Elizabeth Ann Linley

An engagement to a wealthy elderly suitor at the end of 1770 was called off just prior to the anticipated wedding; Elizabeth later eloped to France with Sheridan and a marriage ceremony may have taken place in March 1772 although no records of the matrimony exist.

The Sheridans' relationship was stormy, and both parties had affairs; Elizabeth also had several miscarriages and a stillborn baby before producing a son, Thomas, born in November 1775.

Elizabeth Ann Sheridan (née Linley) was born towards the end of 1754, but the exact date varies with sources giving 4, 5 or 7 September,[1] at either Abbey Green[1] or 5 Pierrepont Street, Bath.

[6] It is likely that she began singing at concerts when she was only nine years old, and she made her formal stage début alongside her brother, also named Thomas, in 1767 at Covent Garden, London.

[13] In selecting a repertoire to enhance Elizabeth's fame, her father eliminated popular songs, instead choosing regional ballads with "impeccable national pedigree"[14] and classics, centred on Handel.

[15] Contemporary critics, such as Fanny Burney, Daniel Lyons and Gaspare Pacchierotti, noted that her voice with its clear, unaffected, sweet expression was particularly compatible with Handel's oratorial style.

[20] Elizabeth was advertised in local newspapers as the soloist of the concert featuring Joseph Wharton's Ode to Fancy and Jackson's Lycidas which was performed on 26 November 1767.

[43] The pair came up with a plan but although Alicia thought the idea to flee to a convent in France was romantic, she expressed reservations and wanted to discuss it with Richard, unaware of his own deepening affection towards Elizabeth.

[43][44] In early March 1772 Elizabeth's agitation increased; she was short of breath, suffered headaches and continually argued with her father, refusing to willingly take part in performances.

[47] Accompanied by a female servant acting as chaperone,[48] the young couple left for France and a marriage ceremony may have taken place there that month, although no record of it exists.

[47] They first travelled to London, at which point they parted from the chaperone, arriving during the late afternoon the next day, where they approached some of Sheridan's friends for money to supplement the small amount they had in their possession; Alicia had given them a modest sum and Elizabeth had around £40 of savings.

[50] The couple were unsuccessful in acquiring extra funds, but an oil merchant, who was an acquaintance of Sheridan, helped them to get passage on a small ship destined for Dunkirk.

[58] As the circumstances of Mathews' part in the events became widely known, he lost any support he had;[59] he placed an advertisement in the Bath Chronicle, published on 9 April 1772, decrying Sheridan, then left the town a few days later.

[55] Keen to get Elizabeth back home because he had her scheduled to undertake several concert engagements, and finally aware of the harassment she had endured from Mathews, Linley conceded to a number of her demands.

[91][93] The contract to perform, negotiated by Elizabeth's father, was lucrative but Sheridan insisted that she donate the one hundred guinea fee to charity, a gesture in accordance with his yearning to be considered a member of the gentry.

[96] In return for transport, accommodation, food and wine, Elizabeth would sing each evening for the small select group of other dinner guests, relieving the couple of living expenses for a part of the year.

[97] During the months that they were at home, Elizabeth's husband organised private twice-weekly soirées there for aristocrats to hear her sing, sometimes accompanied by her sister, Mary; although he had declared she would never perform again in public, he charged attendees.

[99] Elizabeth derived great pleasure from the visits, soon striking up close lasting friendships with several of the hostesses; she was especially pleased that Sheridan, despite his reputation, began to be accepted and his wit drew admiring comments at the dinner table.

[101] Devonshire House, Georgiana's London home, was the hub for social entertaining and Whig party politics,[102] providing the Sheridans with an introduction to Charles James Fox and other influential politicians like Edmund Burke.

[104] The event was surrounded by scandal: Thomas Rowlandson produced a caricature of Georgiana kissing meat sellers to secure their votes; gossip and negative publicity was rife, yet Elizabeth's reputation was not tarnished.

[117] When her younger brother Tom died after falling from a boat into a lake at Grimsthorpe on 5 August 1778[3] Elizabeth penned a widely circulated verse to his lyre that received a published response from a local poet.

[1] Letters written by Sheridan indicate Elizabeth participated in the development of the music for The Duenna, and his biographers credit her with being involved in the writing of several of his plays.

[1] In a letter to her sister-in-law, Alicia, dated 9 December 1782, Elizabeth revealed that she had started work on a book that was progressing well, although no further records or detail of it exist.

[123] Three decades after her death, The Gentleman's Magazine published a letter in 1825 (volume 95) that it claimed was written by Elizabeth, addressed to a close friend called "Miss Saunders".

[125] Waterfield explains that despite lacking any of the character, flair and style shown in Elizabeth's authentic letters, several later commentators accepted it as genuine; he describes it as "pure invention, containing a number of striking errors of fact.

[127] A series of fabricated correspondence appeared in the Bath Chronicle during 1773 purportedly between a "Lord Grosvenor" and Elizabeth; other newspapers also carried similar fake letters around that time.

[45] His later portrait of her, entitled Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, was undertaken after her marriage, and has the 31-year-old Elizabeth posed on a rock set on a hillside, reflecting the rural lifestyle she begged her husband to let her lead.

[147] Elizabeth's son, Thomas, had unsuccessfully tried for a political career and briefly served in the army before running off to marry Caroline Henrietta Callander of Craigforth (1779–1851), a daughter of Sir James Campbell.

[111] Like so many of his relatives, Tom was also afflicted with tuberculosis and he moved abroad to ease the symptoms; he was appointed as the Colonial Governor's treasurer at the Cape of Good Hope in 1813.

[111][k] In an article on Mrs Sheridan included in Rees's Cyclopædia, the music historian Charles Burney noted that: "There was a brilliancy, a spirit, and a mellifluous sweetness in the tone of her voice, which instantly penetrated the hearts of her hearers, as much as her angelic looks delighted their eyes.