John Sheridan, M.D.,
FORMERLY editor of the London Morning Advertiser arrived in the colony in December 1849. His name, with those of Messrs. O. K. Richardson, M. Moorhouse, and others, appears on the provisional committee for the establishment of the North Adelaide Mechanics' Institute in 1851, which afterwards developed into the S. A. Institute in 1855. His pen was for some time employed on the various topics of the day, until at last succumbing to long failing health he passed away in April 1858. By the testimony of his contemporaries he was "a man of a high order of ability and character."
Frances Keith Sheridan,
WIDOW of the above, was a daughter of the Rev, Daniel Keith, D.D. Her motto was:—"To work is to pray." Having established a school at Mackinnon-parade, she continued her labours there, and for a period of seven-and-twenty years encountered many difficulties and hardships—common, it is true, to most early colonists, but more particularly trying to one of her tastes and attainments, whose experience had been of refined literary circles in England—by an invincible spirit, energy, and brightness of disposition which neither years nor suffering could wholly subdue. Her contributions to the press were chiefly on political subjects, and these, with school duties, her devotion to her children, and a variety of literary pursuits, completely filled every interval of an unceasingly active life. To her pupils, while seeking to encourage talent, she strove to communicate an elevated tone of thought and feeling. Her reward (small indeed pecuniarily, self-seeking being one of those elements most foreign to her noble nature) was rather in the esteem and affection of those with whom she was brought in contact.
