Alicia Sheridan Lefanu (1753–1817)

Alicia Sheridan, known in the family as Lizzy, was the eldest of two daughters of actor/theater manager Thomas Sheridan and his wife, writer Frances Chamberlaine Sheridan. She was the sister of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Elizabeth "Betsy" Sheridan Lefanu. She spent much of her childhood in England and France, but lived most of her adult life in her hometown of Dublin, Ireland. In 1781, she married Joseph Lefanu, whose brother Capt. Henry Lefanu later married her younger sister Betsy. Alicia Sheridan Lefanu became a playwright who wrote Sons of Erin, or, Modern Sentiments, a popular comedy produced at the Lyceum Theatre in London in 1812, and afterwards in Dublin. She had three children, the eldest of whom was Rev. Thomas Philip Le Fanu, Dean of Emly and father of Joseph Sheridan (J.S.) Le Fanu, the writer of gothic, mystery, and ghost stories. She is sometimes confused with her niece and namesake, the poet and novelist Alicia Lefanu (1791-1867).