Author: Sharpe, Richard Scrafton
Biography:
SHARPE, Richard Scrafton (1777-1852: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 20 Feb. 1777 and baptised on 3 Apr. at All Hallows Staining, City of London, the son of Lancelot Sharpe, a grocer in Fenchurch Street, London, and Sarah Till, who had married in 1773. He was apprenticed to his father in 1791 and took over the business on his father’s death in 1810, continuing to trade as a grocer and tea dealer at 56 Fenchurch Street until his death. He married Elizabeth Weddell on 26 Nov. 1804 at All Hallows Staining, with the service performed by his elder brother, the Rev. Lancelot Sharpe (1774-1851), who was rector. They went on to have at least ten children but with several infant deaths. His wife died in 1850 and he continued to live with his son and business partner, Frederick, and two unmarried daughters, Caroline and Clara. He died on 15 May 1852 at his home, aged 75, and was buried at All Hallows. He left £1900 to each of his six surviving children. Virtually all his works, in prose and verse, are for children. Cottage Poetry (1829) gathers a representative sample of earlier work and Fairy Tales in Verse (1839) continues in the same vein. (ancestry.co.uk 14 Aug. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 14 Aug. 2021; Morning Post 28 Nov. 1804; Morning Herald 15 Jan. 1850, 18 May 1852; Spenserians; Darton G853, H1356) AA