seems logic to me to understand son of Peter Knowles Son of Frances should give John LeFanu Knowles.
George & Ineke O'Sheridan"

Re: Hester Sheridan-She is stated to be the Grand mother of James Sheridan Knowles. I understood the son of Peter because of the name but when you have evidence that James is the son of Frances. I suppose it is true but I have no other information.

George O'Sheridan

About Hester 1738-1825, she married J Knowles and they had two children
Frances and Peter. Peter was the father of James Sheridan Knowles 1784-1862.

Peter Le Fanu, son of William Le Fanu and Henrietta Raboteau, married Frances Knowles, daughter of Hester Sheridan (b1738).

ELLEN SHERIDAN (she is supposed to have 6 bothers & sisters) was the daughter of one of the sons of Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan and Elizabeth McFadden. The children of Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan and Elizabeth McFadden, as I was given were, Anne, Mehora, Elizabeth, Hester (married ? Knowles), Emily, Amy, Thomas (married Frances Chamberlain), leaving Richard or James as Ellen's father.

The family tree then says that Rev. Dr. Thomas and a brother Daniel were sons of James Sheridan who is a brother Sir Thomas, Patrick (Bishop) and William (Bishop). I had found a reference in an article that thought that Thomas'(1687-1738) father was Patrick who was a farmer.

I understand that an amber colored engraved seal that has passed through the family was a gift to Lydia Atkinson (b 1804) from a Sheridan cousin, Capt. Thomas Sheridan. The family notes also said that Richard Brinsley Sheridan was a cousin to Lydia Atkinson through Ellen Sheridan her mother.

I have all these notes that are an outline of a Sheridan and Atkinson family tree that were written out in 1913. There are no references to where the information came from so I have started to work my way backwards and try to confirm the information contained in the notes. The Atkinson family in Tipperary have been well documented through land dealings and as part of settlements within Huron & Middlesex Counties, Ontario. I must tell you that I do take all family stories with a grain of salt and that is why I would like to try to find Ellen Sheridan's father so I can either confirm or rule out a connection to Rev. Dr. Thomas Sheridan. Thanks so much for your help. My email is mccahill@@xcelco.on.ca

Once again, thank you for replying to my query,
Best regards,

Janis McCahill

THE GENEALOGY OF THE SHERIDANS
(PART III)
by
The Rev. J. Edgar Burns, M.A., S.T.L.

The Rev. Doctor THOMAS SHERIDAN (1687-1738), who is known to posterity as the friend and companion of Dean Swift, was the progenitor of those Sheridans who, inheriting his temperament and gifts, shed a new and often dazzling lustre on their name. A man of brilliant whit, great learning, and charm, he nevertheless failed in worldly success through a natural insouciance. An example of this came early in his ecclesiastical career when, in the words of Swift, he killed "his preference by a single text." Dr. Sheridan is said to have purchased Quilca House, near Mullagh, County Cavan, from his "elder brother". [Note- printed text exist that say the Reverend Dr. Thomas Sheridan (the Elder) obtained Quilca House as part of the marriage dowry of Elizabeth McFadden.] Whether this refers to Patrick Sheridan of whose dates we remain uncertain, or to some other unknown brother or cousin cannot be determined. In or before 1710 he married Elizabeth MacFadden of Ulster who brought him a dowry of 500 per annum (from which her relatives rather than her husband benefited.) By this woman whom Swift acidly dubbed Xantippe, Dr. Sheridan had issue:

1. James, who was buried on Aug. 22, 1724 in his early youth. The Sheridan Family and Its Connections” (a chart) which Raymond and Lenora Spell-Kessler got while in England circa 1984 --- clearly shows that “James” the son of Dr. Thomas Sheridan and his wife Elizabeth McFadden-Sheridan was BORN on Aug 27, 1724. That Chart gives NO date of death. Other Sheridan Genealogist say that this “James” died young and others who say he did NOT die young. Unfortunately the “Sheridan Genealogy” that Dr. Hugo Grotius Sheridan MD was doing for (Aunt) Georgiana Carolina Sheridan-English perished with the Sheridan Plantation house (Round-O) when it burned.

