Frances Sheridan

Frances Sheridan (née Chamberlaine) (1724 – 26 September 1766) was an Anglo-Irish novelist and playwright.

Frances Sheridan was born in Dublin, Ireland. Her father, Dr. Phillip Chamberlaine, was an Anglican minister. In 1747 she married Thomas Sheridan, who was then an actor and theatre director, and at the same time she began work on her first novel, Eugenia and Adelaide. The couple moved to London permanently in 1758 for business reasons (after an earlier sortie to London in 1754). In London Frances was introduced to Samuel Richardson, who encouraged her in her writing. Her most successful novel, Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761), in diary format, was influenced by Samuel Richardson's Pamela. She then turned to drama, and two of her plays were produced at London's Drury Lane theatre by David Garrick's company in the 1760s. Frances Sheridan was the mother of the more famous playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the son's early successful plays were much influenced by the mother's plays. She died at age 42 in Blois, France.