as awarded to him in 1762 by Lord Bute who was ,of course ,Scotttish.

Thomas Sheridan had attempted to set up an academy in Edingburh to teach his system of eloclition and rhetoric, in 1760. He was highly regarded as a teacher of eloclution .

One of his great sucesses was his work in transforming Alexnader Wedderburn into a man of confidence and stature , and into someone not to be hampred by an impreantableScottish accent: he laterhad great success in public life and became Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor.

For his work on clarifying pronunciation etc Sheriden senior was awarded the freedom of the city of Edingburgh in July 1761 .

Samuel Johnson , rather cruelly,IMHO,mocked his postion as an Irishman teaching proper English speech as being equivalent to:

Burning a farthing candle at Dover to shew the light at Calais.

However, he impressed Lord Bute ( who at this time was in effect the Prime minister advising Geroge II, newly crowned King) with his attempts to standarise a new British language as outlined by Sheriden senior in his Dissertation on the Cause of the Difficulties which occur in Learning the English Tongue:

The consequence of teaching children by one method and one unifrom system of rules woudl be unifromity of pronunciation in all so instructed.Thus might the rising genration born and bred in differnt Countries and Counties no longer have a variety of dilaects but as subjects of one King ,like sons of one father, have one common tongue

Sadly,Thomas's attempts to set up an acadmeny in both Dublin and Edingburgh failed.