Richard Tickell (1751–1793) was an English playwright and satirist. He was the second son of the three sons and two daughters of John Tickell (1729–1782), a clerk in chancery, and magistrate in Dublin, and his wife Esther Pierson, and thus he was a grandson of the poet

Thomas Tickell Thomas Tickell (17 December 1685 – 23 April 1740) was a minor English poet and man of letters. Life The son of a clergyman, he was born at Bridekirk near Cockermouth, Cumberland. He was educated at St Bees School 1695–1701, and in 1701 en ...

, who married the Irish heiress Clotilde Eustace, daughter of Sir Maurice Eustace of Harristown. Before his birth, his father had moved the family to New Windsor, Berkshire, as a result of disturbances in Dublin, so Richard Tickell is said to have been born at Bath, where he later built Beaulieu House, Newbridge Hill. Richard may have been educated at

Harrow Harrow may refer to: Places * Harrow, Victoria, Australia * Harrow, Ontario, Canada * The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland * London Borough of Harrow, England ** Harrow, London, a town in London ** Harrow (UK Parliament constituency) ...

or Winchester and may have been an assistant at Eton, although this is contentious. He definitely entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

on 8 November 1768 to read for the law, and was later appointed as one of the sixty commissioners in bankruptcy. In 1778 he was deprived of this place, but regained it after his acquaintance David Garrick successfully petitioned Lord Chancellor Bathurst. Sheridan persuaded Tickell to use his satirical talent in support of

Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...

. On 15 October 1778 Tickell's musical entertainment ''The Camp'' was a success at the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto ...

. Three weeks later, Tickell declined to write a prologue for Garrick, due to other commitments, such as writing the satirical pamphlet "Anticipation". On 25 July 1780 Tickell married

Mary Linley Mary Linley (4 January 1758 – 27 July 1787) was one of seven musical siblings born to Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. She sang publicly until she married the playwright Richard Tickell in 1780. Biography Linley was born in ...

(1758–1787), a singer and a sister-in-law of

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as ''The Rivals'', ''The S ...

. Tickell is said already to have had a family with a live-in mistress, referred to as Miss B. After his marriage, he was given a set of rooms in

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...

. His opera in three acts ''The Carnival of Venice'' was successfully produced at Drury Lane, with its first performance on 13 December 1781. For this, Tickell's sister-in-law

Elizabeth Linley Elizabeth Ann Sheridan ( Linley; September 1754 – 28 June 1792) was an 18th-century English singer who was known to have possessed great beauty. She was the subject of several paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, who was a family friend, Joshua ...

wrote some of the songs, and his wife Mary the music. His adaptation of ''The Gentle Shepherd'' by Allan Ramsay, first performed on 27 May 1789, was his last work for the theatre. Some of his other plays and his pamphlets include: *"The Wreath of Fashion" (1778) *"The Green Box of Monsieur de Sartine", an adaptation from the French (1779) Tickell's second wife, whom he married in 1789, was Sarah, a beautiful girl of eighteen, daughter of Captain Ley of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sout ...

's service and the ''Berrington'',This spelling appears in the source (Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 56, 1898). One East Indiaman was named '' Admiral Barrington''. an

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

. However, in 1793 financial difficulties led him into depression and ultimately to suicide on 4 November of that year, when he jumped from the parapet outside the window of his rooms at

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

. Sheridan later convinced the Coroner to return a verdict of accidental death, and took the children of Tickell's first marriage into his care, obtaining admission into the Navy for Richard Tickell (1782–1805), and a writership in India for Samuel (1785–1817). R. E. Tickell maintained that the third child of this marriage was a daughter, Elizabeth Anne (1781–1860), who was unmarried when she died at her home in Bedford Square, London. It is certain, however, that Tickell had another daughter, Zipporah, who later married Ebenezer Roebuck, an employee of the East India Company, and became the mother of

John Arthur Roebuck John Arthur Roebuck (28 December 1802 – 30 November 1879), British politician, was born at Madras, in India. He was raised in Canada, and moved to England in 1824, and became intimate with the leading radical and utilitarian reformers. He was ...

(1802–1879). Tickell's second wife's behaviour after his death gained her the censure of their contemporaries, as she was said to have had a small dowry but expensive tastes, keeping a coach and four but not paying her husband's debts. In 1796 she married again, John Cotton Worthington, a Major in the Sussex fencible cavalry.

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tickell 1751 births 1793 deaths 18th-century British dramatists and playwrights English dramatists and playwrights English satirists Suicides by jumping in England Suicides in England English male dramatists and playwrights 18th-century English male writers 18th-century suicides