Author: Sharp, Cuthbert
Biography:
SHARP, Cuthbert (1781-1849: ODNB)
He was baptised at St. Hilda’s, Hartlepool, Durham, on 3 June 1781, the youngest of three sons of Cuthbert Sharp (1743-1808), a shipowner, and his wife Susannah Crosby (d 1794), whose brother Brass Crosby 1725-93) had been mayor of London in 1770-71. After schooling at Greenwich under Charles Burney, he secured a commission in a cavalry division, the Essex fencibles, which was deployed in suppressing the rebellion in Ireland and then disbanded. He went to Edinburgh briefly as a student but then seized the opportunity to visit Paris after the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. Like other foreigners he was arrested upon the resumption of hostilities in 1803 but he was spared imprisonment; eventually he made his escape through Holland and returned to Britain. In 1811 he eloped with Elizabeth Croudace of Bishopwearmouth, Sunderland, Durham; they were married at Coldstream, in the Scottish borders, on 15 Oct. and then again at the English church in Edinburgh on 22 Oct. They had an only daughter, Susanna (or Susan) Jane (1812-91). Sharp and his family settled in Hartlepool, where he served as burgess and then three times as mayor (1813, 1816, 1824) and was knighted in 1814; they later lived in Durham, Sunderland (where he was a collector of customs for twenty years), and Newcastle. His primary interests were literary and antiquarian. He acted as host to Sir Walter Scott (q.v.) in Sunderland, a kindness Scott paid tribute to in verse. He amassed a collection of manuscripts out of which he produced several minor historical works. His most highly regarded were a History of Hartlepool (1816); an edited collection of Northern ballads and songs that is in this bibliography, The Bishoprick Garland (1834); and Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569 (1840). He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1810-25) and a leader among the Masons in the north of England. He died at Newcastle on 17 Aug. 1849. (ODNB 14 Oct. 2024; ancestry.com 14 Oct. 2024; findmypast.com 14 Oct. 2024; GM Oct 1849, 428-30) HJ