Sir John Sebright, 6th Baronet

Lt-Gen Sir John Saunders Sebright, 6th Baronet, (19 October 1725 – 23 February 1794), was the sixth Sebright baronet, and an officer in the British Army. Sir John was the son of Sir Thomas Sebright, 4th Baronet and Henrietta Dashwood.

In 1766, he married Sarah Knight, daughter of Edward Knight and Elizabeth James. Their eldest son, John, inherited the baronetcy.^[1] Their daughter Henrietta Sebright (d. 1840) married Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood.^[2]

He was a close friend of the Irish statesman and writer Edmund Burke. In 1765, on a visit to Sebright's home at Beechwood in Hertfordshire, Burke came across a considerable number of medieval Irish manuscripts in the library.^[3] The manuscripts had been given to Sebright's father by the antiquary and philologist Edward Lhuyd who had acquired them on a tour of Ireland in 1700. In 1786, these were bequeathed to the library of Trinity College Dublin and formed the foundation of the Irish manuscript collections there. The manuscripts presented by Sebright included the Yellow Book of Lecan and the Book of Leinster.^[4]

Sir John was Colonel of the 83rd Regiment of Foot from 1758 to 1760, and then the 52nd Regiment of Foot, from 1760 to 1762. In 1762 he was promoted to the Colonelcy of the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot. He remained colonel of the 18th until his death.

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