Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp 1735-1813, English reformer, scholar, and abolitionist. In 1772 he won a case establishing the principle that any slave would become free upon reaching British land. Sharp continued his abolitionist activities, notably the promotion of a colony of former slaves in Sierra Leone, which was unsuccessful. In 1776 he began agitation against the impressment of seamen. Later he founded a Bible society. Self-taught in Greek and Hebrew, he was noted for his studies in biblical texts. He also wrote many pamphlets on political questions.

Bibliography: See Prince Hoare, Memoirs of Granville Sharp (1820, 2d ed. 1828); study by E. C. P. Lascelles (1928, repr. 1969).

Sharp, Granville (1735–1813). Anti‐slavery campaigner. Born in Durham, and grandson of an archbishop of York, Sharp was employed in London as a government clerk when in 1765 he befriended Jonathan Strong, a runaway slave. The ensuing legal disputes culminated in the Somerset case (1772) in which slavery was declared not to exist in England. In 1783 he formed the idea of an African settlement for freed slaves (Sierra Leone, 1787), in 1787 he chaired the committee for the abolition of the slave trade, and in 1807 founded the African Institution to work for the total suppression of the trade following its abolition in the British empire.

Sharp, Granville (1735–1813). Anti-slavery campaigner. Born in Durham, son of the archdeacon of Northumberland and grandson of an archbishop of York, Sharp was employed in London as a government clerk when in 1765 he befriended Jonathan Strong, a runaway slave. The ensuing legal disputes culminated in the Somerset case (1772) in which slavery was declared not to exist in England. In 1783 he formed the idea of an African settlement for freed slaves (Sierra Leone, 1787), in 1787 he chaired the committee for the abolition of the slave trade, and in 1807 founded the African Institution to work for the total suppression of the trade following its abolition in the British empire. In his religious beliefs he was a millenarian churchman, founding the Society for the Conversion of the Jews in 1808 and the Protestant Union against catholic emancipation in 1813.

Edward Royle