2. Richard, born 1718, who inherited Quilca
3. Thomas (1719-1788), the actor.
4. Hugh [Chuck H. Spell says that in the attachment “Irish Genealogist”, the very first entry on this page is “Hugh Sheridan died in the West Indies”. This happens to be page 276. Dr. H.G. Sheridan MD. had a brother named Hugh who died in Barbados (or it could have been the West Indies) Dr. Sheridan lamented over not having funds to buy a proper marker for his brother’s grave.That brother may have been named “Hugh Plunkett Sheridan” or “Hugh Patrick Sheridan”, but it is thought “Hugh P. Sheridan” was Dr. Hugo Grotius Sheridan’s brother].
5. Elizabeth (1710-1796), a schoolmistress
6. Anne, who married a Mr. Sheen, an Englishman in the suite of the Lord Lieutenant.
7. Emily, died young.
8. Hester, married J. Knowles and was the grandmother of J. Sheridan Knowles (1784-1862) the dramatist.
9. Susan? or Meliora? married Hugh? Molloy.

HER FATHER'S WILL:

225
Prerogatives Will 1738

Thomas Sheridan Doctor in Divinity

All worldly substance & estate real personal L my good friends (Trustees –written in in lighter ink) John Smyth by one of his majesty’s counsel’s at-law & John Sheridan by both of the city of Dublin in trust.

To son Thomas Sheridan having more disabilities £ 300
To my __hind wife Elizabeth Sheridan 5 £.

To my eldest son Richard £ 50 L to be paid L heirs after he shall have served his apprentesship L in with Hale

To daughter Ann Shean 5 £

To eldest daughter Elizabeth £50 provided she is not raised or contracted L H Acleson Johnston otherwise 5 £

To daughter Meliora £50
To daughter Esther £ 50

Exors. Said John Smyth & John Sheridan

D. 10 October 1738
Thomas Sheridan

Witnesses
Thos Callaghan
Nobart Sheridan
Edward Pitts

Proved 10th January 1738
By 2 exors

From Contributor Michael Carey, a direct descendant of Mary (Meliora) Carey, daughter of Thomas Sheridan and Elizabeth MacFadden and wife of Christopher Carey, by their son William Paulet Carey (Michael's grandfather Dennis Bradley Carey (16 MAY 1899 Handsworth, Staffordshire, England - 22 FEB 1986 Kogarah,NSW,Australia) moved from Birmingham to Sydney after WW1 because he couldn't settle down after travelling and seeing so much as a soldier in France and north Africa.):

Hester and her sister Meliora must have been close as Meliora named a daughter after her.

Meliora's husband Christopher Carey was born on January 7, 1721, in Dublin, Ireland, in the Parish of St Peters, the son of Maureen and William. He married Meliora Sheridan on January 7, 1749. They had ten children in 13 years. He died on January 1, 1797, having lived a long life of 75 years. He ran an extremely profitable business producing hard tack sea biscuits for the British navy. He was in the British navy serving under Admiral Edward Boscawen before he became a prosperous baker.

Meliora's Famous children:

Her most famous son Mathew Carey:
There is a well-constructed website devoted to Mathew that you might like to link to his find a grave profile. (http://www.mathewcarey.info).

Outside academia he is all but forgotten, but in America’s Early Republic, citizens throughout the United States knew of him by his imprint, his publications, or his pamphlets. Mathew Carey was a printer, publisher, bookseller, and political economist. He first gained national recognition publishing the American Museum, a magazine read throughout the United States by influential figures. He traveled from New England to the Deep South, setting up a national distribution network his magazine. Later he used his system for books and political pamphlets. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, he printed and sold more books and Bibles than any other publisher in the United States. He encouraged American authors and directed taste in American literature.[1] He wrote a revisionist history of Ireland and bolstered his arguments with facts from history. He preserved documents on the Constitution and the Jay Treaty for posterity. Following Alexander Hamilton’s death, Tench Coxe, Mathew Carey and Hezekiah Niles continued to promote the American school of political economy to protect infant industries in the United States. An ardent nationalist, Carey campaigned for a central bank, tariffs, and improvements to America’s roads and canals. When Pennsylvania’s Jeffersonians split into factions, Mathew Carey, Tench Coxe, Alexander Dallas and John Binns, articulated policies that fused democracy, egalitarianism and capitalism. During the War of 1812 Carey observed the difficulties of New England’s economy and its powerful merchants with intense concern. He feared that New England would secede from the Union, and the nation would erupt in a civil war. He wrote the Olive Branch to preserve national unity. He considered the Olive Branch as one of the most important works. It was exceptionally successful, outselling every other book on politics published from 1784 until 1820.[2]

