, eminent as a Christian, a scholar, and a gentleman, one of the sons
, eminent as a Christian, a scholar,
and a gentleman, one of the sons of Dr. Thomas Sharp,
and grandson to the archbishop, was born in 1734. He
was educated for the bar, but did not practise at it. When
he quitted the legal profession, he obtained a place in the
ordnance office, which he resigned at the commencement
of the American war; of the principles of which he did
not approve. He now took chambers in the Temple, and
devoted himself to a life of study; at the same time, laying
himself out for public utility. He first became known to
the public in the case of a poor and friendless negro, of
the name of Somerset. This person had been brought
from the West Indies to England, and falling into bad
health, was abandoned by his master, and turned into the
streets, either to die, or to gain a miserable support by
precarious charity. In this destitute state, almost, it is
said, on the point of expiring on the pavement of one of
the public streets of London, Mr. Sharp chanced to see
him. He instantly had him removed to St. Bartholomew’s
hospital, attended personally to his wants, and in a short
time had the happiness to see him restored to health. Mr.
Sharp now clothed him, and procured him comfortable employment in the service of a lady. Two years had elapsed,
and the circumstance almost, and the name of the poor
negro, had escaped the memory of his benefactor, when
Mr. Sharp received a letter from a person, signing himself
Somerset, confined in the Poultry Compter, stating no
cause for his commitment, but intreating his interference to
save him from a greater calamity even than the death from
which he had before rescued him. Mr. Sharp instantly
went to the prison, and found the negro, who in sickness
and misery had been discarded by his master, sent to
prison as a runaway slave. Mr. Siiarp went immediately to
the lord major, William Nash, esq. who caused the parties
to be brought before him; when, after a long hearing, the
upright magistrate decided that the master had no property
in the person of the negro, in this country, and gave the
negro his liberty. The master instantly collared him, in
the presence of Mr. Sharp and the lord mayor, and insisted
on his right to keep him as his property. Mr. Sharp now
claimed the protection of the English law, caused the master to be taken into custody, and exhibited articles of peace
against him for an assault and battery. After various legal
proceedings, supported by him with most undaunted spirit,
the twelve judges unanimously concurred in an opinion that
the master had acted criminally. Thus did Mr. Sharp
emancipate for ever the race of blacks from a state of
slavery, while on British ground, and in fact banished slavery
from Great Britain. Such an incident could not fail deeply
to impress a benevolent mind; and slavery, in every shape
and country, became the object of his unceasing hostility.
In 17G9, he published a work, entitled “A Representation
of the injustice and dangerous tendency of toleratinaSlavery, or of admitting the least claim of private property
in the persons of men in England. 7 ' Having succeeded in
the case of an individual negro, he interested himself in the
condition of the many others who were seen wandering
about the streets of London, and at his own expence collected a number of them, whom he sent back to Africa,
where they termed a colony on the river Sierra Leone. He
performed a still more essential service to humanity, by becoming the institutor of the
” Society for the abolition of
the Slave trade;“which, after contending against a vast
mass of opposition, at length succeeded, as far as this
country was concerned, and it is hoped will soon be universal. Similar principles led Mr. Sharp to use his endeavours
to restrain the practice of marine impressment; and a
citizen of London having been carried off by a press-warrant, Mr. Sharp obtained a habeas corpus from the court of
king’s bench, to bring him back from a vessel at the Nore;
and by his arguments obliged the court to liberate him.
His political principles led him to become the warm advocate of
” parliamentary reform,“and he published
” A
Declaration of the people’s natural right to a share in the
legislature, which is the fundamental principle of the British
constitution of state." In this he proposed to restore the
ancient tithing$, hundreds, &c. and the whole body of the
people were to form a national militia, each thousand to
constitute a regiment, the alderman or magistrate to be the
colonel; and each hundred to constitute a company, the
constable of each fo.r the time being to be their captain.
So many of the thousands to be summoned once in every
year, by their magistrate, as would have a right to vote in
their respective hundreds, before the constable, in the
choice of their part of the representative legislature.
After stating that the division of this kingdom into tithings
and hundreds was instituted by the immortal Alfred, he
endeavours to prove that such a division is consistent with
the most perfect state of liberty that man is capable of enioying, and yet fully competent to answer all the purposes of mutual defence, to secure the due execution of
the laws, and maintain public peace. Mr. Sharp was
educated in the principles of the established church, and
through life shewed a warm attachment to them. This led
him to recommend an episcopal church in America; and
he introduced the first bishops from that country to the
archbishop of Canterbury for consecration.