Richard Brinsley Sheridan (politician)


Richard Brinsley Sheridan was an English Whig politician.

Life

He was born in London, the eldest son of Thomas Sheridan, colonial treasurer in the Cape of Good Hope and the novelist Caroline Henrietta Callander of Craig forth and the grandson of his namesake, the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. After his father died in 1817, his mother moved to London with her seven children.
He served as High Sheriff of Dorset in 1838. He was Member of Parliament for Shaftesbury from 1845 to 1852 and for Dorchester from 1852 until he retired in 1868 and also Deputy Lieutenant for Dorset. He was a Liberal in favour of extending the right to vote. He eloped with and subsequently married Marcia Maria Grant, the daughter of Sir John Colquhoun Grant on 18May 1835, and they had three daughters and six sons, including Thomas Algernon Brinsley Sheridan, another Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset.