Why was granville sharp important

How did granville sharp help abolish slavery

He was educated at Durham grammar school, but his father, though archdeacon of Northumberland, was possessed of small means and a large family, and in May Granville was apprenticed to one Halsey, a quaker linendraper of Tower Hill, London. He served successively under a quaker, a presbyterian, an Irish Roman catholic, and an atheist. During his scanty leisure he taught himself Greek and Hebrew, and in August he became a freeman of the city of London as a member of the Fishmongers' Company.

In June he obtained a post in the ordnance department, and in was appointed a clerk in ordinary, being removed to the minuting branch. In his uncle, Granville Wheler, offered him the living of Great Leek, Nottinghamshire, but Sharp refused to take orders. Meanwhile he had become involved in the struggle for the liberation of slaves in England.

Was granville sharp a lawyer

In he befriended a negro, Jonathan Strong, whom he found in a destitute condition in the streets, where he had been abandoned by his master, one David Lisle. Two years later Lisle threw Strong into prison as a runaway slave, but Sharp procured his release and prosecuted Lisle for assault and battery. Mansfield also declared against him, and Blackstone lent the weight of his authority to the same opinion.

For the next two years Sharp devoted his leisure to researches into the law of personal liberty in England. Meanwhile Sharp interested himself in other cases similar to Strong's, and the struggle was fought out in the law courts with varying success for three years longer. Sommersett , ; Clarkson , Hist. This question did not exhaust Sharp's benevolent energies.

In addition to his researches in early English constitutional history and other studies, he spent much time and labour in searching for documents to prove the claim of Henry Willoughby, then a tradesman, to the barony of Willoughby of Parham, a claim which was established by resolution of the House of Lords on 27 March He also agitated vehemently against the reported determination of the government to extirpate the aboriginal Carribees in the West Indies, pressing his views in person on Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of state.