Manufacturers praised Carey and Southerners vilified him for his writings on the political economy. Southerners, opposed to the protective tariffs he proposed, burned him in effigy in Columbia, South Carolina.[3] Carey foresaw dissolution of the Union, and spent his retirement campaigning in vain for policies he believed would preserve it. Henry Clay used Carey’s writings on political economy as the basis for the American System.

Much of what he learned he learned from books, because he loved to read. He was a prolific writer. Few days passed when he did not put pen to paper dashing off letters to business and political associates or writing an essay expressing his views. Mostly he wrote about politics, the economy or the plight of the oppressed. [4]

He stood five feet six and a half inches tall, larger than James Madison, but shorter than John Adams. He knew them both, as well as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. He lived in Philadelphia when it was the nation’s capital, and he knew or corresponded with most of the influential figures of his era.

A limp marked his gait. Like Talleyrand, who also had a deformed foot, Carey told the story that his nursed dropped him as an infant. His parents dipped him in holy wells. To his regret, they relied on the waters for a cure, instead of seeking medical help. He wore a heavy boot with iron plates that supported his weak ankle. He walked on the side of his bent and calloused foot, often in great pain.[5]

He had a full and well-proportioned face, a firm jaw, arched eyebrows and a slightly upturned nose. [6] His dark brown eyes had a penetrating gaze. In his youth, he brushed his hair back and clubbed it, tying it at the nape of his neck with a ribbon. As he aged, his hair turned gray and then white. In the fashion of the era, he shortened his locks brushing them forward.

He spoke with the brogue of his native Ireland. He lacked the self-confidence to be an effective orator, a skill essential for a politician. He was more comfortable working behind the scenes. A born organizer and promoter of numerous causes, he formed society after society to garner collective support for issues, usually becoming secretary.[7] He was fond of travel, and a good story. He traveled to northern New England and the Deep South on horseback, by stagecoach, or by steamboat learning the cultures and issues important to the nation’s regions.

Mathew Carey was compassionate, charitable and ambitious. He pursued his endeavors with enormous amounts of energy. He prized hard work and frugality. Irritable and impatient, he was easily offended and held grudges. He launched ambitious projects overextending himself financially. He was subject to spells of melancholy, and lived in fear of bankruptcy.

He was generous, and with a few notable exceptions honored his debts. As he matured, he became a solid citizen. His standing in Philadelphia and his ability to secure loans depended on it. More than once his passionate opinions imperiled his reputation and his business.
He dressed as a gentleman with a frock coat and britches and valued good manners. He was born into affluence, but not into privilege because his family was Irish and Catholic. The fourth son of Christopher and Mary Sherridan Carey, he was born on January 28, 1760.

Her son William Paulet Carey (my direct paternal 4x great grandfather) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Paulet_Carey:

