Sharp, Granville

Born: 1735-11-10 England, United Kingdom

Died: 1813-07-06 London, United Kingdom

Born in Durham, England, Granville Sharp was a civil servant, scholar, writer, philanthropist, and abolitionist. Although apprenticed to a draper as a young man, he entered the British civil service in 1758. He taught himself Greek and Hebrew and, over time, became interested in biblical criticism, publishing several scholarly treatises on the topic. His interest in abolitionism also grew over time, particularly after he aided an enslaved man named Jonathan Strong beginning in 1765 and learned that, per British law, enslaved people remained enslaved even on English soil. Sharp used his skills as a writer, researcher, and scholar as well as legal means to press the British courts to overturn this law, which they did in 1772 in a renowned case involving James Somersett, another enslaved man whom Sharp personally aided. In the case, the courts ruled that enslaved persons were free as soon as they set foot upon English territory (although British colonies were notably exempt from this ruling.) Sharp supported the American colonies during the American Revolution, resigning his civil service position in July 1776 rather than assist in the war effort, and also supported political reform in England and legislative independence for Ireland. In 1787, he founded a society for the abolition of slavery. He was also involved in efforts to send formerly enslaved persons to a colony near Sierra Leone on the African coast. He died without ever having married.

"Granville Sharp," Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Granville-Sharp, accessed 9 July 2024; Alfred Frederick Pollard, "Sharp, Granville" Dictionary of National Biography (London: Oxford University Press, 1921-22), 17:1339-41; Gravestone, All Saints Churchyard, London, England.