Background
Helen Sheridan came from a literary and theatrical family with political connections.
Helen Sheridan came from a literary and theatrical family with political connections.
Lament of the Irish Emigrant
Terence's Farewell
Love hath a language, from To my Son
The Charming Woman
She had four brothers and two younger sisters.
He was youngest of three sons of Hans, Lord Dufferin, and Mehetabel Temple;
owing to the deaths of his brothers he was to be the future Lord
Dufferin, although his parents wanted him to marry more advantageously,
mainly based on financial grounds. After their London wedding at St.
George's, Hanover Square, London, on July 4, 1825, they went to live in Florence due to the opposition of the marriage by the Blackwood family, but returned two years later with their baby son Frederick, who was born on 21 June 1826.
In 1839 she became Lady Dufferin when her husband inherited his title.
He died in 1841 of an accidental morphine overdose; Helen continued to
spend her summers at his family estate at Clandeboye in Ireland, which now belonged to Frederick.
