Sharp

Sharp, GRANVILLE, abolitionist, was the son of the archdeacon of Northumberland, and was born at Durham in 1734. He came to London, and, after studying law, obtained a post in the Ordnance Office; but this he resigned in 1777 on the outbreak of the war with America, of which he disapproved. He was the author of upwards of sixty-one publications—mainly pamphlets—on philological, legal, political, and theological subjects (the English tongue, hundreds and titlings, the definite article in the Greek Testament, Hebrew syntax and pronunciation, Melchisedek, Armageddon); but his principal writings and the main labours of his life were in defence of the negro, and for the abolition of the slave-trade and slavery. He defended the cause of the negro Somerset, securing the decision of the twelve judges (1772) that whenever a slave touches English soil he becomes free. He was with Clarkson one of the founders of the Association for the Abolition of Negro Slavery, and assisted in the establishment of the colony of Sierra Leone for freedmen. He died in London, 6th July 1813. There is a Life by Hoare (1820), and a smaller one by Stuart (New York, 1836). See also SLAVERY.