MARK OF PAUL DE LAMERIE, LONDON, 1724, BRITANINA STANDARD

JOHN SHARPE
The arms of John Sharpe and his wife Olive can be found on a Chinese famille rose armorial dinner service of circa 1740. The arms are incorrectly identified as Sharpe impaling Wyman in D. S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, London, vol. II, 2003, p. 193. John was the son of William Sharpe of Elstree, co. Hertford and Margaret, daughter of Charles Beake of Golden Square, London. He was educated in Lincoln's Inn and practiced as a solicitor and had considerable West Indies interests. He was made solicitor to the Treasury in 1742 and acted as agent in parliament for the islands of Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, Nevis, and St. Kitts. His brother Joshua was a fellow solicitor in Lincoln's Inn. Gregory was Chaplain to King George III and Horatio was Governor of Maryland. He had some family connection to Walpole and was returned as M.P. for Callington, Cornwall in 1754, in the interest of the Dowager Lady Orford and her second husband, Sewallis Shirley. He died in 1756 leaving his widow the house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, another in East Barnet, an income of £700 and all the contents of the houses, including the plate. He settled £10,000 on his daughter Olive.