William Paulet Carey, b. 24 May 1759 at 2 Redmonds Hill, Dublin, Ireland, d. 11 Apr 1839 at 6 Livery St St.Paul, Birmingham, England, buried at St.Chads R.C. Church. Art Critic, Dealer, Writer & Publisher. Author of "An Appeal to the People Of Ireland" (1794) and anti-protestant pamphlet 'Warning Protest'. He fled to Philadelphia in 1793 after a fall-out with the Society Of United Irishmen but returned to London in the late 1790's where he lived in Marylebone and Museum St. Bloomsbury and established himself as a dealer in prints & paintings. He resided at 5½ Eustace St. Dublin in 1800 and moved to Temple Place, Bath Row Birmingham in 1835. He made a last trip to America to visit his relatives, arriving in Philadelphia on 12 Sept. 1837. His first wife Dorothy (married 1788) died 4 July 1791 at Prussia St. Dublin. Married (2) 21 May 1792 in the drawing room of the bride's parent's house at 5 Grafton St. Saint Stephen's Green, Dublin, Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Lennon, b. 1776 at 6 Grafton St Dublin. (daughter of Anthony Lennon of Rosemont County Athlone and Elizabeth Bomford), d. 27 Jan 1832 London, England. He had four children: his eldest daughter Maria Sheridan Carey who died at Portsea in 1807, a son William Sheridan Carey who died at Kensington in 1821 aged 26, a daughter Elizabeth Sheridan Carey (see below), and a son James Macauley Carey 1809-1854 who was born at Sheffield, married Caroline Baker on 13 March 1832 at St Martins Birmingham and was living at Monmouth Street, Birmingham as a picture dealer in the 1841 census. William Paulet’s daughter Elizabeth Sheridan Carey was a well-regarded poet. Elizabeth Sheridan Carey (1805-1882), was born at York 18 October 1805 and ran a school at 10 Regent Quadrant, London with Charlotte Eale Bartlett in the 1830s. In 1844 her poem A Warning Cry against poverty and oppression was printed in several newspapers in the north of England and in America; in 1848 she published a letter to the provisional government of France on the rights of women, and in 1849 she was toasted at a Burns night at Sheffield. From 1849 she was selling pictures inherited from her father to Charles Winn 1795-1874 of Nostell Priory, including a Rembrandt (since attributed to Ferdinand Bol) for 350 guineas. From 1857 to 1863 she presented poems to English and French royalty on royal weddings and funerals one of which was received by Queen Victoria 'with especial favour'. She lived her later years in Versailles, dying unmarried there on 27 April 1882.

Her son John Carey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carey_(classical_scholar)
was born in 1761, died on 8 December 1829 at the age of 68. He was a Classical Greek and Latin scholar (LLD), who translated various classic publications into English, biographer of George Washington, author of adolescent fiction, and was involved in the invention of the shipwreck rocket.

Her father Dr Thomas Sheridan (Doctor of Divinity):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sheridan_(divine)
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Dictionary_of_National_Biography_volume_52.djvu/97

He was a lifelong companion and writing partner of Dean Jonathon Swift. Gulliver’s travels was written in his “guest house” called Quilca, which was a kind of pub/estate for artists. Dr Thomas (Doctor of Divinity) was, like Swift a famous Trinity College graduate and wrote numerous satirical works and poetry with him and edited many of Swift’s works. He was also a well-regarded educator, starting schools for many famous writers who graduated trinity and was tutor to King James’s children. His son (Meliora’s brother) Thomas Sheridan (MA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sheridan_(actor), the actor and linguist was also a Trinity graduate (MA) and the architect of elocution, colleague of lexicographer Samuel Johnson and author of the first pronunciation dictionary. His Wife Frances Chamberlain was also a famous novelist.

A nephew of Meliora Sheridan (son of her sister Hester) was the famous author James Sheridan Knowles:
https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?&key=Knowles%2C%20James%20Sheridan%2C%201784%2D1862&c=x

Another nephew, Thomas Sheridan (MA)’s son was Irish literary canon Richard Brindley Sheridan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Brinsley_Sheridan.
His life would make a Victorian novel, with his satirical comedy of manners plays being performed continuously since 1770. He is mentioned in the first sentence of Jules Vern’s Around the world in eighty days as the previous owner of the house belonging to Philius Fogg. The house in London was also owned later by Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall. He inspired Roan Atkinson’s Black Adder series and in Black Adder goes forth Black Adder mentions that he is off to audition for a role in one of Sheridan’s new plays as Arthur the Rat. Brinsley Sheridan’s first wife Elizabeth Linley was from an equally talented family of musicians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Ann_Linley.

Thomas’s grandson was famous gothic novelist Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheridan_Le_Fanu
His novella Carmilla was the first gothic female vampire novel. It was recently made into a period film (2019) and previously about 20 years ago. It is also a Canadian series spin off in modern times.