Sir Thomas Sheridan, the elder (c. 1646 – 1712) was the

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...

between 1687 and 1688.

Early years

Sheridan was born in St. John's,

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the fourth son of Reverend Dennis Sheridan, rector of Killesher parish,

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...

. His siblings included William Sheridan,

Patrick Sheridan Patrick Joseph Thomas Sheridan K.H.S., K.M., (March 10, 1922 – December 2, 2011) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 1990 until his retirement in 2001. Biography ...

the Anglican bishop of

Cloyne Cloyne () is a small town to the southeast of Midleton in eastern County Cork. It is also a see city of the Anglican (Church of Ireland) Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, while also giving its name to a Roman Catholic diocese. St Colman's Cath ...

and Margery Sheridan, wife of Colonel Meredith Gwyllym of

Ballyconnell Ballyconnell () is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It is situated on the N87 national secondary road at the junction of four townlands: Annagh, Cullyleenan, Doon (Tomregan) and Derryginny in the parish of Tomregan, Barony of Tullyhaw. Ball ...

College

Sheridan entered

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

on 17 Jan. 1661 from where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1664, and in 1667 he was elected a Fellow of Trinity.

Career

Sheridan attended the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in London from 29 June 1670 to study law but cut his studies short when he was appointed Cork Collector of Customs, where he made his fortune. In 1676 he was appointed a farmer of the Irish Revenue and sold his interest for a profit of £4,000. On 6 August 1677 Sheridan received an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and on 6 February 1679 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, London. He was imprisoned in 1680 for allegedly conspiring in the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the Kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate C ...

and on 15 December 1680 he gave evidence before the House of Commons but, as Parliament was dissolved shortly afterwards, was set free.

Chief Secretary for Ireland

King

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Gloriou ...

appointed Thomas Sheridan as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1687 but he was accused of corruption by the

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (), or more formally Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland, was the title of the chief governor of Ireland from the Williamite Wars of 1690 until the Partition of Ireland in 1922. This spanned the Kingdo ...

Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell PC (c. 1630 – 14 August 1691) was an Irish politician, courtier and soldier. Talbot's early career was spent as a cavalryman in the Irish Confederate Wars. Following a period on the Continent, he joined ...

and was removed from the post in 1688.

Later Career and Death

When

was deposed, Sheridan's political career was finished and he spent his remaining days in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

attending the court of James II. He authored the following works- 1. ''Mr. Sheridan's Speech after his Examination before the late House of Commons'' (London, 1681) 2. ''A Discourse on the Rise and Power of Parliaments'' (1677) 3. ''The Sheridan Paper''s (1702), (contained in Calendar of the Stuart papers) and he also translated ''A Survey of Princes'' by Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac Sheridan died at

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the ''département'' of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the ''musée d'Archéologie nationale'' (Nati ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1712.

Family

About June 1684 Sheridan married Helen Ravenscroft (née Appleby), widow of

George Ravenscroft George Ravenscroft (1632 – 7 June 1683) was an English businessman in the import/export and glass making trades. He is primarily known for his work in developing clear lead crystal glass (also known as flint glass) in England. Personal life L ...

, the developer of English lead crystal,MacLeod, C. (2004). Merchant and Glass Manufacturer. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. and the daughter of Thomas Appleby and Helen Gascoigne of

Linton-on-Ouse Linton-on-Ouse is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England, about eight miles north-west of York. It lies on the north bank of the River Ouse. History The village is mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'' ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. There were three children of the marriage- Therese Helen, Mary and Sir

Thomas Sheridan Thomas Sheridan may refer to: *Thomas Sheridan (divine) (1687–1738), Anglican divine *Thomas Sheridan (actor) (1719–1788), Irish actor and teacher of elocution *Thomas Sheridan (soldier) (1775–1817/18) *Thomas B. Sheridan (born 1931), America ...

junior who became tutor to Prince

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (20 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, grandson of James II and VII, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheridan, Thomas 1640s births 1712 deaths Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Members of the Middle Temple Irish knights 17th-century Irish people Irish Jacobites Chief Secretaries for Ireland Fellows of the Royal Society